---
title: "Lava rock grill service"
description: "La Cornue lava rock grill service — a linear 14,500 BTU burner under a bed of natural lava rocks, and a module that lives its whole life under fat."
url: "https://la-cornuemiami.support/services/lava-rock-grill-service/"
date_modified: "2026-09-03"
Appliance type: "Cooktops and rangetops, Ranges"
---


# La Cornue lava rock grill service

### About the lava-rock grill module

A linear 14,500 BTU burner under a bed of natural lava rock, living its whole life under fat. The rock is a consumable: it absorbs fat until it becomes one sealed mass, at which point it stops radiating, starts flaring and smokes — three complaints with one inexpensive cause. Beyond the bed, the burner wants clearing along its whole run and the drip path has to be able to drain, because that path is where the air the burner needs comes from. In a coastal kitchen the tray and grate are also where corrosion starts.

What this involves

Rock bed replaced rather than raked over

The linear burner cleared along its whole length

Drip tray and grate condition treated as part of the job

Strip the bed

Saturated rocks do not recover. They are consumable and they are cheap next to the consequences of leaving them.

Clear the linear burner

Along its whole length. A grill that lights at one end and not the other is a blocked burner, not a weak supply.

Drip tray and grate

Where the fat actually goes, and where corrosion starts in this climate.

Rebuild the bed evenly

An uneven rock bed is what produces flare-ups on one side and cold food on the other.

Run it and watch the flame

Along the burner, under load, with the grate on. This is the only test that means anything.

### Can I use ordinary barbecue lava rock?

Mostly yes, and it is one of the few genuinely interchangeable things here — natural rock is natural rock, and the bed is a specified depth of loose rock rather than a proprietary cartridge. Use rock rather than ceramic briquettes, and get the depth even, because an uneven bed is what flares on one side.

### How often should the bed be replaced?

With real use, once a year; with occasional use, every couple of years or whenever the rock has begun to look like one piece rather than many. It is the cheapest maintenance on the range and it makes the most visible difference.

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