Conair recalled 3.6 million Cuisinart grill brushes because the bristles come loose

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has widened a recall of Cuisinart-branded grill brushes to more than 3.6 million units after wire bristles kept detaching from the brush heads and turning up on grill grates and in food. Conair, the company that markets Cuisinart outdoor cooking gear, added roughly 1.9 million brushes to the recall in late August on top of the 1.7 million it pulled in July. The expanded notice lists more than a dozen additional model numbers sold over one and a half decades and describes three cases in which a swallowed bristle sent someone to a doctor for removal.

How a July Recall Nearly Doubled by August

Conair’s first recall, issued in July 2026, covered about 1,719,995 grill brushes sold under eight model numbers, including the CCB-100 Triple Bristle Grill Cleaning Brush, the CCB-5014 stainless steel scraper-and-brush combo, the CCB-6450 and CCB-8012 bristle-and-coil brushes, the CCB-4114 pizza stone brush, the CCB-W2 wood-handled brush and the CSBS-777 steam-clean brush. Weeks later, the CPSC and Conair expanded that action to add roughly 1,905,805 more brushes, bringing the total to 3,625,800 units. The expanded notice, dated August 27, 2026, folds in thirteen additional model numbers plus a blanket catch-all: every Cuisinart wire-bristle grill brush the company has ever sold, including brushes sold loose or bundled into multi-piece grill tool sets before 2020, is now included.

Why Loose Bristles Count as an Ingestion Hazard

The recalled brushes use rows of thin metal wire to scrub baked-on residue off grill grates. With repeated use, individual bristles can snap free of the brush head and stick to the grate or embed themselves in food without a cook noticing. Swallowing one carries a risk of internal injury serious enough to require surgical removal, according to the CPSC’s hazard description. Regulators have flagged the identical wire-bristle design in other recent grill-brush recalls: Nexgrill pulled more than 10.2 million metal wire-bristle brushes sold at Home Depot, and Weber recalled more than 3.2 million of its own wire-bristle brushes, both for the same ingestion risk from stray bristles left on cooking surfaces or embedded in grilled food. Cleaning brushes that pair wire bristles with steam, coils or bamboo bristles are also swept into the recall, since the hazard comes from the metal wire rows rather than any single handle style or cleaning method.

Three People Needed Medical Help Removing Swallowed Bristles

Conair says it has logged at least 54 consumer reports or reviews describing bristles that broke off a brush during use. Three of those reports involved someone who swallowed a metal bristle and needed medical treatment to have it extracted from the throat or digestive tract. The recall notice does not detail how the incidents were reported to the company beyond describing them as consumer complaints and online reviews, and it does not specify the ages of the people affected or whether any of the three required surgery rather than a less invasive procedure.

Which Models and Grill Sets Are Now Covered

Beyond the eight originally recalled model numbers, the expansion adds CGWM-024, CGWM-059, FCB-501, CGS-W18, CCB-134, CGWM-061, CB-395, CCB-3001, CGWM-077, CGWM-058, CCB-012/021, CGWM-060 and FBH-51. Several of the recalled brushes were also sold bundled inside larger kits, including the Premium Grill 10-Piece Set, the 13-Piece Wooden Handle Grill Tool Set, the 14-Piece Deluxe Stainless Steel Grill Set and the 20-Piece Deluxe Grill Set. The word “Cuisinart” is stamped on the handle of most recalled models, though two of them, the FCB-501 and the CB-395, ship without a stamped handle, so owners are told to match the model number printed on the packaging instead of relying on the handle alone.

Sold at Walmart, Burlington, TJ Maxx and Ross Since 2009

The brushes were sold at Walmart, Burlington, TJ Maxx and Ross, plus online through Amazon and Cuisinart’s own website, from June 2009 through March 2026, for between $8 and $20. Distribution dates vary widely by model: the CCB-5014 dates back to June 2009, while the CCB-6450 and CCB-8012 only reached shelves in January 2025, meaning even a recently purchased brush can fall under the recall. Conair LLC, based in Stamford, Connecticut, imported the brushes, which are manufactured in China. The recall is separate from an earlier 2026 action covering Cuisinart Propel+ gas grills, whose glass pizza-oven window could shatter and cause lacerations, though both recalls trace back to the same importer’s outdoor cooking lineup. The grill-brush action is filed with the CPSC under recall number 26-717.

A Full Refund, or a Cuisinart.com Credit Worth 20 Percent More

Owners are told to stop using the recalled brushes immediately and discard them rather than keep scrubbing a grill grate with one. Conair is offering a full refund, or a credit for use at Cuisinart.com equal to the refund amount plus an additional 20 percent, through its dedicated grill-brush recall site or by calling the company’s toll-free line, staffed 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time on weekdays. Owners checking whether an older brush purchased before the expansion was already covered can cross-reference model numbers against the original July recall notice, since the two announcements together now account for the full 3.6-million-unit total. Anyone who cannot locate a stamped model number is told to treat any Cuisinart wire-bristle brush purchased in the affected window as recalled rather than assume it was left out of either notice.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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