Always check your grease drains

[JBinGB]

So I had the day off last Friday and decided to smoke 2 butts and a couple racks of ribs. Things were going great.

At about the 6 hour mark I went out side and there was thick white smoke coming out of the exhaust stack. I figured I had an air flow blockage in the fire box, but when I opened it up it was clean. Opened the lid of the cook chamber and there was a decent size fire that was just getting worse. Luckily I was able to get the meat off before anything became charcoal, but the bottoms of the ribs are crunchy.

Best I can figure is the grease port got clogged or a piece of something got in there and plugged it, because the grease trap didn't have the normal amount in it.

Lesson learned. I will now be keeping a closer eye on the grease buckets, and if something doesn't look right, trying to find a way to unplug the port.

 

[normanaj]

Glad you caught it in time before something truly disastrous happened.

 

[sandyut]

WOA! Very glad this was caught early. Could have been so much worse.

 

[JC in GB]

Good advice. That is one of my fears when doing a large cook.

JC

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Those grease fires are scary! Been through a couple. Now I clean when things looking built up.

 

[JBinGB]

Those grease fires are scary! Been through a couple. Now I clean when things looking built up.

I've only been smoking a little over a year, and I have watched a lot of videos on techniques and tips but not a lot of people mention watching the drain.

Maybe it is common sense to most, but I never thought to regularly check if it's clogged or not. I always just let it do it's thing. I guess I will monitoring it a little closer now.

At least it wasn't a wagyu brisket caught in the fire....

 

[radioguy]

I keep a straighten out coat hanger in my box. During the winter things get clogged up.

RG