Seasoning a Horizon smoker

[joeboots]

Hey everyone new to the site new to smoking......picking up my first ever smoker on friday and want to be ready when it gets here been waiting a long long time for it and Friday is now my grown-up Christmas.....

my question...I've looked through a bunch of posts and have seen a ton of opinions on seasoning a smoker. low temp? high temp? time? fuel? The further I read the more variations I see!! So now who to believe who to listen too? I'm getting a Horizon 16' Classic if that makes any difference maybe someone with this smoker can tell me what they did. Thanks in advance guys so far from what I've seen this is a great place to start my smoking journey!!

 

[daveomak]

Joe, morning and welcome to the forum...  I think all smokers are "broken in" pretty much the same....  You can wash off any oils from the manufacturing process with soap and water and rinse well... dry....  Then heat the smoker to remove any final moisture and coat everything with a thin film of veggie oil.... then heat to 300 + for several hours to cure the oil into a hard film.... do the cooking racks also....  Dave

 

[joeboots]

Thanks Dave now do u think it would be ok to cook on it the same day i season it? Im figuring 4 hours to season should be enough and then clean it out start a new fire and cook?

 

[ravanelli]

I have the same unit and seasoned it in 4 hours.  You can see my write-up here which includes the seasoning:  

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/106049/horizon-classic-16-smoker-review

 

[joeboots]

Thanks for the reply....your review was actually one of the deciding factors that made me choose the Horizon I read it a few months ago..... when you seasoned it did you use charcoal? wood? and any certain temperature?
 

 

[ravanelli]

I just used charcoal with some wood chips for flavoring, but really straight charcoal should be fine.  I ran it at around 250 for most of the time.  You really can't screw it up, just spray the inside with Pam and you'll end up with a nice glistening smoker.  One thing you'll notice probably is some oil dripping out the front where the lid closes.  This is fine, but if it bothers you just keep some paper towels handy...