Smoker Cleaning II

[gary s]

I think there are two kinds of people on Smoker Cleaning, (Kinda like cooking a brisket Fat side up or Fat side down). Cleaning your smoker is of course a personal choice. All I do is when I am finished smoking is get the water hose with the spray nozzle, and not to much pressure, I spray out the inside of my smoker and grates. No Pressure Washer, No Chemicals just water. All that does is create steam that gets rid of the extra grease and creosote that you don't want or need. You can raise the lid on my smoker anytime and it smells wonderful, just like it should. I did say that i have a reverse flow, I remove my bottom plates (I have two) and scrape and clean all the stuff that accumulates under there over time. I spray this out also. I have found that by keeping this part clean lets my smoker comes up to temp faster and helps in the heat, smoke and air flow.I do use a wire brush on my grates. Also and when I use my weed burner to start my fire I go over the grates and inside. Took my smoker apart earlier this week and gave it a good cleaning. I noticed yesterday when I walked by I caught that great smell, so spraying it out does not get rid of that seasoning and smell. Cooking Brisket and Beef Ribs as am I writing this.

 

[jirodriguez]

lol... my wife would kill me if I cleaned out my smoker on the deck... heh-heh

Since mine is a WSM 22.5" it's fairly easy. Hit the grates with a brush after the smoke, empty the ash and water pan, and once every couple of months lightly wire brush the inside.

 

[gary s]

I will have to say it can create a mess. First I clean my smoker that the Patio.

 

[fwismoker]

I have a drip pan i'll clean the grease out of after some fatty cooks but that's the extent of it besides wire brushing the grates and sides once in a great while like JlRod does. 

 

[bruno994]

Gary S, you are right on.  That's how I clean my RF pit as well.  Scrape the excess fat and grease from the RF plate, build a small fire in the firebox, wire brush the grates, then hit it with water, allow the steam to kill any bad things, while keeping the great seasoning mine has in it.  Drain and dispose of the water and grease mixture.

 

[gary s]

That's it  This method never gets rid of that good old smell the you worked so hard to get. When we first built my pit I bought some Bacon ends and took some Bacon drippings mixed with cooking oil and sprayed the inside real good, fired it up and put on the bacon ends. Took off the bacon ends before they really got too crispy, sprayed the inside again, cranked up my fore a bit and let it go till the fire burned out. I fired it one more time and sprayed it again with the oil and bacon drippings and let it burn out again. Been cooking on it now for about 3 years. We did build a Vertical, Insulated, RF, than another Horizontal RF with a lid over the firebox to so if you wanted to direct grill you would have that option. We have two propane tanks right now one small and the other a little bigger. The larger of the tanks we are going to build a horizontal straight flow with an insulated fire box (Similar to  a Jambo style). Better go check my Brisket and Ribs !!!!!!

 

[smokyjon]

This guy has A LOT to say about smoker cleaning. Watch the video.

 

[fwismoker]

This guy has A LOT to say about smoker cleaning. Watch the video.

He made good points but i would have taken that pit, cleaned it up and put a new FB on it....NOT put it in the recycle!  

 

[smokyjon]

The smoke chamber was pretty rotted out as well.

 

[gary s]

That was a pretty nasty smoker. That's the people that say " I never clean mine, cause I don't wont to get rid of all that smell I worked so hard to get".  My point exactly, I said in one of my post's last year that I have friends who never clean their grill or smoker and you can bet I would never eat anything that came off either. Like the guy with Gator said you don't have to do a complete cleaning every time but every so often. I remember when I was young and just starting out in construction, I had a couple of old timers tell me as I started to clean the coffee pot to make coffee, "Hey don't do that, just rinse it out that's seasoned". Well I just rinsed it out made coffee and brought mine from home. Same Principal.

 

[fwismoker]

That was a pretty nasty smoker. That's the people that say " I never clean mine, cause I don't wont to get rid of all that smell I worked so hard to get".  My point exactly, I said in one of my post's last year that I have friends who never clean their grill or smoker and you can bet I would never eat anything that came off either. Like the guy with Gator said you don't have to do a complete cleaning every time but every so often. I remember when I was young and just starting out in construction, I had a couple of old timers tell me as I started to clean the coffee pot to make coffee, "Hey don't do that, just rinse it out that's seasoned". Well I just rinsed it out made coffee and brought mine from home. Same Principal.

..yep and the cleaning he's just talking about  is just scraping it out, not like soap and degreasers.  I think most people that talk about keeping the "flavor" they've built up are gas grill folks. 

 

[gary s]

Could be ?   I have a gas grill that is 13 years old, Stainless Steel except for the burners and about once a year I take it completely apart and give it a good cleaning. I always brush my grates after and before each cook so mine never really gets too bad. We cook out at least 4 - 5 times a week every week summer, winter , fall or spring Rain or Shine. We figured it's just so easy to cook anything on the grill it doesn't make sense to heat up the house and make a mess on the stove. I bought both my son's a Webber stainless for Christmas a couple years back. #2 son uses his like I do the only thing in the Webber that was not Stainless was the burner deflectors they were steel. His finally burnt out and I went to a friend who has a Stainless shop and him make replacements out of Stainless. My son took his grill completely apart cleaned it inside and out and now it looks almost as good as when he first got it. Point is if you want it to last, be safe to cook and eat on you have to clean it a and maintain it. My grill is a Coastal which had a lifetime warranty. Every time I need burners I would call and they would ship them right out. Unfortunately they are no longer in business, so I will have to probably my next set. But buying burners is a lot cheaper than a new grill.