When and How to Clean Smoker

[midnight]

How often do you clean your smoker? And what is the best way to do it?

I don't have a drain valve in the bottom of my smoke chamber yet but I do have 2 small drain holes drilled. I usually spray mine down with Simple Green then let it sit for about 15 min. come back and scrape the walls, top, and bottom, then spray again and let sit 15 min. Then spray it with the garden hose. It does an O-K job but I feel like it should be cleaner.

Any help or Ideas would be great.

[rbinms33]

I clean my smoker after I've taken the meat off to rest. That's the perfect time to do it and it helps make sure you don't go out there a week later and find some sort of wicked biology experiment growing in there.

Open the smoke chamber, dump the water pan, wash it out and set on top of the fire box to dry. Spray the racks, walls and bottom with a water hose and use a grill brush if necessary. Put the water pan back in place, let the whole thing dry and then spray with a light coating of veggie oil or Pam spray. Go back the next day or after the fire is out and dump the ashes. Ashes left in a firebox, especially in a humid environment, only accelerates the rust through process.

[BBQchef33]

personally, the extent of cleaning MAY be a quick shot with the hose. At the beginning of the season, i will give it a light scraping with a trowel to get off the big buildup, or pressure wash it when I do the lawn furniture, but after that, i leave the stuff in there most of the season. After I cook, and its still hot, a quick hose shot or wipe down is it for me. Anytime you use soap, means ya gotta reseason.

Ashes however, go right away.. they contain lye which will eat thru the firebox.

[willkat98]

I use a variation of Phils method.

My method varies in the fact that I have never used a hose, towel, trowel, etc. Now that is partly since my unit is only 1 year old, and is only used, on average 1 time a month in the Winter/Spring 2-3 times month in Summer/Fall.

I use heavy duty foil on the bottom and change that each and every time, but thats it for the walls. Racks come out each and every time for a full scrubbing. I never leave my racks go. So most of the fat is cleaned up. Water pan clean, foil on bottom changed, and anything that hits the baffle just sizzles right off in the cook process.

Once the coals are about gone, I dump them and the ashes into a pile in the garden. Use those big blue leather gloves in the Bash Pics. No need to wait for the grates to cool down.

Then I take the hair dryer that I have just for cooking purposes (read: end is all deformed from the farking heat while turbo igniting coals in the charcoal pan of the WSM or ECB) and blow all that ash out of the firebox.

twice a season, I will take the hose to the inside of the firebox, just because all that peeling paint and crap I wanted to get out. Then dry it real good to fight the rust.

I use an oversize grill cover for like a big ass Weber gas grill, and it covers the Bandit nicely.

[ricky]

I do about like Phil does, I have had mine for about 4 or 5 yrs now & have only did a quick wipe out of the build up when it gets to that point, but I use mine year round so it never gets to sit long enough.

[midnight]

Thanks for all the info guys! I will have to try out some of the ideas next time I clean mine. Winter has allready set in up here so I can't hose it down untill spring, I guess I will have to just keep scraping it out till then.

[Oldtimer]

Thanks for all the info guys! I will have to try out some of the ideas next time I clean mine. Winter has allready set in up here so I can't hose it down untill spring, I guess I will have to just keep scraping it out till then.\

Going to let a little cold weather stop ya ? :lol:

[in2que]

You mean you have to clean it? :shock:

[david]

Clean IT??? The farking thing is self cleaning.

I put all the grates over the fire and put the water pan above that to burn off any nasties, at the start of each cook. I did line the bottom of the smokebox with a foil "tray", to keep the crap from dripping out, but I've never had the need to really replace that. Every once in awhile the fire is too hot and takes care of that foil just fine on it's own.

[MaidMarinade]

You mean you have to clean it? :shock:

Hey, if the sistah-bruthah don't clean hers, why should you?

I shovel out my ashes and burn the crud off my grill-grid thingys, toss a tarp over it and run!

'Course I don't have a Bandera either, but I don't reckon there's THAT much difference.

There's a stray dog in the neighborhood; I reckoned if the grease built up in the bottom I'd just shove him in there and close the lid on him a while.

That'd do it, wunnit?

Melis

[Mike(Mi)]

Yup. I've never "cleaned" anything except the grates and waterpan. I change out the double foil bottom liner every whenever it needs it. You open up the door and it smells sweet as honey. After all this time of getting this clean self-sustaining environment going on in there, I'm not messing with it.

[MaidMarinade]

seriously, that's all I do too. I reckon I'll know when it needs cleaning, like you, by the smell.

If we're wrong they can bury us in the same hole I guess.

M

[midnight]

As I mentioned above winter has set in already so I think I will put the grates and water pan over the fire to burn off the crud, I will worry about cleaning it "real good" next spring.

Thanks again for all the tips.

[chad]

Because of the small size of my ECB I clean the grills every time I cook (sometimes before, sometimes after :D). I empty the water pan and clean it with soap and water each time (I admit I let it get nasty pretty often -- can't clean it hot and often don't clean it the next day either).

[Oldtimer]

Have not cleaned my water pan since I have had the smoker.

[ckkphoto]

I don't worry a lot about cleaning...unless I have been smoking FISH. Then I scrape and scrub and heat the box to 350 for about 45 min.

[Chef Country]

i just take a wire brush the the grates when i start it up, i open up the valve when im done with a big smoke

[The Grill Sergeant]

One of my grills is over 20 years old and I've scraped off some of the residue, say a half dozen times. I think it adds flavor & character to the various cuts of meat. With my smoker I will clean the water pan each time, but since I'm now "foiling" I suspect that's a thing of the past.

Scrape the food racks each time... empty the ash pan when full.

[Chef Country]

i clean mine every other cook, change the foil on the drip pan, and shop vac the ashes out

[boatnut]

i empty ashes in WSM but other then grates and water pan, I don't clean any of my 3 smokers. I consider it "seasoning" :)

[jestridge]

I burn my smoker out, get the heat up to around 5oo+ . sometime I will use a pressure washer

[Mister Bob]

I torch and brush the grates after every cook. Every few cooks, I remove the grates and power wash them (no soap). That's when I scrape out and hose the bottom of the smoke chamber. I remove the ashes from the fire chamber after every cook. Not only does it keep the bottom from rotting out, it also keeps the air flowing well and give me consistent temperatures throughout every cook.

[tjus77]

funny you should ask, I cleaned mine yesterday for the first time in a year. i scrape out the crude from the bottom. torch the rest of the inside then scrape lightly with a scraper or wire brush. torch the grates before every cook and brush with wire brush. I don't clean the grates after a cook because the grease keeps them from rusting. no power washing and never soap, just like a cast iron skillet.

[Mitch]

I scrape grates after cooking, drain the grease, and oil the firebox

[Boshizzle]

I clean my UDS by just rinsing the inside with the hose and letting it dry. Then, I rub it down inside with vegetable oil. I wash the grates with soap and hot water then rub them down with oil.

I clean the inside of my Bubba Kegs by brushing out all the ash then rubbing the inside down with vegetable oil. I clean the grates by cranking up the temp to as close to 800 F as I can get and brushing them. Then, I cool it down and rub the grates with vegetable oil. I clean the outside with disinfectant kitchen cleaner.

[cookingdude555]

I know I am going to make some people upset, but I clean mine for the same reason that I clean my dishes. I dont think old food and crud gives the new food on my plate any character or taste that I want in there. Thats just me, YMMV.

As far as cleaning goes, I like to get to high heat and just burn it off, and then brush the old gunk powder off, good as new. Stubborn stuff might need a grill brush. Thats about it.

[CBQ]

2003 -> 2010 quite a bump.

After doing a comp cook, grilling events, maybe a people's choice or two, I think my smoker needs some cleaning.

I pressure wash the junk off, then spray a degreaser on, then pressure wash again with fresh water, wait for everything to dry, and then spray on food service grade PAM.

Overkill? Need to reseason? After 5 years of this, my grates are clean enough to eat of off :heh: and there are NO rust spots on the grates anywhere. Covering them completely in fresh oil every time seems to be all it needs. (They are regular (non-stainless) steel expanded metal grates.)

I guess I really don't understand why the residue of a brisket I cooked 10 weeks earlier is going to help my flavor. :confused:

[cheez]

I was thinking the same thing, quite a bump!

I scrape all of the ash out, sometimes I sprinkle it in the bottom of the cooking chamber (Bandera) first and let it soak up the grease. I scrape that out quite well. The racks get left as is until next time I cook - it's then that I put them on the gasser, along with an upside-down water pan (wiped out), and turn the burners up high. This is about the only work my old gasser gets any more! When all of the smoke is gone, wire brush the grates. I think the grease, etc. protects them... after the wire brushing, my grates still look new, even though they are more than seven years old. I do occasionally scrape down the walls of the cook chamber, because I find some dry stuff that hangs on there occasionally (maybe creosote? yuck! So THAT's why we wait for the thin blue smoke :-) ) Never any water here...hell, I hate if if it even drizzles on it.