Just seasoned my new uds
 

Finally got warm enough to season my uds , this being my first smoker I have a question, I seem to have gotten it dialed in ok, but I noticed a ton of liquid on the bottom of barrel I can only assume that this is condensation because it is only 40 degrees outside , do I have to soak up this liquid after I use it, if not will the bottom rust out prematurely, does this happen when it's warm outside, it's been going for over 6 hours so far on a 10# bag of charcoal. I'm about to open the lid so it burns out. Thanks

You don't want to leave it in there. It will rust. I would open it up, let it burn out.

That is weird. I have not had that much condensation in my UDS and temps around here have been in the 40s.

Are you sure it is water? I would think it would have evaporated when you heated the drum.

Could it be any oil that was used to season the drum? When i seasoned my drum I sprayed the interior with a healthy helping of spray cooking oil and ended up with a bunch of it on the bottom of the drum after the seasoning burn. I sopped it up with some paper towels when it cooled and haven't had any standing fluids on the bottom since.

Thanks that's what I did it all started to boil and then evaporated

Also you will find after many successful cooks, your walls get really crusty and gunky. When this happens if you have the spare funds, pour 10lbs of lump in and let it rip wide open. Or do what I do, go get a $20 weed burner from harbor freight and torch the hell out of it for 5 min, allow to cool and wire brush it, dump it all out. Good luck with your UDS. I love mine