That's a lot of ash buildup! I clean my CH5 after no more than 3 cooks (depends on length of cook). I bought one of those stainless ash vacs with the fire resistant liner and have had no issues with mine. I do wait until the next day to vacuum it out though. The porcelain racks fit in my Maytag dishwasher lower basket and I run them on the HD clean/Steam clean/Sanitize cycle and they come out like new using the Cascade Platinum pods.