More Cookers More Work 😷🔥🔥😷

[16Adams]

A repeat topic between Brethren. Worth revisiting. When I had 15 cookers on the patio I was always cleaning-and always behind. Tiernan SOB34 with its internal firebox seems to require the most maintenance.
After lightening the arsenal AKA thinning the herd-I’ve added a couple cookers of late, Oklahoma Joe Bronco drum and the Fornetto Basso Aussie (??)Bullet. I spent a couple hours deep cleaning my cookers the other day.38 Special on Spotify Shiner beers. Hold On Loosely is great maintenance music. I’m trying to stay ahead or at least even. Wife came outside and kind of freaked (by that I mean hard high eye roll) when she saw the hose for her craft room shop vac being used as a scraper and vacuum in the SOB. She lived. I pulled a Happy Hopgood chapter and told her I was planning on getting her a new shop vac for her craft room for Christmas. Her eyes touched her heels.
Cookers all clean

https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/barbecue-myth-seasoned-smokers/

 

[TC Smoke & Que]

Great article Adams, one that everyone should read and consider. Thanks for posting it.

When I bought my bx50, I do not think it had ever been cleaned over the years the previous owner had it. Plus, it had not been used for about a year and a half.
When I first saw it, it had been closed and covered for that time. Mold, soot, and creasote covered everything, so the process began to clean it up. Scraping, washing, scrubbing the cook chamber were first, actually took several days just for that.
The stack, and interior smoke collector was full of soot, so that too had to be cleaned out. Grates were also coated and needed to be scrubbed, thankfully they are stainless. Drip pan was caked and had to be scrapped.
After that, I just let it sit open in the garage to remove that burnt smell, while I worked on the exterior area around the fire box that showed excessive heat was used to cook with. Heavy rusting had to be sanded down to metal, primed and painted around door area top, sides and bottom.
The same was true at the exterior area the water pan went in the fire box area. Had to be sanded, primed and painted
After all this, I wiped down with a light coat of veg oil in both chambers.
Today, I will do my first burn. Then a seasoning cook, with the "Break in Fatty" tomorrow.
It has taken a couple of months to get to this point, but the price I could afford for it was worth the work to have what I always wanted. From here on out, it will get the Love and care it did not get before.

 

[billbek]

I like the comparison between a 16 year old driver and the same driver two years later.
Better because the driver is more knowledgeable and experienced.

When I picked up my Tejas 2040, it was solid but a mess inside. Nasty rancid grease/fat and who knows what was being used to fire the smoker.
I think I spent two days cleaning up the inside and 4 getting the rust off of the firebox.

I do a scrape the next day after I cook to remove most of the fat that might be hanging around the bottom of the cook chamber.