Tips on weed burner smoker clean up!

[blazinfire]

Hey guys. Today I decided to pull the vertical offset out and give it a good cleaning. I didn't clean the grates from the last cook and I just got a weed burner decided to fire it up and scrap the crud off of the grates.

I even scrapped the bottom of the smoker out from grease and gunk. Which made me wonder about a few things.

How long do you guys normally spray the grates with fire? Do you use the torch lever or do you just spray with the base fire without accelerating the flame? I was more worried about getting the grates too hot and they start warping.

After taking the fire to it, I used a metal spatula and scrapped all the crud off of it, then sprayed it with fire again. I was curious after it cooled off to see if it was clean or had black residue left from the grease/oil and gunk and sure enough my hand was covered with black residue. Is the black residue from not burning the grates long enough?

Do you wipe the grates down real well with a rag? I did this and it seemed to make the grates cleaner where I can lay food or my hand on it without getting a bunch of black residue on it. Its a good way to ruin a rag though.

I tried looking online for videos and just watch to see how other people handle cleaning the grates with the weed burner and found there's little to none out there. That I could find anyways. Seems like that's my problem with everything though LOL.

 

[m-fine]

full bore until all grease turns to dry brittle carbon. It does warp the grates, but mine go back when they cool.

 

[cheez59]

Full on but keep it moving and the grates won't warp. Then just take a quality brush or a foil ball and scrub the ashes off. I don't wipe mine down with a rag at all but I suppose you could.

 

[BBQ Freak]

blast it just do not hold in one spot continuous and scrape when done .

 

[blazinfire]

Thanks, I begun to get nervous when I seen the middle of my grate warping a bit. After it cooled it seemed to just go back into place.

Maybe I didn't burn the grease hot enough or something. but I still don't feel comfortable about the black residue left, I completely ruined the towel I used to wipe the grates down on. Maybe I'm missing something. We'll see on the next cook. How can that be good for you if its gonna be on the food?

 

[Rockinar]

It's a BBQ, not an oven. It's not going to be spotless. You are just cleaning up the excess, not trying to make it as sanitary as a dentist office. Some level of grease on the grate will help prevent rusting. The black stuff wont kill you. If you don't want "black stuff on you food" then BBQ is not for you.

 

[m-fine]

The idea is that any carbon left is not as harmful as spoiled bits and rancid grease, plus whatever molds and bacteria grow on them. After burning, you can brush off any carbon pieces with a wire brush, hit it with a hose and then lightly oil.