How often do you clean your smoker?

[Gator]

Come 'on admit it, how often?

Do you clean the inside walls? how so?

I am curious since I rarely clean mine. I keep the grates clean, the water pan gets cleaned occasionally, and I scoop out ashes from the fire box...Am I supposed to clean the walls?

[Puff]

On my Char Griller I clean the grates and scrape the walls of the cooking chamber(lightly) to remove some of the gunk build up. I also re oil the firebox after each cook. On my WSM I clean the grates and empty the ash pan, that's it.

[Gator]

Is the tar buildup a health issue?

[Burnt Food Dude]

I usually clean the outsides of my WSMs every other time I use them. The insides once a year.

I clean the inside of my grills more often. When it looks like there is a grease build up I clen them. Don't want a grease fire in my kettle.

[OSD]

I clean the water pan and the grates every time. The walls about once every 3 months. On the Spicewine it's easy--I just let the water out of the pan and open the vents all the way when I'm done cooking. The temp will go up to around 450-500 and then when it cools wipe it down.

[DATsBBQ]

Einstein has never had liquid applied to the inside walls. Instruction manual was pretty explicit about that. I clean the grate before every use along with cleaning out the fire box.

With the Aussie Gasser, it gets a thorough once over every year. Grates cleaned before and after every use (cast iron) and the grease pit as needed.

[Big Mike]

The chargriller (which is my grill) gets scraped out once a year.

For the smoker, all I do is scrape off any big chunks from the racks.

[TX Sandman]

I give my gasser a good cleaning once or twice a year. Let's me check all the parts, get any grees build-up, etc. Between times I brush the grates before and after cooks and knock any bigger pieces off the lid.

The kettle gets a thorough cleaning 3-4 times a year. Other than that, it's same as the gasser.

[Puff]

Is the tar buildup a health issue?

Good question, but not sure of the answer. I never thought of it as tar, seasoning sounds better.

[DATsBBQ]

I took a bristle brush to the inside lid of the old-new cooker before I installed the gasket. Got at least 2 cups of god knows how old crud off it. Who knows if it'll be that clean again

[DJ]

I remove my grates and burn off the grease and chunks, brush and re-coat with vegetable oil, light a low fire and let er re-season. I have quite a bit of rust after all has burned off and brushed. Anybody got any ideas as to how to stop the rust? Only shows after I do all listed above....dj

[OSD]

You burn off the old grease, then brush it down, then re-season, right? It sounds like it might need a little better brushing before re-seasoning. not saying you are not cleaning it good. sounds like there is still some rust left on the metal and it's getting seasoned over it. maybe take an elec wheel brush and really get the metal shiny before re-seasoning. just a thought.

[DATsBBQ]

Sell it to SC (he's always buying new cookers) and Larry will set you up with a new Primo that will never rust

[DJ]

Probably right Jim, I haven't done that to this point, but probably will next time I clean em'....normally jus don't have the time......Dats, I need a bit more space than a primo offers, but thanks for the advice.....Looking at a Jacks Old South commercial unit, but jus lookin at this point....Need another pit that I can burn lump and wood and not have to nurse the fire all night....check it out.....dj
http://brittsbarbecue.com/html/jack_s_o ... okers.html

[OSD]

DJ, those are really nice smokers. If you are in the looking stage, take a look at the Spicewine. Jay has a pic of a large custom unit they built on the custom smoker page, it's the first one. similar to the Jack's old south smoker. One thing I like about the Spicewine is each side can be used independently of the other.

http://www.spicewineironworks.com/