water pan woes


 
M

Michael Stella

TVWBB Member
On my last cook, the foil stuck somehow to the waterpan, and ripped during the cook, causing dripping/water to ooze thru the hole and bake onto the pan. Now I cannot get the baked on crud off. Does anyone have any ideas? Can I put it in the oven and set the oven to clean? I have tried to soak it, but it didn't work.

I've searched the site and couldn't really find an answer.

Thanks,
Michael
 
You mean you're supposed to clean the water pan? I just dump it and leave it in the yard for the alley cats to lick.
 
I think your best bet is a very long soak in a grease cutting detergent and then some scraping with a plastic scraper. I've never been a proponent of lining the inside or outside of the waterpan.

Paul
 
I go to a store called cash and carry. They are owned by smart and final. They carry easy-off oven cleaner by the gallon. Put it in a plastic pump bottle and spray away. Much cheaper than the stuff in cans and works great.
 
A few seconds with a weed burner and a wire brush will clean it right up.
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I HAVE built a hot lump fire in the bottom of the WSM and set the waterpan over it to let the gunk burn off, but the weed burner works better. I do like my weed burner...

Short of a weed-burner, Dawn Degreaser spray (in a small royal-blue spray bottle near the dishwashing soap) sprayed on and allowed to soak for a good long while will also cut a lot of it. You can also spray the pan down with cheap ammonia and seal it into a trash bag overnight. That will cut it quite well - just be careful with the fumes.

Best cure is prevention - spray the pan, and particularly the flat lip of the pan, well with non-stick cooking spray before each cooking session. It's amazing how the cooked-on crud will literally just slide right off.

Oh, and I've discovered that if I left an uncleaned and undumped waterpan in the cooker, and it comes a big freeze, and the water and grease freeze in the pan, the whole kit and kaboodle including the burnt on stuff will all slide out in one big hunk!

Other than that, $4 at Academy Sport and Outdoors store will get ya a new waterpan. I must confess that I've replaced my big ones several times when they got too gross and gunky to deal with.

Keri C, still smokin' on Tulsa Time
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Oh, and I've discovered that if I left an uncleaned and undumped waterpan in the cooker, and it comes a big freeze, and the water and grease freeze in the pan, the whole kit and kaboodle including the burnt on stuff will all slide out in one big hunk! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Fantastic idea Keri - thanks!

Ray
 
I'll echo the sentiments expressed by the others, I don't worry about the water pan too much because it doesn't touch the meat. I empty it after every cook and that's about it.

I try to dump it while it's still warm but not too hot.

I don't worry about the underside or the lip.

To deal with any build up in the bowl, if it's dry I'll give it a quick scrub with balled up aluminum foil, a quick rinse and done.

Similar to what Keri said, a soak in plain old water seems to loosen the gunk as well. I have not used chemicals on the pan yet.
 
Ditto on the other tips; oven cleaner and a coarse steel wool pad has removed it all for me. Now you could go Keri's route
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! Does she love that weed burner or what?? I bet she has a certain gleem in eye when she fires that baby up
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