Charcoal pan build up on the 22?


 

Tom Raveret

TVWBB Pro
I did my first cook of 4 butts on the 22 this week and was cleaning my charcoal pan and noticed that I have an excessive amount of burnt fat (carbon) in the bottom of the pan.

Never had this problem with the 18 as wide rolls of alumunum foil would totally cover it. now withthe 22 some seeped in under the foil and burnt up good making a mess to clean.

Its soaking in soapy water now but I thought I'd ask what others have doen to either prevent this problem or address the clean up issue.

I was using the water pan empty with foil balls in it and a layer of foil covering the bowl as well as a layer covering the top (albeit with a split in the top that allowed the sepage)
 
i dont use foil on my 18" pan. when i feel the need to clean it i fire up my kettle grill with coals that did not fully burn from previous cooks on the grill and wsm and toss in fallen oak sticks from the yard. once the coals are going i dump in the kettle srpead em out and toss in the sticks from the yard, then i se thte water pan on the grill grate upside down and put the lid on the grill offcenter. the kettle will get roaring hot after a bit so watch it, you can actually melt the handle on top. be sure to use a mitt or glove or soemthing to take the lid off let the whole thing just burn itself out once it gets really hot. after its cool take the pan off and brush it a bit and all the gunk has turned to ash. i also clean the wsm grates at the same time when i do that.

so far i have used the WSM for a year and clean the pan and grates three or four times like that.

not sure if the water pan of the 22" would fit in my kettle or not but maybe that helps
 
I posted on this awhile back. I presume you are folding a seam to join two pieces together? I probably make 5 or 6 folds to help make the seam dripping tight. The first layer of foil goes down tight to the aluminum foil balls. I then lay a seamed second sheet on top but with the seam perpendicular to the lower sheet. You will still get some leakage if you don't change the top sheet between every cook. Also may want to lay a third sheet (not seamed) in the center of the pan to cover the seam.

Dan
 

 

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