are wsm-ers' lazy as I


 
I usually cleanup the next day. I foil my pan so I just dump out the left over water and toss the foil. Rinse the pan out. I put the grates in the wash tubs with hot soapy water and clean them the second day. Refoil the pan and I'm ready to go. If the ash bowl is full I dump it out just before I start a new smoke. I made the mistake of dumping the coals out the next day and there was a small glow still left in the charcoal and it burnted my garbage. It was over 24 hrs and there was still a glow I didn't see, so from then on I leave it til the next smoke.
 
i usually clean my grates every fourth or fifth cook or so. i have taken to using the left over coals from all the cooks up to then and re-light em then run my big kettle as hot as it will go with the grates and water pan in the kettle. everything burns off and a quick scrape leaves me with clean grates and pan. not sure how they are going to hold up in the long run doing that but grates and water pan are very easy to replace if i damage them. so far its working fine.
 
Seems like I hit a hot topic on this one and is kind of nice to know that I'm not the only lazy wsm-er! Maybe it's not lazy but just a sign of frequent use. It however will be nice the next time I smoke to not have to spend time cleaning- just take the cover off and begin but will I clean right after next smoke?- I seriously doubt it!!!
 
I try to clean out the WSM within a couple of days of smoking. I find that by soaking the grates, cleanup is not to bad. Also, when I want to start another session, the last thing I want to deal with is the mess from the last cook.

Now, even though I do try to clean it out after a cook, I did have to give it a good cleaning prior to a pastrami cook earlier this month. Some rain water had leaked into the WSM, and it left a wonderful coating of mold on the sides of the middle piece. What an unexpected mess.

Rick
 
I'm thinking of giving the cover that came with the wsm a scotchguard waterproof spray treatment as the cover isn't too water-tight. I just pulled off cover and checked- have a couple inches of water in charcoal bowl. The water is only going to sour,create mold, and or hatch mosquitos. So much for cleaning a smoker and having it ready to go to work! I probably need to put a sheet of visquine plastic over or use a tarpolian. My wsm cover is about as porous as swiss cheese is what I'm finding.
 
I smoked some ribs on Saturday and didn't get around to cleaning and covering the WSM before the rain started (we're looking at 6" or something coutesy of hurricane Fay remnants). The bottom bowl will be a sloppy mess when I get back to it next weekend. This is more of a procrastination problem rather than just pure laziness.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Larry D.:
My only suggestion would be, don't leave the WSM uncleaned if there is any water inside. Mine grew a thick coat of mold once because I left it closed up that way - I don't recall if I left water in the pan, or if some water had got inside due to rain. Either way, it was a pain to have to clean out all the white fuzzy stuff.
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This recently happened to me. It had been raining a lot and water got in under the cover somehow. The moisture combined with heat & stagnant air grew some pretty nasty stuff. Luckily I only had the top grate in.

To fix the problem I ended up firing up a full chimney of coals, throwing them on my OTS. I placed the midsection & grate from the WSM in the OTS, and then used the cover to retain the heat & cook off all the nastiness. Worked pretty well.

Other than, generally I'll only scrape the grates a bit & I'll remove the water pan. No point in taking the charcoal out since I use it again.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Pete Z:
I smoked some ribs on Saturday and didn't get around to cleaning and covering the WSM before the rain started (we're looking at 6" or something coutesy of hurricane Fay remnants). The bottom bowl will be a sloppy mess when I get back to it next weekend. This is more of a procrastination problem rather than just pure laziness.
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Same here, except that I did throw the cover on before the rain started.
 
I clean it as soon as its cooled. I love how smoky everything smells and find it pretty easy to clean up the 2 racks, water bowl, and wipe the lid a bit.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jerry Pollard:
Don't do today what you can "put off until tomorrow" </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Agreed! I usualy clean grates and change my waterpan foil the day before the "next" cook. A week may be a little long for all that grease to sit in the foil but it dosent seem to bother. But I do clean grates before every cook. I like them to be semi shiny. All I know is that a belly full of Q and beer dosent mix well with cleaning
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I'd rather take a nap.

Brandon
 
I had previously cleaned wsm a week ago and had its cover on but rains from Fay seeped through cover and put water inside that was starting to turn into mold. I'm glad I caught it when it was at a hosing out stage. Seems Fay has really been a damper for a few of us smokers! I'm just like Brandon A, I rather take a nap when full of beer and Q.
 
It's been about two weeks or so since my last cook and I plan on doing a good one this Saturday.... I better check the cooker...
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