Build up on Lid


 
C

Cliff H.

TVWBB Member
I have posted this pic on other forums and I am suprised to see how many people have not seen anything like this.

The picture below shows build up on the lid of my wsm. The black shiny coating on the inside dome becomes somewhat soft after long exposure to heat and humidity. ( At least that has been my experience ) and forms a heavy thick coating on the lid and the lip of the center section.

At first I thought not cleaning the inside after each cook was the problem. I have been scraping this crude off the lid every time I have taken the lid off for the last couple of cooks. Each time I replace the lid for a while a new layer of crude forms and makes the lid sticky when I remove it from the center section.

I burn lump charcoal. It happens with water or sand. I only burn a few chunks of hickory at a time. The wood I use is not kiln dried but it is at least one year old.

I know folks have posted about the lid being welded shut the next day after a cook. This is the same build up. I am just curious as to why some people have no trouble with this at all.

When this coating cools and dries it becomes hard and will flake off if scraped. When the smoker is hot it changes consistency to what you see in the pic and looks like roof tar when scraped. I don't think I am using enough wood to justify calling this creasote.

I am starting to wonder if my fuel is playing some part in this problem.

This topic is open for discussion.

 
I haven't seen anything like it either.

Out of curiosity, what kind of lump are you using? Has your smoke been on the dark or black side?
 
I have nothing even close to that. I use lump. (Just did a 17 hour cook a week or so ago as well). Once my lid stuck ( a while ago) the next day but it only has (what I call) a thin layer of "Bar-B-Gew" on it that I would consider normal. There is something going on with that. Good luck. Hope you figure it out.
 
Maybe you should find a charcoal lower in tar and nicotine?
icon_biggrin.gif
How does the food taste?

Bill
 
There's only a couple things in your smoker that could be causing this, and you've already eliminated one of them (since it happens with both water and sand).

I suspect its your chunk wood, as that looks a lot like creosote to me. Trying doing a burn with no smoke wood in the smoker first. If it still does it, change your lump to a different brand (or even kingsford briquettes, since that's a good control). changing one thing at a time should identify the cause fairly quickly.

Creosote condenses at about 250 deg F, so we are all flirting with the buildup if other conditions are correct.

One last thought....are you leaving the top vent all the way open? If not, you will certainly improve the conditions for creosote buildup.
 
Originally posted by c bain:One last thought....are you leaving the top vent all the way open? If not, you will certainly improve the conditions for creosote buildup.
Click to expand...

Now, this seems like the best question so far to me. A closed down top vent could very well produce conditions for creosote production.
 
I am using Ozark Oak lump. It's a local brand. I do not close down the top vents. Smoke will usually start out white when first fired and then go to the thin blue smoke pretty quick.

As we speak I have a full ring of lump clicking along a 255 at the dome. Water in the pan and all vents wide open.

I scraped the inside of the dome out pretty well before I started. As a matter of fact I scraped a lot of it back down to the finish that it came with.

We shall see.
 
I burned a pile of the same lump I have been using all along with water in the pan and the result was no sticky gunk.

The problem is creosote. I was in denial at first because I just don't use that much wood. However it got there, be it from snuffing out the fire, all of the white smoke at start up or burning wood that had taken on humidity the problem ceased when I did this test burn with no wood.

From the pics posted you can see what looks like more of the goo oozing/dripping down. As stated earlier I scraped the inside of the lid real good close to the edge but hit and missed higher up the dome. I also scraped the rim of the mid section. The runs you see were not there when I started the test run. As a matter of fact there were straight lines from the scraper right were the drip lines are.

This tells me that when I was cooking the dried gunk/creosote was heating up and dripping down the lid onto the rim of the mid section. If I hadn't scraped the inside I might not have noticed the drip line. I am going to modify myself a curved scraper and clean the entire surface of the dome.

I am going to have to adjust the size pcs of wood I use and how much.

 
Year-old split hickory. See first post, 4th paragraph. Had trouble finding it again myself. This reminds me of the sort of resinous qualities of cherry wood, but to an unpleasant extreme.
 
Wow. That is nasty looking. I've never seen anything like that. I would use oven cleaner and clean your wsm back to the original finish and start over. I would also do a cook with kingsford and no smoke wood just to be sure. I would then use the lump with no smoke wood and see if that's the culprit. Personally, I think it's the lump you're using. I'm having a hard time believing the smoke wood would have that much creosote in it.
 
seems like everything should be ok.
you know its the wood so i would start
with just a small piece at a time and work up from there.
 
I have the same problem and have had it for a long time. I am totally cleaning up one of my WSMs with oven cleaner and restoring it to pristine condition. Then I will start with a Kingsford only cook (no wood) and see what comes of it. I have to admit, I use wood like crazy so maybe I just need to cut back! I will post progress on this later.
 
Originally posted by Tony Hunter:
I have the same problem and have had it for a long time. I am totally cleaning up one of my WSMs with oven cleaner and restoring it to pristine condition. Then I will start with a Kingsford only cook (no wood) and see what comes of it. I have to admit, I use wood like crazy so maybe I just need to cut back! I will post progress on this later.
Click to expand...

Tony the amount of wood you use or the type of charcoal you're using is not what is causing the problem with creosote/soot. The creosote/soot is coming from one or two things. Either green wood and/or the fire is not getting proper air flow. The fire (coal and wood) need oxygen and exhaust to 'burn', if they do not have enough of both, the fire will 'smolder' and that will give you soot and the green wood will give you creoste.

Cliff mentioned that his wood was over a year old and had been sitting in his garage the whole time. A garage is not the ideal place to store wood if you're trying to season it. There is not enough airflow and most garages are cool and damp. If you have fist sized chunks that are not seasoned the easiest way to season them fast is to put them in a milk crate and stick it in your attic for a couple weeks. The attic is hot and very dry and works great for this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top