How long have you gone without cleaning?


 
A

Angel A

New member
Hey guys. The last time I used my smoker was late October. I let it cool overnight and usually clean it the following day or next weekend. However, the weather got bad and so on went the cover. It's been on ever since and I haven't dared to peek underneath. I'm sure that there are some critters growing on the grates and in the water pan (which I run dry during cooks).

How long have you guys gone without cleaning and what's the worst you've found? I don't plan on cooking on it any time soon so it might be a little longer.
 
I would definitely have a shotgun ready when you take the cover off. :)

If you left water in the pan, you probably have a bit of mold, but that usually cleans up pretty easy.
 
The longest I've gone is.......lets see bought it December of 2012, carry the one.........since dec 2012. The inside of the wsm works better and makes the food cooked taste much better the more seasoned it becomes. The layer of build up inside it helps seal it up. Even the veteran competition cooks like Harry Soo swear by not cleaning the inside out.

The most you should do is clean the grates off and if you start to see the layer inside flaking off the lid, then wipe those off with a wet rag. Don't use any chemicals on the inside of your wsm.
 
Matt Gard said:
The longest I've gone is.......lets see bought it December of 2012, carry the one.........since dec 2012. The inside of the wsm works better and makes the food cooked taste much better the more seasoned it becomes. The layer of build up inside it helps seal it up. Even the veteran competition cooks like Harry Soo swear by not cleaning the inside out.

The most you should do is clean the grates off and if you start to see the layer inside flaking off the lid, then wipe those off with a wet rag. Don't use any chemicals on the inside of your wsm.
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That's what I do too.
 
Dwain Pannell said:
I wipe mine out with a rag every 6 months or so. But that's about it.
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x2 on the above. If you're worried about toxic mold or anything just light a full chimney of charcoal and fire that bad boy up empty. Vents wide open and let er rip. Won't be a microbe left standing. When it cools down just give it a little wipe down with a clean rag and your good to go.

just sayin this is what I would do.....if I was worried. YMMV ;)
 
I "try" to clean the grates after every use and get them 80-85% clean. I wipe the dome lip and top of the middle section down with vinegar because my dome fit is very tight. I have empty burned the inside of my WSM once to season it.
 
I don't clean the middle section but I do clean the lid so that I don't have ash and debris falling onto my barbeque.
 
I'm just curious what people do to clean the grates on the WSM. With the Genesis, I just preheat before each cook and get the temps up past 600*+.

Anything that was on the grates before is now carbon and comes off with minimal effort. This obviously won't work on the WSM because you won't be able to take it past 600*.

Will 400* be enough to dislodge the gunk? Or is it easier to just bring them inside and try to tackle them in the sink?

I suppose clean grates aren't as important on a WSM either because you aren't really going for a sear on the meat.
 
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Once a year I hose down the mid-section when it gets hard to see what the grill straps look like. The lid gets a quick tap with the side of my fist to see if any flakes fall out, if so I'll give that a quick brush out. Otherwise as said up thread the grates get brushed/scrapped off after a cook, than before a cook I'll always wipe them down with a wad of paper towels that has been dipped in veg- oil till I don't notice any black residue on the towels.
For really caked on gunk from using something like a BBQ sauce I use a 1/4" open end wrench, which acts like a scraper and cleans the grate rods 360 deg.

Tim
 
I haven't cleaned my WSM in a year and a half. Ever since I got my Smoke EZ, I've been using that. I'm afraid to take the cover off.
 
Anything that doesn't come off with a whisk or two of a good wire brush I consider part of the smoker. Doesn't matter how long it's been there. Once I burned about 1/2 bag of charcoal with the water pan out and that seemed to crust everything up good.
 
Usually I don't get around to cooking for several weeks at a time. Aside from mold (which I burn out), the WSM has been good to go. However, be wary of water inside the lip of the middle section and cover; water tends to stay there and I've seen rust develop.
 
Angel...

You shouldn't have any problems, although it might be best to take a peek... just in case ;)
We (on the left coast) don't suffer those high humidity issues as other areas do.

Cleaning out the ash and any "left overs" is something one should do as soon as possible following a cook.
 
Dan CANADA said:
I'm just curious what people do to clean the grates on the WSM. With the Genesis, I just preheat before each cook and get the temps up past 600*+.

Dan,

After a cook, I put both WSM grates on the grill of my Genesis. The next time I heat up the Genesis to over 600 degrees, it cleans off my WSM grates. However, I have to remove the very hot grates before I can cook on the Genesis. I do this and carefully place the hot grates on a non-flammable surface to cool. Someitmes, I just put the hot grates back in the WSM to cool.

This is easy and does the job.

Ray
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I scrape the grates and dump the old ash every cook. I run my water bowl dry. If it gets too full of grease, I'll dump it after a cook while it's all liquid.

Pro tip, don't dump the grease onto the coals if there's anything flammable above your smoker, or if you're not wearing welding gloves. I nearly set my patio roof on fire had I not jumped quick to get the lid on the pit. Looked like a jet engine pointed straight up when I did that. :)

Other than that, I'll give the inside of the lid a good scrub when it looks like the black gunk might fall. Everything else doesn't get cleaned, it gets burned when I fire up the smoker. I can't seem to go more than a few weeks without craving some Q, so the pit never just sits.
 
I've had my WSM since 2008 and never once "cleaned" it thoroughly. I burn off mold from time to time as necessary, scrape the grates with a grill brush once it is preheated, and wipe out the lid sometimes. The water pan is always double- or triple-lined with foil which is easy to dispose of. Seems to work fine, for me.
 
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Or you can take the grates after wire brushing off any heavy gunk and put them in your home oven and do a self clean with the grates inside. i always tell my CEO to let me know when she is going to do her oven.
 
Come this Father's Day, it'll be about 10 years. It's far too filthy now to begin to think about cleaning the inside. I wipe down the outside pretty regularly, but it smells too good on the inside to think about ruining it. After each cook, I flip the mid section over so that the lid now goes OVER the mid section, instead of inside it. That way it doesn't get wet inside and no mold ever grows. I close the top vent almost shut and leave the bottoms open for circulation.

Jersey Jeff
 
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