Seasoning or Cleaning

[JTodd]

I have read multiple post on here about the creosote in the smokers. I have done one dry run and smoked one shoulder, and my smoker is loaded with it, the inside of the lid and the middle section, my question is since i am trying to season my pit do i leave it on or do i use the hose and a brush and clean it off ? Do i clean just the lid or both parts or neither ? I had some black flakes fall on my first shoulder that i was not happy about. I did use the water pan and read you guys think this is the culprit for the flakes. Thanks for the input

 

[Wolgast]

Water or not...I hose down my smoker once a year. The seal that forms in all contact areas bottom-->middle--->Lid and vents is gold and should never bee taken off. But if you have flakes inside the lid remove em with a peice of foil crumped to a ball. Just go over the whole lid with it to get the flaky peices out.

 

[Jerry N.]

I'm with Wolgast. I give the inside a light cleaning once in a while, but never really clean it. I pay attention to a few things:

The lid. Always check it and brush it off so as not to have any flakes. I had them once and intend on never letting that happen again.

The rim the lid sits in. I take some paper towel with some vinegar on it and wipe down the rim the lid sits in as well as the rim of the lid. While it is true that the "gunk" seals the lid, it can really seal the lid. I've had that gunk seal the lid so well that the next day I couldn't get the lid off the middle section. I had to take a screw driver an pry the lid off. Not something I ever want to do again as I did chip a little of the porcelin.

Then of course, I clean the grates after every cook as well as the water pan (which I don't use water, but you need to clean the grease out of none the less).