What to do about this mold???


 
B

Bill S (billgator)

New member
Hey Guys, the past year has been crazy as I ended up making a cross country move. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to smoke any meat in about a year and my WSM 22 has just been sitting on the new deck for about 6 months. I finally opened it up this week and to my horror, found water standing in the bottom of it (with mosquito larva) and lots of mold on the side walls.

So what do you guys think I should do? If I scrub it, I end up re-seasoning my smoker and starting from scratch.

If I burn it real hot, will that do the trick?

What do you guys think?

As always, your help is greatly appreciated...


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I clean mine occasionally with the extra strength (heavy duty with extra chemicals LOL) oven cleaner. That mold will be gone in about ten seconds. Your WSM will look brand new.

Your grill looks good!
 
How's the inside of the lid look? That should clean-up easy with a hose and a scrubby or nylon brush. Do a burn-off without the water pan in place and crack the lid or leave the door propped for HH. The grates look almost new.
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Tim
 
This won't help this time but I store my WSM with the vents open and the access door removed. I set it on the top grate. That will help with air circulation even with the cover on. I also got water in my lower section once and I had mold so keeping the water out of the lower section is the first step to prevention.
 
I completely forgot to clean out my WSM once last year and in our NC heat and humidity I had developed a whole lot better mold than yours.
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It was so nasty looking, I decided that for me a complete wash, clean and start over was the only option.

Since then, I've stuck to Lew's policy. I don't want to be starting over real often and just the simple prevention is worth it. In my case, because of many hornets and other varieties seeking a sheltered home, I keep the vents only about 1/3 open to keep them out. Seems to be fine.

I like the burnout too, but I'm going to clean first and then burnout any residual -- including chemical residue.

Rich
 
You can scrape it out with a putty knife, and then clean it with a chemical cleaner or burn it out.

If you store your WSM outside, put the center section on the charcoal bowl upside down, then put the dome on. Water can't get in the WSM if you store it like that.

BTW, I hate it when I get mold in one of mine. Gives me the heeby jeebies.
 
I went to cook on mine earlier this spring. I when I opened it up, the bowl was fll of water and there was a good bit of "fuzzy junk" growing in there. I blasted it out with my hose and all seems to be ok now. (3 cooks since then) I have also started flipping the center section over to keep the water out. Has worked great for me! Good luck!

Joel
 
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