Cleaning

After a few uses, the inside body and parts of the unit will become coated with a protective layer of smoke residue, this helps prevent rust and also helps to seal the unit (this is known as curing).
The only items that need to be cleaned thoroughly after use are the cooking grills, water pan and base unit (leaving ash in the base is a no no, as when combined with moisture it forms a corrosive substance, that may devour your charcoal basket.

Before Marco asks... No! we haven't developed those self cleaning cooking grills yet.

I have discovered that if I spray "Pam" or one of the other spray on cooking oils onto the grill before I start cooking that clean up of the grill is much easier.

As far as the inside of the drip pan; I have found a disposable aluminum pan that fits across the top of the drip pan, just right, still leaving about 3 inches of open space on 2 sides; 12 3/4" X 9" X 1 27/32" (32,4cm X 22,8cm X 4,7cm). The pan is shallow so it doesn't interfere with adding your favorite liquid to the main pan. Is is a nice way to capture juice for gravy as well as making clean up much easier. Sorry for the fuzzy photo, but you get the idea.




The other thing I do with the drip pan is cover the bottom with heavy duty aluminum foil that wraps around the sides and then pinch on the rim . . . don't let it below the water line!! If you do it will boil up under the foil and down the outside. By using the foil on the outside the pan does not get all smoked up.

Other trick I have used to keep the bottom of the pan from getting so filthy is to rub liquid dish soap on the pan before cooking; then just wipe it off with a paper towel after. An old cowboy trick for keeping your coffee pot clean from the open fire.

Best to all, U.J.

Admin wrote:

Before Marco asks... No! we haven't developed those self cleaning cooking grills yet.

Yeah, i know youre busy with the inflatable grill at the moment, so i can wait...

Lining the water pan is good, but i prefer filling it halfway with fine, dry sand. Then i put heavy duty aluminum foil on top of the sand and fill the foil with water.

That way i have the best of both worlds : Lots of thermal mass wich evens the temperature and water for high humidity inside the smoker (if wanted).
No problem if you forget to add water and it runs dry, the sand is enough of a heat sink to keep the smoker temps steady.
Cleanup is easy, just let the water evaporate (in other words : dont refill towards the end of cooking, crumble up the foil and add a layer of new foil for the next cook.

You can also line the charcoal bowl with foil for easyer cleanup, just be careful not to block the vents.

DM

Uncle J - I love the foil pan tip, this has been something that has puzzled me for a while, I will try that on the next next Smoke.

Awesome!