just used my 4 rack digital smoker for the first time today. food came out very good. So how well do you all clean it up? i can understand the grates. put the drip pan water pan and the pan in the bottom? Discolored from smoke and heat. However it will come off with a lot of elbow grease. Just think its a loosing battle over time. what do you all do?
I clean the racks, the v tray. I use a 9X13 disposible cake pan in lieu of the bowl that comes with the Bradley. I usually spray these with a coating like Pam before the cook and it helps make it easier to clean. I throw these guys into the dishwasher.
anything that touches food gets A+ cleaning
water bowl and pan underneath get B cleaning
V tray gets scraped and washes kinda good B+ cleaning
And ditto on what Gus said
I'll second everything said so far. Just don't touch the inside. If after awhile you start to get some flaking just take a crumpled up piece of newspaper and give it a light brushing to get the flakes off. And every couple of smokes take the screw out of the vent and give it a good cleaning around that.
As a final item - Immediately after the smoke, take a damp rag and give the door seal a good going over.
Yeah, racks, V-pan, water bowl and bottom pan all get chucked into the dishwasher. Come out like new. The door seal gets a wipe with a Windex soaked paper towel as well as around the vent. Never touch the inside.
Ditto to all. I also use my leaf blower to blast the sawdust crumbs out of the smoker generator..
And my bubba pucks go in the dishwasher as well. Sometimes they get a bit 'sticky'.
I put some vegetable oil on a paper towel and rub down the racks prior to use. I don't like PAM and besides, you're spraying about 95% of it into the air.
When cold, I'll rub any stuck stuff off the racks and then they go into the dishwasher.
I usually only clean the V tray every few smokes, but I do pretty light loads. I scrape off anything fairly loose and then put it into the sink and spray it down with Dawn Power Cleaner. Let it sit for 20 minutes or so, give it a wipe and then into the dishwasher. The water bowl and drip tray are cleaned "as required" in the dishwasher.
As mentioned, no cleaning of the inside of the cabinet is required unless you have flakes. Then, just brush them off.
Keep the SG clean. Yes, a leaf blower works. I use a compressor. Keep the chute clean. If I get a build up, I'll gently scrape it off and then use some fine steel wool to finish cleaning it up.
Pretty much as CRG said, anything that touches food should be spotless.