How often?

[dewy]

Just curious, Ive used my smoker twice now and aside from the racks, drip pan, and waterpan havent cleaned it out much inside.Gonna make another attempt at ribs tommorrow so i brought it in and scrubbed the inside out and washed the slide off where the bisquettes go.Still got a lotta burnt on black crap that wont come off very well inside it.So how often do you guys clean these thoroughly and how clean do you actually get em?Just wondered, with the old charcoal ones I never worried about cleaning them much but with all the electric stuff in these I wasnt sure how uch stuff could build up before you started having issues.

[acords]

I'd scrape the burner plate, wash the racks/water pan/drip tray and not much more.  I've heard a wire brush to the heating element, but have never done it.  My smoker is about 2 1/2 years old.

[hillbillysmoker]

I clean the burner pad, racks, bowl, v tray.  I only clean loose flaky stuff from the walls of the cabinet.  I just lightly scrape it off.  The smoke color etc. stays.

[Gizmo]

As the other have pointed out, you don't need to clean the box itself out unless as Hillbilly mentioned, if there is flaky stuff a hanging.
Isn't that great?  Less to do.  They call it seasoning.  I think it has something to do with it but for me I'm good with just be lazy. ;D

[IKnowWood]

Do not clean it to much.  you lose seasoning. 

I clean anything that I put in it.  Then use a mini drum sand tube on my cordless drill and clean up the build-up on the puck pad.  When I blow it with about 90 to 110 PSI of air all around.  Seals and edges and its all ready for the next time.  Every few months I use the sand tube on the bubba pucks to keep them fine.

bout a year and half and its all good. 

[NePaSmoKer]

I clean all my racks, drip tray, water bowl, puck slider, shield in front of the heat tube, probes, remove top vent slider and clean all the black gunk from it and around the vent holes.. I only clean the sides of the smoker when they get crusty falling gook on them. ;D


nepas

[West Coast Kansan]

adding seal gasket around the doors. Never the inside walls of the tower.  ;D  ;D

About every half dozen smokes I will take the generator apart and clean out the ships and put a white graphite lube (from auto parts store) on the puck slider and arm.

[dewy]

Good to hear I dont have to do that to often.How hard is it to get into the smoke generator?Does the outside housing just lift off and you can get at everything?

[West Coast Kansan]

About 6 screws on the bottom. The halves kinda slide apart.   ;) You will see what is happening with the little lip when the screws are out.   ;DDont get pissed, just gotta look and after the first time its a lot easier  ;)

[Habanero Smoker]

Just want to add, when you reassemble the generator don't overtighten the screws. It's easy to strip the metal, and the screws will not hold tight.