Did a deep clean on the PBX. I have PBC Ash Pan under the charcoal basket. I took it out and saw these orange spots that were under the ash pan. I think its rust but could be just old dried up grease that has caked.
Anyway, I cleaned the bottom the best I could. Then sprayed it with cooking spray and burnt a chimney of coals.
I'm starting to get some of that in my seven-year-old PBC. It's definitely from letting charcoal ash sit in there too long and mixing with the Gulf Coast humidity and/or rain that gets splashed in.
I get that there's condensation under the ash pan, but I don't get the ash part. I bought this stainless steel ash pan from PBC to avoid having ash in the bottom of the cooker. And notice in this pic, all of the rust is under where the ash pan sits, there's no rust outside of the ash pan. I'm guessing condensation under the ash pan created rust ?
This also tells me that I'm gonna put down foil in the bottom and set the ash pan and charcoal basket on the foil. I'd hoped to avoid that.
I've used a wire brush attachment to my drill to get rid of most of that rust. There's still some mounds of something that looks like baked on grease and the wire brush won't cut through it .
Its really hard to reach down in the bottom of the cooker and scrape, can't reach it and there's not enough room to get good leverage on some spots.
Next job, will be to spray it again with cooking spray or coat it with beef tallow, and burn a chimney of coals to re-season.
This last picture looks like pitting from rust. In such a high heat area I don’t know of anything more to do beyond what you’re doing now. If any juices from your cooking can get there they’re going to bring salt with them that will attract moisture and cause serious rust.
Lynn, yes, unfortunately that is rust and yes, it was caused by condensation forming under the ash pan and being trapped there over periods of time. I’ve been preaching on this issue here for a long time to the point that folks are probably tired of seeing me post it, but you can see why it’s important. My PBC bottom rusted completely through because of it, and the hole has now grown to the point that it’s close to being scrapped. Thankfully yours doesn’t look that advanced. To avoid further damage, what I’ve done is to prop the charcoal basket, with ash pan attached, up at about a 45 degree angle or so against the inside of the barrel during storage. It irks me to no end that Pit Barrel doesn’t warn their customers about this issue to prevent it from happening, as it’s not something that folks would normally think about.
Do you know what grade SS that they use for the pan? I looked at the website and didn't see the answer. Some grades are still prone to rust. This is what I was able to find after a quick search:
Grades Most Prone to Rust
Ferritic Grades (409, 430): Contain lower amounts of chromium and little to no nickel. Grade 409 rusts and stains quickly, while 430 offers slightly better protection but fails in wet or salty environments. [1]
Martensitic Grades (410, 420, 416, 440C): Contain higher carbon content to make the metal hard and strong, which significantly lowers their corrosion resistance. Grade 416 and 420 develop surface rust rapidly in damp air. [1, 2]
Low-Nickel Austenitic Grades (201, 202): Substitute cheaper manganese and nickel, weakening the protective chromium oxide surface layer. They rust much faster than 300-series steel when exposed to moisture or salt. [1]
I'm not gonna leave it stored with the ash pan in the bottom. I'll continue with the charcoal basket down there, but I'm thinking it needs ventilation to keep the condensation from forming.
Line it with foil during cooks, get rid of the foil after the cook.
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