Cooking on the rain on a PBC

[carolts]

Sad to say mine stays out year round and was buried by several feet of snow this past winter. I do have some surface rust but not enough to bother me. It is the old-style barrel, and I would expect the new ones would be much more robust in this climate. At some point this summer I'll take a wire brush and some high-temp paint to it. I'm right by the coast (I can see the water from our house) so the salt air is a big contributing factor. The inside, once it's seasoned, shows no sign of rust. I'm now keeping them covered so I'll see what difference that makes.

My PBC works like the mail person...neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night...

[Stevehtn]

I've had rain a number of times that I've cooked on mine. I just put a board overhanging the lid to make sure no water enters at the vent and it cooks just fine. No sign of rust on mine. In all honesty my cooks seem to come out best when there is a good rainstorm.

[JPP]

Last year, I cooked a couple of St. Louis racks, the coals had enough life left so I added a chicken. That's when a nice thunder storm cell moved through for nearly the entire duration of the chicken's stay in the cooker. The temp did seem to drop 10-20 degrees but as there was zero wind (rain came straight down... monsoon-like), there was plenty of water on the lid but the chicken came out just fine... Not one drop got into the cooker.

I don't think that rust should be a problem... Unless you make a habit of cooking in the rain!

[dmkbbq]

Thanks for your comment. You do what what I do. I was wondering what would happen if it was caught in the rain. That's not the plan, but it can happen. I think the new model will be less likely to rust.

[dmkbbq]

John

Thanks for your comments. I'm not as concerned if it gets wet while I am doing a cook. I keep mine under cover and have a cover for it.

[mikebarish]

dmkbbq I store my PBC in the garage since it's not that heavy, and thus, not much of a burden to take it out when I want to use it. I also have a cover, but I prefer to keep it out of the elements as much as possible. When it rains, I cook just inside my garage with the garage door open, the back door to the garage open, and a fan oscillating to keep air circulating through the space so that no smoke accumulates.

[_John_]

I have one of the old ones, and it has a little surface rust. It has been in the rain a lot, before I ordered a cover it was out in the elements for about 6 months.

[dmkbbq]

Have you ever cooked in the rain on your PBC? I'm concerned if it will cause rust on the outside of the cooker. I don't plan to cook in the rain but we can have summer thundershowers come up quickly.