Hopefully Adding An Akorn Tomorrow....

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

I think it is pretty clean after I cleaned it up now (see my pics) and I am planning on keeping it more or less in this shape. Let me know if you think I need to touch up any areas.

[Spinaker]

Make sure to keep the firebowll and body clean of ash. I did not do such a great job of that when I had my Broil King Keg. Ash is corrosive and it will eat that metal up. My Keg rusted around the dampers and in the very bottom of the body is only a few years. This is one of the reasons I went to ceramics for my kamados. Although, I keep my ceramics much cleaner than I did my KEG. I know better no . I partially blame myself for the failures I had with me Broil King Keg.

Just make sure to keep it clean and keep water out as much as you can. And do not worry or fuss with a silly water pan. Kamados seal well enough to keep enough moisture in them. All a water pan does is create a steam bath. You won't add any moisture to the meat by having a water pan and you can regulate the temp just fine with a kamado, on its own.

[jfmorris]

Here is the link to what I was talking about - it was truncated in the original comment:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dustoppe...D12A/315749552

And to answer Richard Chrz I don't think occasional use to vacuum ash is going to destroy the filter on a shop vac. May clog it up if you do it a lot. But you won't be running it for long periods of time like that.

[Argoboy]

I posted pictures after it happen some time ago. I have no idea how to find them now. I was glad to sell it to someone who wanted to start smoking meat. I had about C$225.00 in it and I got +$100.00 for it when I was done with it.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Running 325 right now (250 got away from me) but wow this is airtight.

[Richard Chrz]

So, to crash this a bit, the link does not work. I have never thought of having a small canister vac to clean out the bottom of my wsm. Is that pretty common to vac out ash? I just assumed it would destroy the filter.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Gonna fire it up later and run the Grill Rescue brush over the grates. They look pretty dirty but I don’t think they need replacing. Small bend in the charcoal grate but eh.

[rickgregory]

" It worked good until the wind blew it off the deck,"

Oh a) there has to be a story there and b) pics? :P

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Cleaned it up a bit. Looks pretty solid to me. Thoughts?

[LA Pork Butt]

IFindZeroBadCooks prior I only used lump and I would recommend you do the same. It can’t be beat for low and slow. It will take a little longer to get up to higher temps. I was just trying to offer another option t,o the Kick Ash Basket. Small price of lump tend to fall through the Kick Ash Basket, too.

[Argoboy]

I had a cover for mine but it was rusting, they put on the min. amount of paint on at the factory, if I had a new one I would repaint some parts of the base when new and it would last longer. Treat the cast iron grills with care they are not that thick.

[tbob4]

No special filter needed at all for the ones I have had. I do pic through the small charcoal that is left over before vacuuming. I am on my second unit - again I didn’t buy anything expensive. If you didn’t live so far away I would loan it to you for a weekend.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

I am planning on 100% lump so does that make a difference? I agree that briquettes would fall through more regularly.

[jfmorris]

My son in law destroyed my old shop vac using it to suck up sheet rock dust. I can see ash on a large scale doing that as well, but it would have to be a lot of it, and the paper filter would have to be totally clogged before the motor burned up.

Something like this is the solution to that problem - and attaches to a simple 5 gallon bucket, going inline before the shop vac:

See link below - it was truncated in the original post.

[IFindZeroBadCooks]

Yeah, I dump my cool ash into a galvanized bucket as well and I find that works nicely.