First grease fire for me

My Kamado is easy to clean, but I have to get it to 900f to get a good clean. I've heard other say it will clean at 750, that has not been my experience. Then there's the issue of high heat causing cracks in the ceramics. I watch mine closely now and stay at or below 900. The first time I cleaned mine I loaded it up, fired it up, opened both top and bottom all the way, and went to the office to finish up some work. When I checked it again about 45 minutes later the temp gauge was pegged and I could hear popping sounds. I ruined the top piece. It was cracked from top to bottom in several places. I was fortunate. I contacted the manufacturer and admitted what I had done. They sent me a new top with no problems. The other thing about cleaning a Kamado with high heat is you will normally ruin your gasket. I make sure I have one on hand before I do a cleaning burn. If you successfully navigate all this you will have clean cooker with just some gray ash to brush up.

And not in a Smoke Fire pellet grill...

13 year old Genesis hooked up to the natural gas line. Just got new flavorizor bars last July. I neglected scraping them clean since doing my fall deep clean. anyways, hit almost 60 degrees here in MN so I grilled Burgers and Bratwurst. Both had cheddar in them, so there was quite a bit of drippings. I have probably used the grill 10 times since the last deep clean, and did not burn off excess after the cooks in the winter.

The drippings caused first flare ups off the flavorizer bars, then the pan underneath started on fire. I rescued the burgers first, then used Baking soda to put out the fire. The burgers were fine, just med-well instead of med.

I like the convenience of gas, but the cleanup would be easier in a Kamado. Wondering, what is the easiest type to keep clean? Maybe I just get a standard kettle. I never had a fire in that. Or I get better at keeping this clean. For year round cooking I keep coming back to a kamado, or WSCG.

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