Grease Collection?

[raadkins16]

I can't seem to find it on the M Grills website, but how does the M1 handle grease collection? Is there a location it runs off to and is collected, or is that the purpose of putting on the foil to have it catch and hold it until after the cook is complete?

[Max Good]

MGrills recommends the foil for easy clean up of ash and gunk.

[M Grills]

Foil for ash and you can place a water pan directly on the baffle or on the charcoal grate to also catch grease drippings.

[smarks112]

The foil method works like a charm - the bottom of my grill still looks virtually brand new after about 50 cooks. I change foil every 2-4 cooks for basic stuff and after every long smoke session.

[Walt Dockery]

The foil method works great. For longer indirect cooks I also use a water pan placed on the charcoal grate, (stainless half hotel pans are a great size if leaving the sear box in place on one side, or a full hotel pan to use up the entire charcoal grate) which doubles as a drip pan.

One of my qualms when buying the M1 was the lack of grease or ash management system as other grills I've had, for example with kamado style cookers ash will interfere with airflow, or with my old yoder pellet grill ash would accumulate in the burn pot and prevent from starting a fire the next time, and of course grease buildup can lead to a grease fire. But with the M1, the ash sits below the charcoal grate and out of the way, so if I get a little lazy about cleaning it out it doesn't cause problems, so the foil method works just fine. Because the firebox is underneath, and insulated, as far as I can tell there's really no risk of a grease fire for longer cooks unless you were to really let the grease get out of control over many cooks, and again a property placed water pan catches most of it.

I change out the foil about once a month on average and it's not a big hassle, just remove both grates fold up the foil holding onto the greasy ash and discard, takes only a few minutes. If I had the non stainless M1, I would probably be a little more anal about doing this regularly as ash buildup could corrode things I imagine esp if mixed with grease and moisture.