Don’t forget to clean your grill

[bbqLuv]

A reminder to clean your pellet grill before setting it to high temperatures

[Michael_in_TX]

I hadn't cleaned my Chimp in quite some time, so this was very much on my mind and made me do a cleaning before I did some 400 F cooking yesterday.

[yakima]

Looks like a cleansing burn off to me.

[Duanessmokedmeats]

No need to clean my Pit Barrels, just take out ash pan (pizza pan with foil).

[HawkerXP]

..., ..., ...!

[TripleB]

Just cleaned my Weber Genesis last week. I try to clean the gassers every 3 months. All other charcoal grills get cleaned the day after use.

Thanks for the reminder.

[Oak Smoke]

About twice a year each kamado gets rolled to a safe place and a burnout conducted. In years past it was at whatever temp I could get them to, but I learned if you peg the temp gauge they will crack. I can’t speak highly enough about those stainless platers the Ceramic Grill Store sell to lay on top of a heat deflector to catch grease. They work wonderfully. I’ve seen a grease fire in an old gas grill years ago. It got serious quickly. I just haven’t been around pellets grills enough to see how greasy they can get.

[jfmorris]

I believe hitting crazy temps like 900F also led to me having to replace the top gasket on my SNS kamado. The glue that held it on was nonexistent when I took the top vent off, and it had shrunk to open up a 1/4 inch gap that was leaking smoke. I keep things under 700 these days, even for a pizza cook.

[RonB]

Looks like someone was just trying to get a good sear to me.

[yakima]

Isn't that what they mean, the direct heat side?

[Michael_in_TX]

When I was cleaning my Chimp yesterday, I actually wondered how these grease fires start. The area under my deflector shield is practically grease-free.

Even if one's deflector shield has a lot of grease on it.....would that stuff really ignite at 400-450 F?

One thing I am very cognizant about is that I am very careful to make sure any food on my grate is within the boundary of the deflector shield, because I don't want any grease to drip anywhere near the burn pot.

I also wonder if Grilla's Chimp and Silverbac have larger deflector shields than other pellet grills.

[bbqLuv]

It has to do with the flash point of the grease and oil.

[realdocBBQ]

Agreed, no grease or anything remotely wet or gunky under the deflector on my Yoder. Only ash.