Grease trap for WSM

[Cliff H.]

No matter what I do it appears to me that there is going to be grease run down the insides of the wsm and accumulate under the fire in a puddle.

I have done two cooks and had two grease fires at some point in the cook.

What do ya'll think of drilling a hole right in the middle and fashioning a grease trap ?

Everything needs mods

[Unity]

Originally Posted by Cliff H.

No matter what I do it appears to me that there is going to be grease run down the insides of the wsm and accumulate under the fire in a puddle.

I have done two cooks and had two grease fires at some point in the cook.

A couple years of cooks in a WSM, I've never seen that. Ash sometimes sticks to the sides of the bottom in a few places, which I reckon is from grease, but never any flare-ups that I'm aware of. :scratch What were you cooking?

--John

[Larry Wolfe]

Cliff, this is very interesting...........I've never had any problems with a grease fire or even grease at all in the bottom of the WSM. I've had a grease fire in the sand pan before, but never in the bottom. I don't even know where to go with the questions on how to help with this. The sand pan should catch 99.9% of the grease that drips.

[Captain Morgan]

Cliff are you cooking without the pan? If you have a pan with sand in it,
don't fill the pan so full of sand...leave an inch or two of room for the fat to collect. That pan should hold dang near all the grease that a fat butt can put out.

[Larry Wolfe]

Originally Posted by Captain Morgan

Cliff are you cooking without the pan? If you have a pan with sand in it,
don't fill the pan so full of sand...leave an inch or two of room for the fat to collect. That pan should hold dang near all the grease that a fat butt can put out.

Good point Jim! I was assuming he had the pan half full!!

[jminion]

I have never had a grease fire in a WSM , what are you doing with the waterpan?

Jim

[Cliff H.]

Maybe this is where I have err'd. The pan is about 3/4 full even after Scotty told me to fill it to 1/2, it just didn't look full enough.

I was more concerned with insulation than capturing grease.

I will remove some sand and see if this corrects the problem. I still have butts and chuck to cook so I need to put this issue to bed.

[Diva Q]

Yes I am in the same boat. never ever have I had a grease fire.

[Nick Prochilo]

Can't say I've ever encountered a grease fire either!

[Captain Morgan]

there you go! just take some sand out, foil the top for easy clean up, but
leave a bowl shape in the foil to collect the fat.

[Cliff H.]

I wanted to show ya'll what I was talking about. I think I had a little more grease yesterday than today. There is about two or three TBS of grease in the bottom.



Here is the pan after the cook. I don't really see anywhere that the grease ran out of the pan.



I do see lots of runs on the side walls of the mid section.



and outside as well even with the door on the right way so it has got to be running down the side, No?



So I emptied about 1/2 of what I had in there and took it from this



to this



We shall see if that is an improvement

[Unity]

That's a lot of accumulation for 2 cooks!

Here's what the middle section of mine looks like after a couple years of light use (compared to the Q Pit guys, especially wittdog ).



There's a light coating of grease throughout the inside of the lid and middle section, and a little around the top 2-3" of the bottom section.

--John
(In the photo it looks like there's less than there is. The grease you can see in the flange is what most of the inside looks like.)

[john pen]

Steady cooking for a year and no grease fire or buildup here...

[Cliff H.]

Best I can tell the accumulation is starting on the top grate. The lip where the lid rest seems to be heavy with grease buildup only after two cooks.

I thought it was part of the normal seasoning proccess that has been mentioned before but maybe not.

The smoker seems to be sitting as level as one can judge by eye. It is on my front porch so there may be a liitle slope but not much.