# Brown rusty residue after cooking on my Weber Smokey Mountain WSM



## smokinfred (May 9, 2011)

Woke up this morning to find a rusty cover on the underside of my WSM's lid and the inside body.  The previous owner who used it many times never got this residue.  The only thing I changed was covering the underside of the water with foil.  Could the foil be causing some reaction or maybe to much moisture.  Its just weird that before he coating was nice and black like my old Chargriller and now I'm getting this rusty color.  I had to use a Scotch-Brite to get it off.  Here are some pics.  Oh, and by the way the charcoal bowl was fine no residue. Weird.


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## alblancher (May 9, 2011)

Looks to me like you steamed off your cure, the black, stuff on the inside of your smoker.  Or you had a clean smoker and developed a lot of sooty smoke that when the water hit it it ran off the cover.   How hot did  it get?  Did you get a thick white or grey smoke while cooking?


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## smokinfred (May 9, 2011)

Didn't get hotter than 250.  Was measure with 2 over thermometer at both grate and one digital one at the top.


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## jirodriguez (May 9, 2011)

I got that once in a while on my WSM as well, not sure what the cause is - you might be onto something about the foil. Also you should be foiling the inside of the water pan, not the outside - the idea is to be able to dump the water, remove the foil, wipe it with a paper towel, and have a clean water pan.


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## SmokinAl (May 9, 2011)

I get some of that in mine too from time to time. It will show up, then the next smoke it will be gone. Sometimes it flakes off. Don't know what it's from, but I know it's not the foil, because I don't foil the water pan. I was wondering if it may be minerals in the water that get on the inside when the water boils?


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## smokinfred (May 9, 2011)

Does this stuff have to be cleaned or can I treat my WSM like my Chargriller where I only removed the hard bites but leave my black seasoning alone.


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## SmokinAl (May 9, 2011)

I never clean the sides or top. After each smoke I clean the grates, water pan, and empty the ashes. That's it.


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## jirodriguez (May 9, 2011)

Mine just brushed out of the top of the lid with a stiff brush - I have one that is called an acid brush (got it from home depot), it's kind of like a big paint brush with stiffer bristles, it also works good for sweeping the last of the ashes out of the bottom.


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## sqwib (May 9, 2011)

alblancher said:


> Looks to me like you steamed off your cure, the black, stuff on the inside of your smoker.  Or you had a clean smoker and developed a lot of sooty smoke that when the water hit it it ran off the cover.   How hot did  it get?  Did you get a thick white or grey smoke while cooking?




That would be my guess as well I have seen this when a grill gets too hot, the residue is like a powder when you brush it.


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## sqwib (May 9, 2011)

smokinfred said:


> Does this stuff have to be cleaned or can I treat my WSM like my Chargriller where I only removed the hard bites but leave my black seasoning alone.




Yes that residue needs to be cleaned, then you need to reseason, use the search feature to see how the weber guys are seasoning theirs.


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## cabin fever (May 9, 2011)

That happened to me once before except that rust looking crud covered almost every square inch of the inside of my WSM. It was on there pretty thick too even in the bottom section and would not come off when wiped with a wet rag or scrubbed with a grill brush. Someone on another bbq forum mentioned using oven cleaner to get it off so that's what I did and it worked like a charm. Just sprayed it on and everything washed right off with the hose.

The inside of the WSM looked brand new afterwards, but I lost all that great seasoning. Just remember that it's healthier to re-season than to smoke something with that crud surrounding your meat. I never figured out what caused it though. The only thing I can think of is moisture build up on the inside of the cooker when it's cooling down. I say that because it happened to me when I left the water pan in the smoker over night instead of cleaning everything up right away like I usually do. That's just a guess though.


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