# How to clean creosote off pellet grill



## Gbyrd (Sep 4, 2020)

Hey guys, what if I ran a smoke on my pellet grill and I ran it with a ton of white thick smoke. Obviously the meat tasted horrendous. Now I have some layer of creosote on the grill. Can I run the grill empty at like 450 to burn off the creosote? It's on my grill rack and the inside of the drum, and likely the chimney.

I learned a big lesson on airflow, and my stupid pellet grill keeps pushing way more pellets than necessary and the pile falls out of the firepot. Tons of issues.

How do I clean it off so I can get a clean burn. TBS when I'm in smoke mode it has it but once I raise the heat a bit boy it just gives off terrible white smoke.


----------



## PPG1 (Sep 4, 2020)

Perhaps my method is not recommended (Not Sure) but I burn mine off with a propane torch.  By the way if this is not the right method please someone correct me


----------



## Buckeye1 (Sep 4, 2020)

A few dumb questions. Pellet grills are pretty much set and forget. So this problem makes me wonder a few things. please don't be offended.

Are you using food grade pellets or heating pellets?

What brand grill, does it have pid controller?

Can you slow down the auger feed rate? I have found that in the summer I am at minimum feed rate to keep temps consistent.


----------



## kruizer (Sep 4, 2020)

I just use Citrus Safe grill cleaner on mine and it shines like new.


----------



## Gbyrd (Sep 4, 2020)

Buckeye1 said:


> A few dumb questions. Pellet grills are pretty much set and forget. So this problem makes me wonder a few things. please don't be offended.
> 
> Are you using food grade pellets or heating pellets?
> 
> ...



No offense taken, I'm just here to learn how to use my smoker the best way I can. The brand is member's mark, I believe it's a pit boss oem version. I'm using pit boss competition blend pellets. I can do a minimum feed rate but that requires the PID to be in the smoke setting instead of a set and forget setting. 


So far I've cleaned it and set it to run again and it's been holding steady temps and working well. One thing I've noticed is ever so often it will just go crazy on the smoke. And I have to burp it out. It's happened once when I was in smoke mode. And once when I had it set to 200F, I burped it one more time and so far it's working well so hopefully it stays consistent and works out. Cause I have plans to do a brisket for fantasy draft Sunday. Hopefully I can


----------



## Buckeye1 (Sep 4, 2020)

Another thought. Before your first cook did you burn in the grill? In other words run the grill at 400 for an hour or so to burn off all the residual manufacturing oils and cleaners? 

On my RecTeq there is a setting to vary the feed rate from like 3 to 7. It has nothing to do with temp setting, but how fast The auger turns. I had to slow mine down to 3 once summer hit to keep the temp more consistent. 
Temp swings can also vary by pellet brand.


----------



## mike243 (Sep 5, 2020)

Don't try to burn it off as you might damage the paint, scrape it off if it gets too thick , I only hit mine when it looks like it might be getting thick enuf to flake off onto my food, vacuum out the stuff you knock loose. You cant get the temps high enuff to burn it off on its own controller and I don't like running mine at high temps very long as I feel its hard on the sensors  ymmv


----------



## sandyut (Sep 5, 2020)

mike243 said:


> scrape it off if it gets too thick , I only hit mine when it looks like it might be getting thick enuf to flake off onto my food, vacuum out the stuff you knock loose.


do that!  thats all i do.  I have a putty knife and a buckethead vac for this.


----------



## bill1 (Sep 12, 2020)

Solvents and commercial cleaners work well if you're consistent and use them every time.  But when you get lazy for a couple cooks, it can be hard to recover.  

I'm especially concerned with my unit's factory thermometer.  I think it's coated up enough that I'm seeing evidence it's reading 15-20 degrees lower than when new, which seemed close to true.  But they're fragile so I'm hesitant to give it the elbow grease it needs to clean up at this point.   So my advice is:  at least keep your temp probes clean!


----------

