Fighting Mold In Your Smoker Or Grill

moldy Weber Smokey Mountain

It's pretty shocking when the rip off the cover off your cooker in spring to discover the interior is covered in white fuzz. Weber Smokey Mountain owners are especially vulnerable to this jolt.

That's because mold loves moisture and grease. You can prevent this by burning and scraping off grease periodically. When you are done with a cook, superheat your cooker. Add fresh coal if necessay. Burn off food residue. Store your cooker with the vents open and in a dry place so moist air is not trapped inside. And degrease the interior regularly, especially if you don't plan to use it for a while.

If you do get mold, here's what to do if your cooker is metal. If it is ceramic, do not use chlorine or solvents, and do not powerwash or use a metal scraper or a wire brush on the ceramic parts. Heat is your only tool.

1) Discard any charcoal, lava rocks, ceramic briquets, or other pourous materials.

2) Fire it up as hot as possible to kill it and burn it off. Use a double load of charcoal. Do this first. If you try to scrape it off or powerwash it you might inhale a lot of spores and have an allergic reaction, and you will still have a lot of mold on the floor.

3) Let it cool and now scrape and scrub everything in sight with a wire brush or a pressure washer. Remove parts and scrape or pressure wash them. The only desireable grease is elbow grease.

4) Then wash everything down with soapy water. Then rinse throroughly.

5) Finally, fire it up one last time to burn off any mold, grease, and soap residue. You're now ready to cook. Click here to learn more about setting up your Weber Smokey Mountain, setting up your charcoal grill, and setting up your gas grill.

This page was revised 2/27/2013

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