Bull New owner - cleaning best practices...can you leave pellets in?

[kosmo886]

I just got my grill the other day. What is best practice for cleaning after each use? Can pellets be left in the grill covered/uncovered in the rain? is so, how long?

Does anyone use this is the rain? wondering how it may impact electronics or pellets. Thanks!

 

[C. Keeper]

I vacuum after 24 hours of use.
I leave the pellets in the hopper.
Place a cookie sheet on the shelf and extend over controller to act as rain shield if concerned.

 

[Mastertech59]

I never remove the pellets in the hopper except for changing the wood flavors, then I scoop them out of the hopper using a large sour cream container and put the pellets back into the original pellet bag, otherwise they stay in the hopper year round. I don't cover my grill but it sits under a porch roof but sometimes gets wet with rain or snow blowing in on it. I clean out the fire pot occasionally and throw the ash into the bottom of the grills barrel. I cleaned out the barrel ash once early on and found leaving it in there acts like insulation. After cleaning that one time I found fly ash on the food that was cooked, since I haven't cleaned the barrel ash in a way over a year probably 300 to 400 plus pounds of pellets used there's a nice bed of ash about 3/4 of a inch thick on the barrel lower surface. I don't foil the drip pan and just scrape as needed before the next cook. I have used the Bull in inclement weather with no issues but try to keep it under the porch roof when doing so. If your grill has a light inside it cheap spray on oven cleaner works great to clean it. For the outside I use Bar Keepers Friend and spray on stainless steel cleaner, but have sealed the barrels lid upper and lower areas to help keep it cleaner, the seals didn't change the way it grill cooked at all.

 

[Jcorbin121]

I use a home depot 5 gal bucket to store pellets. If i want to change my cooking pellet I have a HD buckethead vac, i attach that floaor pellet's bucket and vac them out and into the bucket. I leave mine with pellets in between cooks. I take out the internals and vac about every 10 hours of cooking, also wipe down with a lysol wipes to get the obvious grease off the exterior.

 

[fullhouse32]

That!

 

[Imshasta]

I just got my grill the other day. What is best practice for cleaning after each use? Can pellets be left in the grill covered/uncovered in the rain? is so, how long?

Does anyone use this is the rain? wondering how it may impact electronics or pellets. Thanks!

I keep my grill covered, although it rarely rains here in Southern California. I previously owned a Traefer and they said to remove the pellets because humidity can affect them. They blamed the constant problems I had with the Traeger on the pellets left in the hopper. Because of that, true or not, I try to remove all the pellets after each use.

 

[Greg Jones]

They blamed the constant problems I had with the Traeger on the pellets left in the hopper. Because of that, true or not, I try to remove all the pellets after each use.

Also true or not, that’s why recteq has always said they don’t put in a pellet dump door as in their testing it let too much moisture in.

 

[Foodkid]

I never empty the pellet bin. I just standardize on LJ 100% hickory and never change them out. I live in South Texas where it is extremely humid and rains often. I never have a problem with moisture in my pellets

 

[soazsun]

Welcome to the world of pellet smoking! I'm late to this thread and good advice above but I'll add my experiences for your consideration. I've used an RT-680 (Bull predecessor) that I have upgraded with their new wifi controller for 6 years at our main home in southern Arizona and a Traeger 22 Pro at our mountain cabin in northern Arizona for 4 years. (For the record I got the Traeger because at the time Rec Teq didn't offer a suitably-sized non-portable type grill for our smaller patio there, plus the local Ace carried Traeger in town and delivery logistics were much easier.) My experiences below apply to both:

I never remove the pellets except to change flavors and I've never had a problem with pellet degradation in either climate. In truth I've also gravitated to using maybe just two flavors anyway (some form of hickory/oak/mesquite combo for most meats and alder for salmon, etc.) as our tastes have evolved and the pellet change out is usually not worth it to me. I use Homer buckets (or the Ace or Lowe's equivalents) with the spin on/off lids to store pellets and they work great. I don't like to do long term pellet storage in the bags as I can never be sure there aren't small holes somewhere letting moisture in, although one could argue if the pellets are OK in the hopper 24/7 they'd be OK in the bags even with a few pin holes. Plus buckets stack better in the garage too and they are rugged and near bulletproof. Southern Arizona is dry but we do have 2 - 3 months a year of the monsoon so humidities rise. The mountains are the mountains and colder and often times more damp. When I do a changeout I use a scoop and the Homer Buckethead on a Homer bucket on the Rec Teq, and it works great. I use the pellet dump chute on the Traeger up north and it works, but it is a bit awkward given the Traeger is near a tall railing and I need to hold the bucket I'm emptying into up and near the chute to keep the cascading pellets under control.

Both grills are under covered porches but can get rain splattered on them. I have grilled in gentle rain and had no problem, but I wouldn't want driving rain on the control panel. A suitable deflector shield (cookie tray as one mentioned or the like) would be wise as long as it stayed secure.

I keep the Traeger covered with their custom cover when we are away, but it comes off and stays off while we are at the cabin. I never cover the Rec Teq, both because the weather is better here and I use the grill too often. I also find the Rec Teq custom cover a royal pain to deal with as it is cut quite close on tolerances, at least with the one I got with the grill 6 years ago. And also the Rec Teq cover is pitch black and I like the look of the "naked" red 680 with the chrome bull horns sitting out in my cooking ramada much better. Personal taste again.

I clean out both grills after maybe 30 or so hours of cooking but truthfully it is a seat of the pants decision. I usually let the drip tray mess help dictate that. I am a foil guy but you will get differing opinions on that. I use foil because to me just taking the grill grates out requires a large piece of scrap cardboard or sheet tray to place the greasy grates on while I tend to the drip tray, either to change the foil or scrape. If you go the scrape route you have to do that quite often to keep buildup under control. And since both grills are surrounded by either by nice stone counter tops or wood railings, I try to minimize my grate removal episodes. So I use foil and change it every 30 hours or so, more often if I do a lot of greasy cooking like a pork butt. I use my smokers as smokers, not high temp grills, so somewhat greasy foil is fine. (For steaks I do a reverse sear, smoke on the pellet grills and since I have older gas grills at both locations I sear them off on the gassers for 4 minutes a side. Again, personal preference.)

After every cook (smoke) I brush the grates just after I take the meat off and before I go into the house. Since I'm using them only as smokers at relatively low temps (200º - 300º) nothing really burns on with the well-seasoned grates so the rub off is easy. I shut the grill down (wifi) from inside and with the next cook, once it is at temp, I give a quick scrub again before putting the meat on.

After those 30 hours or so I open up the grill, remove the grates and drip pan and roll up the foil and discard it. I then do a good vacuum using a shop vac (not the Buckethead!) as others have described. I use high quality pellets and I've never had a big buildup in the fire pot but I do vacuum it out with the rest. I then add a small handful of pellets to the clean fire pot to "prime" it for the next cook. That's not required in my experience but I feel it doesn't hurt. I add new foil and put it back together and I'm good for another 4 - 6 weeks. I frequently clean up the outside of the grill for smoke, grease residue and just plain old dust using Krud Kutter available almost everywhere.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[jasonbr1975]

I have a Bullseye and leave my pellets in, but it’s also stored under my back porch with a cover. I use it pretty often so pellets don’t get a chance to get old. Never had problems with pellets getting moist or wet.

i’ve had a few flareups before so, I wire brush the inside of the grill to break up the big chunks of drippings, etc. that fall in while cooking and remove the fire plate and clean that as well with a wire brush. Vacuum out the firebox completely and replace with a handful of pellets back into the fire box.

You can’t really put foil in the bull’s-eye because the deflector shield has holes in it and I’m sure it’s designed that way to cook.

After about 3 to 4 months of use I noticed the inside of the grill gets a moist black substance on it and I just take paper towels and oven cleaner and clean that as best I can.

 

[carlb28]

My bull lives outside under a covered porch in western FL about 5 miles from Tampa Bay, so we know rain and humidity. I bought the cover, but it is still in the original packaging. I am coming up on a year and have never emptied my hopper unless it was due to cooking. One cook recently I did notice some moisture on the inside of the pellet hopper lid, however I have never faced any issues with moisture in my pellets. My auger runs fine. Only issue I have had is that when outside temps got above 80F, I had to reduce my feed rate because it could not maintain a low or consistent temp.

 

[okie]

My bull lives outside under a covered porch in western FL about 5 miles from Tampa Bay, so we know rain and humidity. I bought the cover, but it is still in the original packaging. I am coming up on a year and have never emptied my hopper unless it was due to cooking. One cook recently I did notice some moisture on the inside of the pellet hopper lid, however I have never faced any issues with moisture in my pellets. My auger runs fine. Only issue I have had is that when outside temps got above 80F, I had to reduce my feed rate because it could not maintain a low or consistent temp.

Probably you would have moisture problems with pellets if you did use your cover. More condensation might occur under it. No problem with adjusting the feed rate in hot or cold weather, that is what it is for. Might be worth while to use up pellets to empty, and then vacuum both ends of the auger tube to pull out any excess powder in the tube. Since using LJ pellets I have not had enough powder to worry about.