Bull Question regarding grease in belly and drippings

[dixonduke]

I am still learning the ins and outs of my Bull. Is it normal for grease to be collecting in the belly of the pit? I am not using foil on the drip pan electing to just use a scraper to clean it off.

Grease is also dripping out of the pit where the cylinder meets the side.

the drip pan is seated in the its supports and the pit is levels, on both axis.

so what is normal? What should I expect?

I clean this after every cook so it doesn't look that bad in this picture, but you can see the line of drippings on the leg base.

Grease in the bottom

Left to Right

Front to Back

Trying to show it all in one pic.

 

[Blues1]

Is it level front to back?

 

[dixonduke]

Is it level front to back?

Yes, front to back is level. I tried to show that in a pic above, but was posting from my phone. Let me go up add some clarity to the pics.

 

[mooncusser2k]

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but it's important to make sure food is over the drip pan when cooking. It's pretty easy to place items on the grates and be over the gap - which will drip into the barrel.

As for dripping from the side, that sounds like barrel isn't fully sealed. Might be worth a call to RT customer support. I've heard of RT customer support sending sealant to customers.

 

[dixonduke]

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but it's important to make sure food is over the drip pan when cooking. It's pretty easy to place items on the grates and be over the gap - which will drip into the barrel.

As for dripping from the side, that sounds like barrel isn't fully sealed. Might be worth a call to RT customer support. I've heard of RT customer support sending sealant to customers.

I appreciate the feedback and no harm at all in stating the obvious. No food has been placed over the width of the drip pan, at least to the best of my knowledge, but I will keep an eye out.

 

[Buckeye smoker]

Does the grease collection tray have a crack or hole in it?

 

[Wslayer]

Are you sure drip tray was all the way onto its holder? Just did a butt and ribs this past weekend on the 590. Had grease drip down between barrel and hopper. Tray was not all the way on top of holder. Un- noticeable at the time.

 

[Jemersoh]

I've also noticed that if the drip tray is not on the holding rails properly. Maybe try covering your drip tray with foil, if it stops the leak then there's an issue with your tray itself.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Put the level on the grate. If the grate is not level, grease will travel down the grate to the ledge and run into the barrel.

 

[BG RTR]

Move some of the ashes to the end of your barrel they will absorb any grease that makes its way down there

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Level front to back on the grates themselves is critical for grease management on these things when doing cooks where a lot of fat is rendered. Also, any puddling on the drip tray can cause a problem.

 

[cutplug]

I haven't looked at mine in a while so I will have to check both for the grease and the warped
heat deflector. I have not tried to get above 400 so I suspect that it will warp at the higher temps.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

A month or two ago, I checked the deflector and it was twisted pretty badly. I don't think it made any functional difference. But I took it out and beat on the upturned flange on one side to see if stretching it would change the twist. It did some. I took about half of the twist out. Gave up and put it back together.

On the grease thing, I found that the grease was running down each bar in the grate, if the grate wasn't perfectly level. Even when level, a big rendering cook will get outside the drip tray by running down the grate bars to the ledge. If there were 2 cross bars underneath that were just inboard the width of the drip tray, that would cause the grease to form a droplet there and drip to the drip pan.