Kettles Shut Down Quicker Gunked Up

[captjoe06]

Early Spring I did thorough cleanings of all my kettles.  Good scrapings with the razor and steel wool treatment.

All that gunk that was removed  made them much more air leaky and now it seems I'm using excess charcoal due to longer shut down times where charcoal burns down more instead of extinguishing right away.

So it begs the question.  Is gunk good?

[LightningBoldtz]

It does help the seal of the kettle.

[Tommy B]

In my book gunk is good. I don't clean the inside of my grills or smokers unless gunk is flaking off and can get on food. I clean grill grates every cook but that is it... I know others like to clean every year etc.

[Metal Mike]

Yes, after you've cleaned Burn chicken fat/trimmings directly over a small pile of coals, to build up a "fresh/clean" sealing gunk layer (cheap & sticky smoke.)

Tastes Like Chicken...

[Travis]

I scrape mine down too. I don't get carried away, but I do give them a quick clean up from time to time.


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[MikeRocksTheRed]

I'm fine with gunk.  I will burn a hot full direct load of coals from time to time if I have too much grease build up to burn it off.  Other than that I take pride in the gunk I have built up cook by cook!

[WNC]

Yeah gunk is good!
They become better cookers the more you use them.
I always clean new to me kettles when I get them, just cuz you never know what someone else used them for/cooked in them.
But the more you use them the better they seal up, it shouldn't take long before they shut down pretty quickly.

[MrHoss]

A good dirty cooker is happier too. That's what mine tell me anyways.

[Davescprktl]

Gunk helps for sure.  My oldest kettle holds lower temps easier than the others.