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Yes, you will want to season the firebox on a smoker. This will ensure that the metal integrity is sustained. You do NOT want to neglect this as your smoker firebox would begin to rust, and ultimately start eroding the metal.
Do you season the firebox on a smoker? | YOUTUBE VIDEO
Do you Season the Firebox on a Smoker?
You absolutely season the firebox on a smoker. Before you start applying oil and heat to seal the metal – you will want to begin cleaning all the ash and residual particles out of the inside of the firebox.
It’s worth taking a look at the YouTube video of BBQDROPOUT explaining his process on cleaning out the Offset Smoker Firebox.
In the video, it is very apparent how important it is to season and clean out your firebox for your smoker. To get started, you will need two primary pieces of equipment:
- Shovel to scoop all material out of the smoker firebox
- Ash Bucket to capture all the material you are scooping out of the smoker firebox
Shovel to scoop all material out of the smoker firebox
This step is pretty easy. All you have to do is grab a shovel that is relatively short in length to allow for easy holding. Easy holding meaning – you can hold the shovel with one hand. This will allow you to position objects in the smoker firebox with one hand, while scooping them out with the shovel in the other hand.
This makes the process of cleaning the smoker firebox extremely easy and efficient!
Open the grates of your smoker firebox and take out any placement metal commonly used to hoist the wood on top of. Once all the main metal and residual tools are out, you can simply start scraping all throughout the firebox.
Sometimes, there will be hard chunks that will be difficult to scrape out. Don’t be afraid to really hammer the metal – this thing is solid steel after all.
Ash Bucket to Capture all the material you are scooping out of the smoker firebox
Once you have your handheld shovel and are scooping out all of the ash and burnt wood – make sure to have your ash bucket ready at the bottom end of the firebox. That way you wont have to manually scoop and walk over to a nearby trash can. It’s all about efficiency.
The size and scope of your ash bucket can be any size you are comfortable with. I just got one from my local grocery store – HEB – and it is quite big.
This will allow for some amazing scooping of ash out of my Smoker Firebox!
Once you are about done scraping and scooping all the ash into your ash bucket – feel free to empty the bucket. Don’t get into the habit of leaving it there. I’ve done that many times and before you know it – your ash bucket will start to rust! Definitely don’t want that.
Also, if you have a habit of leaving your equipment out in the elements – especially when it is filled with ash and other left over material – rain will eventually come and you don’t want your ash bucket to become filled with ash and water. It is not a good combination.
If you want an in-depth tutorial for how to clean an offset smoker:
How Often Do you Re-Season your Offset Firebox?
You should be re-seasoning your offset firebox before or after every cook. This will help ensure the metal integrity and get’s you in the habit of always keeping it clean.
When you get into the habit of re-seasoning your offset firebox, you can rest assured your smoker will never rust. It will last you forever – as long as you take care of it – the smoker will take care of you.
Here’s a really neat video on how to clean an offset smoker
In the above video, BBQDROPOUT walks you through exactly how to clean and season your offset smoker. This method can be applied directly to any cast iron style smoker – not strictly an offset smoker.
Anyways – you definitely will want to make sure not only do you clean your smoker firebox but season it.
To properly season your offset firebox – you will want to ensure it is clean – as per the above method where you get your handheld shovel and ash bucket – grab a jar of oil or a can of oil spray.
Once you have obtained oil that is easy to apply – go ahead and start spraying and applying the oil all over the outside AND inside. This step is crucial – since both sides are affected by rust.
It’s not just the Exterior.
Quick Re-Cap:
We’ve covered som pretty good ground in this article:
Do you season the firebox on a smoker
How often do you re-season your offset firebox?
Regarding whether or not you should season your smoker firebox – the answer is always yes. You just simply don’t want to have the metal quality eroded overtime and have all your money paying for the pit, go to waste.
Further you don’t want to stop at just the first seasoning session for your firebox – always make sure to keep it in your toolkit and routing whenever you think about using your smoker.
following all of this advice will not only preserve the life of your smoker pit, but will certainly provide you with amazing barbecue every time.
Robert is a certified Pitmaster, with over a decade of experience in smoking the best meats you’ll ever feast upon. He also has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio. When he’s not researching technical topics, he’s most likely barbecuing in his backyard.