Yoder Smokers Community Forum

We were asked a question on how to best remove the creosote build up inside of a Yoder stickburner:

1. Remove all cooking grates and the heat management plate**, if so equipped, from the cooker.

2. Build a charcoal fire in the main cooking chamber of the smoker. This fire should be built directly on the floor of the cooking chamber.

3. Let the pit run at 400° or more for several hours until the charcoal fire is basically gone. This will cook the creosote and cause it to become flaky and separate from the cookers interior walls.

4. Once the cooker is cool, clean the ash from the charcoal fire out of the cooking chamber.

5. Clean the interior walls of the smoker with a putty knife or scraper, and wipe down with cleaning cloth or paper towels.

6. Vacuum the cooker out, replace the grates and heat management plate, if so equipped, and you are ready to start cooking again.

** - if the Heat management plate is welded in, build a fire the same way as in step #2, only on cookie sheets, on the top of the heat management plate.

The way I have always done it is using a weed burner to carbonize the creosote and grease and scrape the inside with a putty knife. It works like a charm. I also guess I just need to have some reason to still own a propane tank.

A couple of times a year, get a hot fire going for an hour or so, open the doors and with a hose end sprayer, briefly spray the inside of the smoker and close the doors quickly. Do this several times then let the fire burn out naturally. You can leave all of the grates in when doing this, and it won't hurt your seasoning. If you do this several times a year, you won't get an over abundance of build up. And that build up isn't necessarily a bad thing. Down in here in Texas, that is considered flavor.

Thanks, this is really helpful info. About how often should one have to do this procedure? Every 10-15 day long smoking sessions? More often, less? Also, at one point when I was burning off some creosote what I'm fairly certain was the interior paint began to peel off my Wichita began to peel off, is this normal or did I do something wrong?

CWG Ministries wrote:A couple of times a year, get a hot fire going for an hour or so, open the doors and with a hose end sprayer, briefly spray the inside of the smoker and close the doors quickly. Do this several times then let the fire burn out naturally. You can leave all of the grates in when doing this, and it won't hurt your seasoning. If you do this several times a year, you won't get an over abundance of build up. And that build up isn't necessarily a bad thing. Down in here in Texas, that is considered flavor.

This is what I do often. It steam cleans everything very well and looks new again.

Hi Guys,

Just reading this and want to ask if you could use a steam cleaner, no fire just steam direct from a nozzle on to the affected areas??

How important is it to clean the creosote out? What does it affect?