Yoder Smokers Community Forum

In the process of diagnosing problems brought forward in this forum, one of the questions always asked is if foil is being used, but I haven't been able to find what specific issues it can create in a YS640. Is it mostly used to cover the heat deflector plate? Is there a better way to keep it clean? Any insight would be appreciated.

The issue with foil is that most of the time it is rolled over the edges of the diffuser, which causes an air flow disruption below the diffuser, causing temperature fluctuations, hot spots, etc.

The easiest thing to do is to season the diffuser like a cast iron skillet. Once you have this accomplished, it is just a matter of using a putty knife to scrape it down to clean it.

Yoder_Herb wrote:The issue with foil is that most of the time it is rolled over the edges of the diffuser, which causes an air flow disruption below the diffuser, causing temperature fluctuations, hot spots, etc.

The easiest thing to do is to season the diffuser like a cast iron skillet. Once you have this accomplished, it is just a matter of using a putty knife to scrape it down to clean it.

Thanks. Is there a write-up on that somewhere?

The easiest way is to cook a lot.

Cover the plate with high temp cooking oil, like canola, and just cook. The plate will build up a coating over time, and scrape clean.

I foil. I did the full burn-in as specified. I seasoned the diffuser plate. I put foil, which happens to be a bit more wide than the plate, perfect planning Yoder dudes.. I leave 1" or so on L/R sides and fully, fully put the foil on the bottom side FLAT, no loose edges. Never had an issue. Easier clean up.

On the other hand, scraping the plate works as well, just a bit more clean-up. It's a smoker, it don't need to be spotless. In fact my grates get a scrub top and bottom before each use with cheap stainless scrubby pads from the grocery store, I get 3-6 uses, and I use it on my Weber too.

Every cook, well almost every cook I roll up the foil, see if the Diff plate has any issues, re-foil then clean the rest of the grill with my vacuum.
no more. I super soak and really scrub them once a year.

Cleaning the fire pot each time and having a dedicated small shop vac is the most important part of the Yoder.

Thank you, Conumdrum.

So foil on the plate is okay as long as it isn't installed haphazardly? What about the grease bucket? Is there a way to keep it from becoming a mess?

The grease bucket in any smoker is a mess. The grease collection area is always a mess. A skinny cheap scraper works well. Don't worry about it a lot, just don't let the grease bucket overflow, now that is a mess.