From past experience, I (personally would not soak it). I have had a terrible auger jam on a vertical pit boss, my fault. I cleaned and cleaned it until I got it to “budgeâ€.Took it completely apart, used a tad of vegetable oil on the feed tube and auger edges, got it moving freely and Then I reassembled it and made sure there was no dust anywhere. It has not failed me since. Just how I did it.