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[hughver]

Was preparing a NY strip roast for company last night, when the unexpected happened. Game plan was to smoke the roast to an IT of 115-120°, remove it from the pit, raise the temperature to 475° and sear. All went well up to the sear part. While sitting inside waiting for the pit to heat up and consuming adult beverages, I decided to check on the DC, it was spewing fire out of every possible crack, the stack looked like a huge blow torch, flames were coming out all around the lid, even the small grease drain hole was spewing fire.  Luckily, I keep a fire extinguisher neat the pit and was able to subdue the fire within a few seconds. The problem being that I've had the DC since 2013 and have never cleaned the inside. Damage to the pit appears to be minimal but it's time to give the inside of both pits a good cleaning. This job appears to be daunting, what is the most efficient way to accomplish this task?

[Bar-B-Lew]

Setting it on fire works best IMO as I've done that on a few occasions the same way that you did by turning up the temp with grease on the drip tray after cooking on a low temp.  I would pull everything out of the inside - deflector, drip pan, racks, etc. and power was them.  As for the interior of the grill body, a paint scraper and some good old elbow grease is the best I have found, and then shop vac it up or scoop it out somehow.

Hopefully, you were able to save the roast and finish its cook somewhere.

[hughver]

Hopefully, you were able to save the roast and finish its cook somewhere.

I pulled the roast at ~120°,  wrapped in foil and placed in a pre heated pan. My original intent was to let it cool for 45 minutes before searing but since the rest of the meal was ready and the pit was out of service, I just served the salad while I seared the roast with a torch. Final IT was a perfect 128°. As a side note, prior to applying the rub, I coated the roast lightly with toasted sesame oil and then rubbed the whole thing with store bought beef base. The final result was an enhanced Umami flavor. I'll do it again.

[Bentley]

Depending on how long the fire existed, it may already be clean.  You can turn it to 350° and run for about an hour.  Dont leave it, as it get close to 350° and there is still a lot of grease left, it should start smoking.  If it does not catch fire after about 10 minutes, turn to 400° and run until there is very little smoke coming from it!

Damage to the pit appears to be minimal but it's time to give the inside of both pits a good cleaning. This job appears to be daunting, what is the most efficient way to accomplish this task?

[hughver]

Good idea, as soon as I get it vacuumed out I'll give it a try.

[02ebz06]

What I do to avoid that is foil the deflector and replace it with new foil before it gets a build up.
Also take the old Baking Soda boxes when I replace them in fridge and freezer, open them and put the baking soda in the drip pan or bucket (both with disposable foil pans or bucket liners).
Soaks up the grease and greatly reduces any chance of flare up before dumping them.

EDIT:  FYI - Foiling deflector is not a good idea if you cook anything at temp over 500, it will melt.

[hughver]

What I do to avoid that is foil the deflector and replace it with new foil before it gets a build up.

Since in the DC's and the Traeger configurations has the deflector directly over the fire pot ,it is always way too hot for any grease buildup.

After some scraping and vacuuming the DC fired right up and is now a 250° on its way to 350°

[SmokinHandyman]

 I've had the DC since 2013 and have never cleaned the inside.

Wow. Never cleaned.
No wonder you had a fire.

[ICIdaho]

I had a grease fire right after cleaning.  Rib steaks drip a lot of grease in a hurry and it lit up the corner where they were.  I have since moved back to the gas burner for my sear after smoke.  I agree with Bentley on the slow raise of hot temps, that is the way I do my burn offs now.  I stop at 400 and just let it go longer if necessary.

[hughver]

I followed Bentley's advice and incrementally increased the temperature in 50 degree steps until it got to 550°. At that point the DC was running fine but my mounting scheme, not so much. The PVC cups on the starboard side holding the spring legs melted and the 2X6 supporting the cups started to smoke profusely. Back to the drawing board. 

[ICIdaho]

I followed Bentley's advice and incrementally increased the temperature in 50 degree steps until it got to 550°. At that point the DC was running fine but my mounting scheme, not so much. The PVC cups on the starboard side holding the spring legs melted and the 2X6 supporting the cups started to smoke profusely. Back to the drawing board. 

That is a bummer.  I believe Bentley's advice was to stop at 400 and leave it though.  At 550, I imagine most of the grease buildup is gone!

[Bentley]

At 400°, if run long enough, will burn off most grease.  Reason why you look for less and less smoke coming from unit.  Having said that, if it were mine I would probably have continued to increase temperature if all equipment was OEM.   Sorry to hear they burnt up, being PVC will they be relatively easy to fix?

[hughver]

being PVC will they be relatively easy to fix?

Replacing the PVC with galvanized iron fittings and putting metal plate on top of the 2X6.

[02ebz06]

being PVC will they be relatively easy to fix?

Replacing the PVC with galvanized iron fittings and putting metal plate on top of the 2X6.

Or some HardiBacker cement board.
$12 for a 3' x 5' sheet at HD
https://www.homedepot.com/p/James-Hardie-HardieBacker-3-ft-x-5-ft-x-1-4-in-Cement-Backerboard-220022/100183556

Use it all around my built-in Memphis.