We have a Charbroil electric smoker. I just use a grill brush on the grill and wrap the pan all the way around with heavy duty aluminum foil. I also bang the charred junk out of the lid once in awhile....I learned that after the smoker got bumped and my ribs were showered with black flakes.

My racks get cleaned with a stainless scrub pad in the utility sink simply to keep them out of the kitchen sink, No more, no less a pain than cleaning any rack or grate.
You do turn the heat up high and let your racks/grates burn off after cooking, no? That lessens the amount of time and effort when they do need soap and water cleaning.

Cleaning the interior is a once a year thing, I use a scraper and then pressure wash it in and out, let it dry out and resume normal operations.

Of course, during the use season I occasionally scrape it down or wipe up anything particularly bad.

They do drip, I just buy whatever cheap mat is on sale at Canadian Tire and put that down. (same for the grill) ((Saves the deck)) Use the hose a couple of times and them dispose of it and get a new one. One seems to last me a year, I'll admit its pretty rank looking by then, tho. If you need pretty...well then you do, right?

As for the drip pan, I treat it as I do the mat. Use it until it no longer does the job and replace.

Never buy a smoker that takes non-standard parts or proprietary parts. My propane smoker fits standard racks/grates and a regular hardware store baking pan replaces my drip pan. My wood only smoker needs the services of a welder to replace stuff but that is once in five year type of thing.

That build up inside protects against rust, as does use. I use mine year round.

My propane smoker is like a crock pot to me except I stick around as it is open flame and wood chips smoldering.

Lastly, having had both (electric and propane) I'd recommend starting out with a propane fired smoker. Far better control over the heat and the electric ones available up here, in the main, aren't as well built.

I'm on my second electric smoker and love it. Brinkman

We also love our electric smoker, Elery keeps it in the garage and smokes something nearly every week.

I take the grates out and put them into my dishwasher, bottom rack. If I lean them over, they all fit in at once. We have the smoker sitting on a wheeled cart so we can haul it around and the cart sits on a cheap car floor mat, one of those hard plastic ones, so we just hose it off.

The drip pan gets dumped and put into the dishwasher along with the racks and they come out really well.

Ours is a Masterbuilt and the only problem we've had is that when it gets below zero, the digital temperature control doesn't like to work. Elery takes it off, brings it inside to warm up and then takes it back out and reinstalls it. he's smoked everything from salmon to pastrami, bacon, sausage, even duck. Pork ribs were great, but we haven't done brisket yet.

I think Chase has the same one.

Annie

Full disclosure: I am lazy. Big time. Anything that can help do a job with less elbow grease, I'm all for it.

One trick I've found that helps in cleaning your smoker is to get a big muck bucket like the one at the link. This one for $10 would be overkill; you can get them at discount stores for $5 or so. The bucket has to be wider than the diameter of the grills. Brinkmann smokers have grills that are about 16", IIRC, so a muck bucket like the one at the link would be more than adequate.

After you're done with the smoking, pour out the water pan and hose it off. Knock off any major crud on the grills and hose them off as well. Put the water pan in the bottom of the muck bucket. Put about a cup of washing soda in the pan, put the grills on top of the pan, and fill the bucket until the water covers the grills by an inch or so. You can aim the hose with some pressure at the washing soda to help it dissolve. (You can use any cleaning stuff you want, but plain old washing soda is cheap and very effective.) Let this stuff soak overnight. In the morning you really don't need much other than a hose to clean the grills; you might need a little elbow grease on a stubborn spot, but the washing soda has converted the grill grease to soap and the crud comes off pretty easily.

This even works if you don't get around to cleaning the grills for a few weeks. (Ask me how I know :)

Here is a link that might be useful: muck bucket

I forgot to mention--these electric smokers are great for cooking a huge amount of food. You can get six chickens cooking at once, and the advantage is that most of the work is done several hours before you serve the food. Once you plug it in, there's really nothing to do except check the water level in the pan every hour or so and maybe throw in some more wood chips. (In fact, the less you mess with it, the better.) So if you're having guests, you can concentrate on last minute stuff knowing that your main dish is being cooked without any last minute drama.

And some days I'll smoke six chickens just for the DW and I. They freeze beautifully. Put one in a ziplock bag, use a straw to suck out most of the air, and freeze it. When you want to serve it, you can take it out of the freezer, open the bag and put in a couple of ounces of water or white wine, and nuke it until thawed and hot.

One other thing: the efficiency of the heating element is greatly impaired by an extension cord, so try to situate the smoker near an outlet so that you don't need to use an extension.

I swear I am not a rep of this company, but everytime somebody brings up smokers I have to recommend a Traeger grill. It roasts, barbeques, smokes and bakes. My propane stainless steel grill has been sitting collecting dust/dirt for 4 years now. Traeger has a few different models and the two smallest are pretty affordable (more than a Brinkman type smoker but well worth the $$$).

Duane

OMG, if I smoked 6 chickens, it would take 2 months to use them! Anyway, thanks all for the encouragement. There is an outlet mall north of us in St. Augustine and they have a big outdoor sports/hunting store (name escapes me!) up there too. Hubs agreed to go there next time we visit St. Augustine for shrimp at our favorite place. I thought it would be good to add a smoker in the event of a hurricane, however, if the stove doesn't work because of no electricity, the smoker wouldn't either. But I do have a habit of cooking stuff out of the freezer if it looks like we'll have a problem during THE season, hurricane season, that is.

I'll print out this thread and take it with me. Thanks to each and every one of you.

Please keep the east coast of FL in your prayers. We don't need to get any of that leaked oil!

You can get a smoker which runs on charcoal; some of them are not very expensive (Lowe's has one for $59). Charcoal is a little more finicky to deal with than electricity, but the resultant flavor in the meat is superb. The real advantage to the electric ones is that, to steal Ron Popeil's phrase, you 'set it and forget it'. (Well, almost.) Both types of smoker are capable of cooking really good food, and lots of it.

One trick in using a smoker: use the top grill for fatty stuff and the bottom grill for leaner stuff. A pork roast or ribs up above, chickens or a turkey down below. The fat from the upper items bastes the lower items as it is rendered out.

My Cajun brother-in-law swears by his Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, but that item runs around $300.

Beachlily, If you want to smoke 6 chickens go ahead do it; just call me and we will drive up for dinner. I'll bring some sides.

We have a 4-rack Masterbuilt that I *think* is the same as Annie's. It hasn't been bad to clean because, again like Annie, we put the racks, pans, etc. in the D/W. :) We've not had any leakage out the bottom.

/tricia

The only times I get any leakage are 1) when I do a full load of home made sausage...I use two racks and suspend the links using some stainless S hooks...sometimes the drippings from them miss the drip pan and pool up in the bottom and a bit drips out.
Or, b) when its full of heavier stuff and I'm sliding a rack out to grab whatever to turn or flip it.

And III) when its a long run in the smoker and I've been up for a while and consuming the type of Nodoze that comes in brown bottles...then the smoker seems to leak. In fact, under those conditions it sometimes leaks all across the deck and all across the kitchen floor!

We are not sure how to fix all that...I think we need more smokers and maybe a motorcycle and my wife thinks I'm 12 years old.

I've owned and used many different types of BBQ and smoker equipment over the years. Hands down the best I have ever owned is one called Smokin Tex. It is a heavy duty electric smoker made out of all stainless steel....even the racks. This type of smoker is designed to produce real PIT TYPE barbeque.....as you cook "low and slow" at 225 degrees F. You do not need a water pan and only use one or two small pieces of wood (the size of a chicken egg in its smoke box). Because you cook at a low temperature....it is impossilbe for food to char onto the cooking grills. Accordingly, they are very easy to clean in a dishwasher or by hand. It is IMPOSSIBLE to produce bad pit style BBQ in this smoker. Every thing comes out perfect......each and every time......with absolutely no attention needed for either the food or the smoker.

I cooked a 10 pound brisket in my smoker the day before yesterday. Here is the proceure.......just before cooking, season the brisket with a heavy coating of Tony Chacherie's More Spice cajun seasoning (it has less salt in it). Place two small pieces of APPLE wood into the smoker box. Cover the smoker box and the smoker bottom with foil for easy cleaning. Place the brisket in the smoker and insert a thermometer. Set the smoker thermostat to 225 degrees F. Remove the Brisket when the meat temperature reaches 190.....about 9 hours. You do not have to turn or watch the meat. It is truly set it and forget it. The brisket is very tender and to die for good. It is absoultely IMPOSSIBLE to mess up. Same can be said about chicken, ribs, vegetables, and seafood.

One note of caution....because the food is cooked at such a low temperature for a long period of time, the fat undergoes a "special" chemical reaction where it gets a wonderful sweet flavor to it that is hard to resist eating. (I'm a chemist so I pay attention to food chemical reactions.) Hamburgers do not shrink when cooked in this smoker and one does not have to cook with smoke. Just don't add any wood. Also, this type smoker makes a great FOOD WARMER..... We Cajuns love to party hard and my smoker comes in real handy as a warmer when we "Laissez les bons temps rouler!! (Let the good times roll.)

Again, cleanup is a cinch with this type smoker.....because cooking at a low temperatue simply does not allow the food to bake onto the racks!! I 100% guarantee that you will love this type smoker. My son has an electric Masterbuilt smoker that works on the same principle. It does produce excellent BBQ; however, it is nowhere near as durable or well insulated as the Smokin Tex. Being well insulated allows for cooking in this smoker even in the coldest weather....that is an important plus for me when I want to make me a batch of jerky in the winter. I'm into cold smoking too......absoultely love to smoke all types of cheese in it. Lightly smoked mac and cheese is so good!!

I can asssure you that this is not SPAM. I usually hang out on the GW fig forum.....but I really LOVE to cook too. I've attached a link below so that you can see the smoker that I use. I purchaseed a nice cart and many other accessories for mine. These low temperature bbq smokers come in various sizes. There is usually another all stainless steel electric smoker for sale on eBay that is much cheaper than the Smokin Tex and looks very similar to this one. I did not see it in my current search. If interested in this type product be sure to check out other sales sites. Tell your husband that he will produce THE BEST BBQ in town with this type smoker........no joke.

Here is a link that might be useful: All Stainless Electric Smoker