Feelin' dirty

With wife and son gone, I've got about 10 useful hours to get stuff done around the house. I wanted to give the Summit a good cleaning, after receiving some Hot & Foamy cleaner. It works pretty well, but you definitely don't want to breathe the stuff. A simple wipedown with a vinegar/water solution cleaned everything up.

Here's the starting mess after I cleaned the grates.

I covered the burner tubes with the wide version of tin foil that fits perfectly front to back, which I thought was actually pretty smart of me.

After maybe 45 minutes total, it doesn't look half bad. I have some other product that would really get the grates clean, but I would need to let them soak in boiling water, and I don't have anything large enough to hold them.

I'm now soaking some wood chunks for the attempt at tri tip. I'm debating using the Smokenator or not, but since it's not even 11am, I can try smoking it and if it doesn't finish for lunch, then it's on until dinner. I'm just afraid that the Smokenator doesn't allow the rub to char any because it keeps the temp so low, but I'll try to keep it around 250 this time. I also just cleaned the Performer, and I'm still amazed at how little charcoal I used for that 7-hour first attempt at ribs last weekend. It'll at least pay for itself that way...

Oddly, more laundry beckons...