Full Circle

DarkStar11

Well-known member
Messages
60
Grill(s) owned
  1. RT-680
When I discovered this forum a couple months ago, the first post I came across was in one of the mod threads with Mastertech59's wooden grease drain plug. Heck, I've been covering that thing with plastic sandwich bags held on with rubber bands for 7 years! That sorta works okay and there was never much run-off grease in the bag. But the wooden plug is such a simple and better-looking solution! Our dogs have crazy-good noses, so just the bucket hanging under the spout has never been an option. The next morning, I cut a piece of scrap wood and the ol' 680 got a drain plug. Love it!

A couple of days later, I stumble across a thread about scraping the drip pan. I've always foiled the drip pan - even wrapped it (tightly) over the edges! Something in my memory says that foiling was recommended by Rec Tec back then, but it's just as likely that my memory says that out of guilt for all the wasted foil over the years. Anyway, my 680 is strictly slow-and-lowish - never been above 325. Nothing is ever very burnt-on. Scraping is so much faster than the crazy-tight foiling I was doing prior! Heck, I'd been here a few days and y'all showed me two better ways of doing things!

After further reading, there was something else I realized. A lot of y'all may be much more diligent about prompt post-cook clean-up than I am. Yeah, I admit it. My RT sometimes-nearly-almost all-of-the-times sits around dirty until the next cook. That's usually no more than a couple of days, and if it will be then I clean it in between, but the remnants of that last cook are still sitting there for a day or two. Everything cleans up fine prior to the next cook and it's never caused an issue.

Since starting to use the wood drain plug, kicking foil, and continuing in my lackadaisical post-cook clean-up ways, there have been many cooks of bacon, sausages, chucks, and all the regularly-consumed pork & chicken parts. Just like normal. And then these 3 things all came together.

When I used to foil, even when tightly wrapped it would have some wrinkles. I reckon that helped keep old grease from draining off in between cooks. With an unscraped naked drip pan, the last cook keeps dripping down, especially with the high temperatures we get in N TX this time of year. The wood plug eventually absorbed enough Very Interesting Stuff and one of the dogs was like "Oh Hey! That's a bacon-beef-chicken-swine woodstick! YAY!!!" And then the plug was no more. Fortunately, she left a scrap of wood with the hook as evidence.

Despite how awesome of a solution the wood plug is, the crazy-nosed dogs aren't going anywhere and I'm confident that my post-cook laziness is not likely to change. I guess it's back to the rubber-banded sandwich bags for now.
 
ok. i am curious. I am not even sure what the original mod is for? What was the issue? And the solution? I just use mine as delivered with the Chinese food container in the drip bucket that gets tossed out every two months or so?
 
ok. i am curious. I am not even sure what the original mod is for? What was the issue? And the solution? I just use mine as delivered with the Chinese food container in the drip bucket that gets tossed out every two months or so?
The wooden plug was mainly to keep rodents out of the grills barrel. I like your idea repurposing of the Chinese food containers. I repurpose pickle jars and large sour cream containers and toss them out as necessary, I like that I can use the original containers covers to keep the dog and other animals out of the grease.
 
I knew the wood plug was primarily meant for keeping the smaller critters out, I just didn't consider grease soaking into the wood. Unfortunately, leaving a bucket hanging with or without a liner isn't an option for me. The truffle dogs discover it pretty darn quick (probably doesn't help that the 680 gets used in preparing lots of their treats). I have no idea why they leave the rubber-banded baggies alone. Anyway, I'm going to try out a different idea and will let y'all know how it goes regardless of outcome.
 
I picked up a 4-pack of 1.5" square vinyl end caps, and have been using one for about 2 weeks now. It's working great so far and the dogs haven't eaten it. I don't know if they would work on a newer grill since the bucket holder is a little different from the 680.
 

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