How To Clean A Traeger Grill: Step-By-Step Guide

In this guide, I'll show you step-by-step how to clean a Traeger grill.

We'll go over cleaning every part of your Traeger, including the:

• Grease trap & bucket
• Grill grates
• Drip tray
• Firepot
• Heat baffle
• And outside of your Traeger

I like to give my Traeger a good deep cleaning like this 1-2 times per year.

>>> Related: How To Use A Traeger Grill

Materials You'll Need

To clean your Traeger pellet grill, you'll want to have a handful of tools and materials to make the job easier:

• Paper towels (a lot of them)
• Traeger all-natural cleaner
• Traeger drip-tray liner
• Traeger mini grease liner bucket
• Grill brush
• Paint scraper
• BBQ gloves
• Microfiber cloth
• Shop-vac

Cleaning The Inside Of The Grill

Let's work our way from the inside of the grill first, and then we'll tackle the outside.

1. Cleaning the Grill Grates

Hopefully, you've been consistently cleaning your grill grates already, ideally after every time you cook. But just for good measure, we'll give them a good cleaning here too.

First, use your favorite grill brush (we used the Grill Rescue Brush) to wipe off any old food crust and debris.

Then, spray the grates generously with the Traeger all-natural cleaner, and wipe them good with paper towels. You may want to repeat the paper towel cleaning a few times.

Then, remove the grates and set them aside.

2. Cleaning the Grease Drip Tray

Next, we need to clean the grease drip tray.

Use a metal paint scraper to scrape away any extra grease and debris from the tray.

Then, hit the grease drip tray with a good blast of the Traeger all-natural cleaner, and get to work scrubbing it down with paper towels.

You'll want to repeat this process a couple of times, depending on how dirty your tray is.

Then, set your grease trip tray aside.

Note: I always make sure to have some aluminum foil covering the trip tray before every book, but it still manages to get dirty. 

So I just invested in the Traeger drip tray liner, which should do a really good job of collecting grease before it lands on your smoker.

3. Cleaning the Heat Baffle

Underneath the grease trip tray, you'll find the heat baffle.

Remove this from the grill, and clean in with the Traeger all-natural cleaner and paper towel. Then, set aside.

Of all the parts inside of my Traeger, this was probably the easiest part to clean.

4. Cleaning the Firepot

Next, on to the firepot, and the bottom inside of your smoker. This is where you're going to have the most ash.

The best way to clean this part is with a shop-vac. Fire it up, and vacuum all around—and inside of—the firepot.

I had a decent amount of ash buildup inside my Traeger 780, and it only took about a minute or two with my shop-vac to get it pretty clean.

Important: don't use any grill cleaner or liquid in the firepot.

Cleaning The Outside Of The Traeger

With the inside all cleaned up, it's time to move to the outside of the grill, which is much easier to clean!

1. Cleaning the Outside Surfaces

I used the Traeger all-natural cleaner to clean every part of the outside body of my 780 smoker.

First, make sure you've closed the grill door, and then hit the outside of it with some cleaner. 

Using a microfiber cloth, remove any noticeable grease stains. 

Repeat this process for the back of the grill door, the legs, the sides, and tray, if you have one.

2. Cleaning the Smoke Stack

I won't lie: the inside of the smoke stack was a giant pain to clean. It was really hard to get in there with a scraper and paper towel.

First, unscrew the chimney cap. Clean the inside with the Traeger cleaner, and a paper towel. 

Next, try your best to clean inside of the smoke stack. Scrape any buildup away with a paper towel, and then use another paper towel—with the all-natural cleaner—to clean inside of the smoke stack to remove any grease.

3. Cleaning the Grease Bucket

Finally, we're going to clean the grease bucket and grease drain.

First, remove the grease bucket and set it aside.

Then get a paper towel, and stick it up inside the grease drain. Wipe inside the drain well, removing any grease and debris.

Then, to clean the grease bucket, scrape it with your paint scraper, and then spray it liberally with the grease cleaner, and wipe with paper towels.

Final Steps

With all of your grill parts clean, it's time to put the pieces back together.

1. Replace the heat baffle.
2. Reinstall grease drip tray (with liner installed).
3. Replace the grill grates.
4. Replace the grease bucket (with liner installed).