Same problem. Really frustrating. Had a couple of traegars. Wanted something bigger and that would get hotter so opted for the PB 1150 Pro. Lowes already had assembled and not sure if they did a bad job but it leaks in several places. The worst though is the smoke stack drips on the shelf and the ash cleanout fills up with grease. The controller is nice (I think I have the newest one), but the grease everywhere (only half ends up in the grease bucket) has really turned me off from the brand. Thinking of making a traegar like drip tray for it.
All of the series with a sear plate will drip grease into the barrel if you cook a fatty piece of meat near or over the sear grate. I just cover that with some foil if I'm not going to sear anything that cook.
I have the 1150 and haven’t had much grease in the bottom of the barrel. I done prolly 6 pork shoulders, 4 chuck roasts, corned beef, 2 pork belly, a Turkey spatchcocked, a chicken spatchcocked and 10 racks of ribs. Grilled pork chops and ribeye steaks and hamburgers and hotdogs since june. I noticed that there is a gap between the barrel and the drip pan/ heat shield. I tend to keep the meat away from the edges and I clean it out after every time I cook on it. I noticed the bottom of the barrel gets a little tacky I just wipe it out with a paper towel and use a paint brush to get any pellet dust out of there through the fire pot clean out.
This is what I’ve done and it works fantastic. I use an oven liner tray from a local dollar store.
I know this is an old thread, but do you have a picture of the oven liner tray?
