BGE maintenance: Fresh lump, burning out after L&S, etc?

Before each cook, I sit my Kick Ash Basket in a plastic bag-lined trash can and give it a good shake. Then I put the KAB back in to the Egg and load with more than enough lump for the next cook. Using the ash tool, I remove the ash from the base when the level is about 2 inches from the bottom of the cast iron grate. (Yes, I sit the KAB on the cast iron fire grate. Some people do. Some people don't.) Before KAB I used the ash tool to stir the unburnt lump so the ash would fall through the lower grate.

I did a clean burn early in my BGE journey. The result was a clean interior and warped bands. One and done on clean burn. Cooking pizzas, reverse sear steaks, or whatever @ 550 - 600  degrees is enough to take care of the buildup from low & slow cooks.

I don't put liquid in the drip pan, so I can't help you on that one, other than suggest you don't do it.

If you are consistently cooking meat in your egg, why would you ever do a clean burn?

That build up of grease is going to give your meat more flavor. Think of it this way, those BBQ joints that use a pit, do they ever clean them out? Nope. Do they ever replace their pits? Does Franklin BBQ say "Like, we could be so much better if these were brand new"? Ahhh no. 

A lot goes into great BBQ. But you can take two identical cuts of meat, two equal portions of ingredients, and two chefs of fairly equal skills; and end up with two meals that taste different from one another. So what is so different? The ovens they use.

Foghorn said:

Actually, Aaron Franklin (or an employee) cleans his pits every Sunday after the last meat comes off. They are closed on Mondays.  He seasons the pits with brisket fat.  Here’s a pic. 

That doesn’t make what @bobroo incorrect with regard to the BGE.  Routine clean burning is not needed.  

Some people do like to burn off some pork grease or other fatty buildup before poultry cooks in particular, but you don’t have to go nuclear to do it.  Around 500 degrees for an hour should do it - without messing up bands or gaskets.  

Dude's got some serious spidey-skills!  I would think the fat would just run out onto those funny boards on the floor.

For a long low and slow if I have guests and I want to be sure to not mess it up, I remove all the charcoal, clean the ash in the egg, add new charcoal and then add the older charcoal (smaller pieces) on top.  All this to make sure I have good airflow.

I usually clean my drip pan too (remove old foil and add new one).

I typically do a clean burn every other year prior to replacing my gaskets but not always, only if it is excessively dirty to avoid messing up the deck.

You can see that my egg is well seasoned and I don’t think that it changes anything to the taste of the cook.

Agree with the advice given- 

I’ll say after I cook wings or something fatty raised direct, the coals are coated in chicken grease and that can take a while to burn off on the next cook. If I’m doing a longer slower cook next, I’ve loaded fresh lump since I don’t want to get to 400 to burn it off.