Dealing with ash after boiling

Does anybody have one of those basic turkey frier kits that they use for the boil? I've used mine a few times, love it, but having the bottom of the kettle completely covered in ash is a major pain. I don't have a wort chiller yet , so I go with the ice bath, but the ash gets everywhere and I'm soft scrubbing my sink for days. Any ideas on how to clean it off without having to sand blast my sink? And I live in Wisconsin, so doing too much outside is a bit chilly right now.

Get a big plastic tub. Put ice and water in it, and stick it outside in your chilly Wisconsin air. Do your ice bath outside, and the cold air will help the process of chilling. The plastic tub will help with the cleaning.. I did this tuesday night. I even had a little snow to put the plastic tub on top of to help even more. Wort chilled in 17 mins...

By 'ash', I'm assuming you mean the nice thick coating of black crap that takes an eternity to scrub off?

There's a problem with your flame. There should be an adjustment on there that will allow more air in. You should adjust it so that you have blue flames with an orange tip. Also, that burner should sound like like it's getting ready to take off. When you're through with your boil, there shouldn't be any soot on the bottom of your pot. As far as cleaning it up? Bar Keepers Friend should work fine.

What ash? I've used my turkey fryer 5 times now. I do fill almost to the brim to account for boil off and get some boil over, a sticky, gooey mess, but no ash that I have noticed. I do use a wort chiller. Copper tubing and vinyl hose from Home Depot.

Have you adjusted your flame. Turn the air baffle thing until you have as little orange at the tips of the flames as possible. Blue is good.

Ash, what ash? I don't have any. If you're getting excess blackening or soot, then something's wrong with your propane/air mixture. You need to open or close the little oxygen flue located where the propane hose connects with the burner. (It looks like a little silver fan.) You want a blue flame.

Yea, you've got to adjust your burner so you're not throwing tons of soot all over the place. Make sure your flames are blue, not orange (as little orange as possible). You'll use less gas and your kettle will be clean!

Ah, and that is why I put this in the noob section. Yeah, I've goofed with the air baffle? thing a few times, but I didn't see a difference in the flame. I guess I just have to look more carefully. Do you adjust with the pot on the flame or without? Honestly, I would have never thought of that.

Thanks for all the help!

If you're still having problems you can coat the bottom of your kettle with dish soap before using it.

Yellow flames and soot means you're running too rich: not enough air for the amount of fuel. Having the pot in place is good for optimizing the flame, but generally it shouldn't matter too much. Open up the air shutter so you have a decent blue flame, but not so much the flame is overly noisy or sputtering. If the flame is lifting off the burner and trying to to blow itself out, you've got too much air. If you've got the air wide open and still can't get a good flame, maybe you've got too much regulator for the burner. Try adjusting the flow to find the sweet spot. Its a bit of a balancing act.