1st time smoker - temp problems with my Brinkman Smoke N Grill

[legacyofbob]

Hi, Go to  yotube, look up videos on your brinkman smoker. A lot of great mods. I totally tricked mine out.

The best mods. I put in weber vents in, got them on line. I have 2 extra if you need them.

I use a wood stove rope liner around the top to fill in the gap , it seals well. I have also used aluminum foil

I drilled holes in the wood pan and put a grate in the bottem to get better air flow, A must ! 

I also drilled holes in the top and side to slide in my temp guage so I dont need to open the top.

I made handles out of u bolts to put on the 2 grilling grates

I put aluminum foil over the water bowl, less mess to deal with.

last but not least I mounted the legs on the out side, I set my wood pan a some 1 inch paving block

when I add wood I just lift the smoker right off and add wood and set it back back over the fire.

Good luck , Tom from Maine

Where can you find the Weber/whoever vents online for purchase?

 

[womburgernommie]

Without reading the entire thread (sorry don't have time for a few more days), until you actually get a real temp gauge in your smoker, you literally have no idea what temp your really at.

ECB Gauges are absolutely notorious for being anywhere from 10-100 degrees off. IE if you were at 200, you could have been anywhere from 210-300f easily.

I really wouldn't do any of the mods until you get a gauge. The one thing I don't like to see, which I do, is everyone recommending mods that should be done after you actually have an idea of what temp you really are cooking at. IE, no point in sealing it up, getting latches, pans, grates etc until you have a general idea of where it really performs at.

You might be surprised just by installing a legit gauge at where it's really at. The gauge was my very first mod, and I went from there on my smoker. Just take baby steps, or you will be spending more money on things that aren't needed if it turns out your actually burning too hot to begin with.

Anyways just my 2 cents. =] Always take opinions as a grain of salt though. Most of us have learned from trial and error anyways =]

For some examples :

The expensive... BUT IMO penny for penny... the best around, unless you really want to shell out some dough. Best thing yet... this gauge will last near a lifetime, and you can change from q to q with ease. Just hope you have a big enough drill bit to mount it =]


The cheaper alternative... for the times when you really don't know if this ordeal is truly for you. Or, if you require 2 gauges, one for the heating portion and one for the cooking portion, this really makes sense.


I prefer to stay away from those digital gimmicky things, unless it's for checking meat temp. Many of us don't care if it's raining or sleeting, or snowing, or a warm -10/20f outside. Digital gauges just won't cut it if you want to q in such temps or weather environments (even if they claim to be waterproof... because after all, how many people run a 300$ digi gauge to check smoker temp and not primarily meat temp =] )

 

[schmitzmoke]

Craigroller,,,

I don't remember the total cost for just the expanded, it was reasonable. Don't get the "Heavy Duty" stuff because it would be to hard to bend. I have enough left over to replace the basket if needed. I bought lots of different materials all cut to size for other projects that I was working on. I was lucky enough to pick the material up at their Tampa warehouse to save big the shipping. They have warehouses all accross the US.

If they cut items down to certain size's they can then ship it UPS instead of freight. Good luck!

 

[craigroller]

Thanks

 

[pastorgadget]

Where can you find the Weber/whoever vents online for purchase?

I also want to know where to get the vents. Been looking but no luck?

 

[tony 292]

Seen and used the tips you gave, what a better way to use my smoker. Love the taking the legs off. That it much much ez'er and works sooooooo much better in every way. Thanks friend. Did a 2nd Boston butt, now where near the time or trouble.

                                                                                        Levi/TP

 

[farmall1342]

I have Brinkman Smoke and Grill just like that. What worked best for me was Cabelas sells an electric conversion for it. Keeps my smoker at 230 consistantly no matter what. I also removed the legs completely because the wyoming wind kept cooling it down

 

[mike65]

Chuck,

When you place the lid on your ECB, is there a gap between the drum and lid ?   I have found out with my ECB I lose ALOT of heat there. I did a 8.3 lb Pork Butt and took 11.5 hours in the smoker using 8 lbs of charcoal and had to finish the Pork Butt in the oven since the ECB would not come up to temp.

 

[mike65]

I have thought about using this propane griddle along with the charcoal pan to keep the temp at a constant 220-230 degrees.  What do you think will happen if this is used ?

42211_CIstove.jpg

• mike65
• Jun 2, 2013

 

[mike65]

I have a ECB also. What grate are you using in the charcoal pan ?

 

[flash]

I have thought about using this propane griddle along with the charcoal pan to keep the temp at a constant 220-230 degrees.  What do you think will happen if this is used ?

42211_CIstove.jpg

• mike65
• Jun 2, 2013

That is how I converted my Great Outdoor Smokey Mountain Charcoal smoker to Propane. Working great.

 

[farmer 3691]

i never thought of the sand, im gonna try it, 

 

[flash]

i never thought of the sand, im gonna try it, 

Sand is great a very helpful in colder weather. You will see higher and more constant temps with playbox sand. Remember the foil over the top so it doesn't get grease spatters. You can dampen it then for another use or two.

 

[soonerfan1]

Newbie here. I received a brinkman smoke n grill a couple weeks ago, got online started finding all these mods to make to it for it to smoke right, so that's what I started to do. I did all the mods that were shown, holes in the lid with a damper, holes in bottom of coal pan with damper and a small grate to keep the coals off bottom, added legs to my coal pan to raise it off the ground, put legs on the outside, and added a couple thermometers with actual numbers on it. Took me about 1 hour and $25 to do all the things I wanted to right now with the help of my stepdad. So this morning sep.1 2013 I decided before I was going to smoke any meat I would do a test run and season it at the same time, "so glad I did this" I loaded up my charcoal pan the minion method, started about 1/2 load in my weber chimney starter waited till they started ashing over, poured the lit coals into the pan spread it around a little bit put body over coals put water in pan put lid on and within a few minutes my bottom temp jumped up to 425' with my top temp over 350', so I closed all vents and it still wouldn't go down. so what I did is take body off the coal pan and dumped 2/3 of the coal back into my weber chimney starter, to where I only had enough coals to cover the bottm of the pan, put body back on with lid and now it's running 225-235 for over 3 hours top and bottom temps. My conclusion is this for my brinkman, might not work with others: only put enough lit coals in pan til temp gets where you want it top and bottom if your using both grates to cook on this won't take long,"bottom temp will run a little higher than top" add coals a few at a time for a consistence temp. It's been 3 hours running at 225-235 with the fire being stoked once to get some of the ash out of the bottom and a few briquettes added with all vents closed. Very impressed with this little cheapo smoker so far.

 

[bobank03]

Newbie here. I received a brinkman smoke n grill a couple weeks ago, got online started finding all these mods to make to it for it to smoke right, so that's what I started to do. I did all the mods that were shown, holes in the lid with a damper, holes in bottom of coal pan with damper and a small grate to keep the coals off bottom, added legs to my coal pan to raise it off the ground, put legs on the outside, and added a couple thermometers with actual numbers on it. Took me about 1 hour and $25 to do all the things I wanted to right now with the help of my stepdad. So this morning sep.1 2013 I decided before I was going to smoke any meat I would do a test run and season it at the same time, "so glad I did this" I loaded up my charcoal pan the minion method, started about 1/2 load in my weber chimney starter waited till they started ashing over, poured the lit coals into the pan spread it around a little bit put body over coals put water in pan put lid on and within a few minutes my bottom temp jumped up to 425' with my top temp over 350', so I closed all vents and it still wouldn't go down. so what I did is take body off the coal pan and dumped 2/3 of the coal back into my weber chimney starter, to where I only had enough coals to cover the bottm of the pan, put body back on with lid and now it's running 225-235 for over 3 hours top and bottom temps. My conclusion is this for my brinkman, might not work with others: only put enough lit coals in pan til temp gets where you want it top and bottom if your using both grates to cook on this won't take long,"bottom temp will run a little higher than top" add coals a few at a time for a consistence temp. It's been 3 hours running at 225-235 with the fire being stoked once to get some of the ash out of the bottom and a few briquettes added with all vents closed. Very impressed with this little cheapo smoker so far.

Sounds like solid advice, nothing makes it get too hot faster than too much in the charcoal pan. You can always add more during the cook if you need them. Sent you a PM. 

 

[chadthedrummer7]

I'm new to the forum. Thank you all so much for the info. I already attempted smoking yesterday before I read any of this, and yeah- 220 is about as high as I could get. Great information! Thank you all. My question is does anyone have a good place to get the bottom grate? I can get everything else but didn't read anyone post something on where or the actual round dimension size I need. Your reply will be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Smoke it up!:grilling_smilie:

 

[whiskeyboyz]

1st it will use more charcoal to get the temp up. I have an offset just like this . Use lump charcoal, it burns hotter and produces less ash. Once your ribs are placed bone side down, no need to turn them. let them cook for an hour and a half with your temp at 275-300 without raising the lid - "If your Lookin, you ain't cookin" We spritz our down with a mixture of bourbon and apple juice. let go another hour and a half. - Spritz down and double wrap in foil. place back on grill for another hour. unwrap and test  if you pick the rack up in the middle and they break aprt, they are done. REMEMBER: on that smoker place your ribs far to the right end of the smoke chamber - fat end toward the fire box.  When done, check out www.kickassbbqsouth.com and sign up for a class. I also sell heat baffles for offsets which help control the temp between the left and right side of the smoke chamber.

 

[bobank03]

I'm new to the forum. Thank you all so much for the info. I already attempted smoking yesterday before I read any of this, and yeah- 220 is about as high as I could get. Great information! Thank you all. My question is does anyone have a good place to get the bottom grate? I can get everything else but didn't read anyone post something on where or the actual round dimension size I need. Your reply will be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Smoke it up!

I got mine on Amazon.com it was a "Weber 7439 Replacement Charcoal Grate" I bought two of them and turned them cross-ways to each other so that the gaps would be smaller. The actual size of the grates are 10.5 inches across so anything close to that should work fine. 

I believe I have seen these grates in the local true Value as well as Home Depot and Lowes. Hope that helps? 

(PS Add your location to your profile so we know where you are from) 

 

[chadthedrummer7]

Thank you bobank03! Just got all my mods from Amazon:




DONE! Thanks JimF for all the mod ideas.

 

[leovg]

Turns out that the first year of the smoke n grill it did have holes in the charcoal pan. A few morons used it on their decks, started them on fire (1 actually burned their house down) then sued Brinkmann. Brinkmann's solution was to eliminate the holes in the pan. Their lawyers noted that if the consumer drilled holes in the pan they assumed the liability for hot materials falling out of them.