New Member

[ranger1sg]

Just got a  master forge charcoal smoker for my birthday in Feb.  Have used it twice.  once to make some jerk and another to smoke a chicken.  Had a few problem with it on the chicken, mainly that i could not keep the temp up to where it need to be.  My have found some of the problems just by reading on here

 

[venture]

Welcome aboard!

Hope you are using probe therms?  Stock therms on smokers have a bad rep for being inaccurate.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[rookiesmoker18]

Welcome!!!!!   Sure if you ask around on here some will have the answer for your temp issue.

 

[ranger1sg]

That is one of the things that I have already read on here, thank for the advice.

 

[alblancher]

Not sure where you are on your research but best advice I have found is do chicken around 300 to get crisper skin..  Remember, exhaust fully open, control the fire with the firebox dampers.  

Leave the firebox vents fully open until the fire is well lit and your smoke chamber is maybe 350 degrees.   Load the smoker and let the smoke chamber temps even out.  Close down the firebox dampers to bring your smoke chamber temps to 300.

One advantage of a charcoal burner is that they burn pretty clean.

Welcome to the forum,  glad you decided to join us

 

[ranger1sg]

alblancher That seems to be a big problems as there are no vents or damper on this model.  I know that they can be made but I am by no means a very hand man in these area.

 

[alblancher]

Is it the bullet type smoker with water pan?  You build a fire in the bottom,  then the water pan goes on and then the grates?   And you are sure they don't have a little butter fly valve on the bottom of the smoker.  Does it have a door access to the fire pan?

 

[ranger1sg]

Yes, it is a bullet type with a water pan.  The bottom only has a hole in the center of it.  There is a side door that you can use to access the water pan and with care the fire pan.

 

[bama bbq]

No bottom vents means no control.  You either have to have vents or you're at the mercy of whatever temp the thing wants to burn at.  You simply have to add them if there are none.

 

[alblancher]

Yea, I'll have to check my Brinkmans   I just don't remember if they are baffled or not.  You do need to find a way to control the amount of air entering the fire pan area.  Maybe someone with your smoker will jump in with more experienced advice for that smoker

 

[ranger1sg]

Thanks for the advice, will have to find a way to do some mods to it.

 

[jrod62]

:welcome1: TO SMF

 

[diggingdogfarm]

Welcome!

 

[ranger1sg]

I have been doing some playing around with my smoker this morning and I have found out the the temp does indeed run around 40 degree hotter then the gauge says.  I do have a probe therm that I will use from now on the check the temps in the smoker.  Also was playing around with closing off the hole in the bottom of the smoker to control the airflow,  that does seem to help some.  I just need to figure out how much and and a good way to control it.

 

[scarbelly]

Hello and 

to SMF 

 

[tyotrain]

Welcome to SMF it's nice to have you. Lots to learn here and great people as well.


Have fun and happy smoking

 

[sprky]

 to SMF . You have come to the right place for smoking info. This site is loaded with great info just use the search bar at top of page to find what you are looking for. If you can't locate the answer just ask folks here are willing to share there knowledge. I suggest you take  the 5 day e-course on smoking its chuck full of great info. Smoking  5-Day e-Course