New to smoking in South West PA.

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

chartle

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 14, 2016
6
10
I kind of inherited a Brinkman COS. My wife and adult son go to Home Depot to get shipping supplies for my MIL's move. There they see the Smokers on sale and decide to buy one. This was about a year ago when HD was clearancing their stock when Brinkman went out of business because HD found someone cheaper to make their stuff. Its the smallest one that's also meant to be a grill so the entire top opens up. 



My son tries to smoke a brisket with it out of the box and 8 hours of "smoke", hours in the oven and hours in the slow cooker we get BBQ flavor wet tissue paper.
th_crybaby2.gif




Fast forward to the summer. My son is now off to start his life in Upstate NY as a engineer 7 hours away so the smoker is now mine. 



Here are the mods I have done.


  • Expanded metal fire basket
  • Added a smoke baffle and "tuning plate" out of foil used in those disposable foil cookware
  • Sealed up the main box best I could considering that there are 1/4" gaps all around with aluminum angle, flashing a high temp silicone. 
  • extended the chimney down to grate level.
  • removed the upper grate that's totally useless 
  • The most interesting is that I made up my own electronic controller using a PID from China and a bunch of other cobbled together parts. Its working better than I could imagine. Its holds the 225 to within a degree. A full load of regular briquettes gives me about 5 to 6 hours at that temp. 

My next concern is what I call Ash Management I can keep adding fuel but the ash builds up and chokes my air delivery system.



Going to smoke some peppers next time. Another project he left us.  
 
Last edited:
Chartle, welcome to SMF!  Sounds like you've got a great handle on managing the issues with the smoker.  About all you can do to help with the ash management is raise your fire so the ask can fall free. Definitely buys you time. 

Have fun!
 
Well I did bend up the grate under the coals which almost doubles the space. I also made a tray out of a cookie sheet that I thought i could slide out but just didnt work easily.

Thinking something like a trap door.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky