Smoke Hollow 44241G2 Owners

It turned out OK, after almost 8 hours I pulled out the hens and butt.  They had alright smoke on them, but the outsides of them were "blackened" by the excessive heat flare ups early on, which very well could have been the paint/powder coat coming out of the fire box.  I have one damper now that is inoperable because of excessive heat.  The hen were 3 pounds a piece and the butt was 5.  The butt was still bleeding at the blade so I wrapped it in foil and cooked it kahlua pork style in my oven.  There is not an upper damper, I have a smoke stack and wrapped it in foil for the first three hours or so, did not seem to make a difference.  What I have found is that the amount of water in the tray make a huge difference in the cooking.  As it evaporated the heat got more intense, the design of this unit has the water tray also double as a drip tray, it covers the entire bottom portion of the cook box totally covering the fire box.  

I also found that anything above low on the burners would just set the chips afire unless I had the dampers 90% closed.  That maybe a product of the venturi's not being correctly set.  It is a cheap chinese made smoker and I think I may go locally and have someone build me what I want.  Will cost a heck of a lot more however after spending 20+ years as Chef/cook it is very hard to use cheaply made cooking equipment.  

Things I like are the size of the smoker, the food trays are almost large enough to accommodate full size sheet pans, so I can fit almost anything I want to smoke in this thing, and can cater parties to about 75 people easily if it heated correctly.

I kind of like the drip/water tray design because there's not excessive mess below the smoker.

The things I don't like about it are the thin gauged single ply cook box sheet metal that was only painted in a normal manner, not really very good for outdoor use.  The QC on these units is so poor I question the company who designed and had them made in the PRC.  To put these things on the market as they are, they should be ashamed of themselves.  I have had this for a couple of weeks and have had it covered since I bought it.  The door latches are cheap, and have started to rust.  The gas tubes they say are stainless have rusted (if they are stainless they are the lowest grade stainless I have ever seen).  The gas tubes should be something else they will not last two years, maybe one. The chip boxes have warped, I will replace them with some heavier loaf pans.  There really is no way currently to feather the temp.  For a gas unit I was hoping for "set it and forget it", it's the reason why I chose gas over charcoal.  

Today I am going to tear it all apart and try to get this thing adjusted, later this afternoon I will give it one more shot before I decide if I totally wasted money on it and donate it.

Yeah I have called them and talked to someone who said "adjust the venturi".  It's spot welded in place.  At this point I am on my third smoke with it.  The down side to this particular smoker is both a blessing and a curse.  It's the water pan design and the burners.  Putting "grill style" burners on this was a mistake.  Putting a water pan that covers the entire firebox helps because it catches all the debris, but also blocks so much of the heat it is hard to get it just right.  I have yet to get mine above 200, however it has definite hot spots, so you need to choose where you place stuff carefully.

Funny thing is the thermometer that came on mine is dead on accurate.  I have put it in boiling water it reads correct, put it in my oven today as a second test with an over thermometer both the same.

My last attempt to contact them was through email sending pictures of the unit and the damage caused by the firebox burners etc..  The email failed so I sent them another one asking for a replacement smoker or my money back.  Have yet to hear anything from them.  If I do and they honor there warranty I will update this to reflect so.  If not I will certainly make sure I put up a very detailed critique including numerous pictures on every smoking website known to man, and curb this thing to the trash.

Love the design, the engineering needs some improvement, as does the communications from there staff.

Still not happy with it. I spent the majority of my life cooking and I have never dealt with a piece of equipment more poorly implemented than this.  I wish I was a fabricator cause I know exactly what I would build.  I know it's only $300 but the non responsiveness from OLP in inexcusable.  And I don't think that I should have to make a bunch of changes to make it work correctly. I love the concept and the design of this smoke box but there is inadequate ventilation for the heat to get into the smoke chamber.  I like the idea of the water pan the way it is because it really keeps messes down by acting as a drip pan as well and covers the entire bottom.

To date I have smoked in this thing four times and have gone through a bottle and a half of propane.  My last smoke I played with it some more to try and tune it in.  What I found is the water pan (if your using the one provided) plays more of a role in the smoke chambers temp than anything else.  At half full of steaming hot water I can get the smoke chamber to 220-230 with the fuel set just at about halfway to full on.  Anything higher than that and you are just burning wood chips.  The problem with the water pan is you have to tend it every thirty minutes at this level, and that totally negates the reason why I went gas.  The only way I have found that I can get a true temp anywhere I want it inside the box is by leaving the water pan empty.  I never had intentions of using a dry smoker.

All of my meats have turned out well except the one where OLP told me to close off the chimney if your not getting enough heat.  Go figure, they don't know how to build a smoker and they sure as in the hell don't know how to cook on one either.  My right side burner cooks about 30% hotter than the left.  It's hard to adjust for this, except to open that thing up every few hours and play musical meats. Which makes me wonder if I could use a disposable aluminum pan inside the water pan to hold the water then there might be enough coverage of heat for the box itself.  I have a friend sending me a couple of wool blankets that are going to the dumpster.  I am going to cut them to fit over the smoker using the stack as the anchor point and some straps to keep them in place, cutting off the excess so they are not down in the firebox area.  I hear f people using all kinds of things like welding blankets, water heater blankets etc.. Wool blankets are better, they don't really burn at all, and they keep the heat in even if they get wet.

All in all I am not happy with it, am trying to overcome it's flaws and learn how to deal with a POS smoker.  I have need to call them again and ask them to send me a new lower unit to this thing.

Making Pastrami tomorrow, it's all prepped and ready to go, plan to do these in pans so I can skip the braising step at the end.

After starting it this morning and having both chip pans catch fire.  I can safely say that this one will be donated to Waste Connections this coming friday. Mine, perhaps not all, is a total piece of garbage.  It maybe the regulator but my issues are not from not getting enough fuel, the burners on mine cook with a huge yellow flame on the end where the holes in the burners go across the top and the rest of the holes all have nice blue flame from them.  So what ends up happening is the chip pans catch fire every single time I go to use this thing.

I am so done with thing its not even funny.

1finder the difference between the two smokers is night and day.  I looked at one of those at Gander Mountain before settling on the one I got.  This 44" model has two gas grill burners in it, whereas your model I believe had a cast brass or cast iron round burner much like what is used on a normal gas stove cook top.  Also I don't believe that on the 41" model that it has a water pan that 100% blocks the heat path from the burner to the smoke chamber.

I can turn the heat up all I want on mine but as soon as you ad load to the water pan it diminishes greatly.  Running it dry I can regulate the smoke chamber to pinpoint accuracy from the fuel dials. I guess you would have to see it in person to totally understand.

Guess I am a little jaded after giving these people my money, calling them up for help.  Sending them a few emails for help and getting no action on there end at all.  Having one day off a week and forgetting to call them on that day has delayed me on it as well.  Honestly it would be easier to pitch this thing and buy one that was made right to begin with than to keep plugging money into fuel, wood and food.

Tomorrow is my first weekday off in 2.5 months.  Plan to get ahold of someone at OLP about this smoker, will update as things develop.

Thanks for the help and the info.  I was able to call OLP today and get some help.  Took new pictures of the smoker and emailed them in for review.  At a minimum I want them to replace the parts that are warped/paint peeling and rusted.  

I was told that the chip pan holders that are installed impede the heat from cook box by there angled down flanges on the sides.  I was also advised to only load one chip at a time allowing more heat to penetrate the water pan and the cook box.

Maybe it's just me but when I buy a piece of equipment I expect it to deliver what it's intended function is without having to modify it.  If something special needs to be done to get it function correctly then that should be outlined in the information manual provided as well.  Anything past that and I know I am on my own.

Love the idea behind this smoker, now waiting to hear back from OLP on what they are going to do to help me.  At this juncture I am still ready to throw the towel in on this unit, but with proper support (and either a replacement unit or parts) I will update accordingly.

I know where your at with that.  I was looking on Craigslist at smokers and saw one locally for $1400 that was perfect, just too big for my driveway.  Well not to big if I could get my wife to park in the street.  I wish i had a friend who was a fabricator and welder cause I know exactly what I would have them build.  

When I first saw this unit I fell in love with the design and the fact that I could cater parties with it.  The disappointment I have had with it so far can not be expressed enough.  Talking with the OLP rep today he stated that they cooked 12 racks of ribs in one these last week and held temps in the 275 range.  Certainly they were not cooking on the same exact model I am using.  There is no way on Gods green earth for this thing to get that hot as it is intended to be setup.  

I have had some good smokes from this unit, don't own a large propane tank so at roughly $20 for 15-17 pounds of propane I have used 4 full bottles to date on about 6 smokes.  Plus the cost of the food, only had one bad turn out.  OLP on my first phone call to them said to cover the top vent if I wasn't getting enough heat in the cook box.  Well I did that and wouldn't you know it all the product inside was creosote covered, it was a total waste of about $60 worth of meat.

I am not into electric units and if I were it wood be a pellet grill.  

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I can try that with the water pan, how much do you fill the pan? half, full?  With this design of smoker and sand in the water pan I think that skipping the water all together is what would end up working.

Aland, funny on the 12 racks of ribs that they were smoking at 275.  I hardly think that it was coincidence, I think that is a "standard" answer that Mr. Lind gives out.