Smoking start up help

How much charcoal are you using? Do you have any clearance under your pile of charcoal to allow the ash to fall and not choke the fire? Did your firebox come pre-installed or did you have to bold it on your smoking chamber yourself?

Also did you check the calibration of your thermometers. Most low end smokers use poor thermometers.

Not sure if your thermometer can unscrew but if it can boil some water and stick the end of the thermo into it the boiling and it should read 100°C or 212°F. Another guess could be the opening between your fire box and cooking chamber may be too small. If you could take some pictures it could help to figure out what could be the problem. You may consider building a charcoal basket for your horizontal smoker. The link below is a video on how to make a basket, the guy in the video is a member of these forums. One modification I would add to his basket would be legs in the form of four 3-4 inch bolts that have threads all the way down them. Grab 2 large flat washers for each bolt and a nut for each, slide one washer to the top of the bolt, drop the bolt through the bottom with the first washer sitting on the basket floor on the inside, then from underneath side the other washer up to the bottom of the basket and tighten the nut all the way. Do this on all 4 corners so that way your box will stand up enough for ash to fall underneath it. If this makes your basket too tall you can always loosen the nuts to lower it. I'd also try using the minion method with your fire, full the basket with unlit charcoal and only add about 12-15 fully lit coals to the top of the basket of unlit coals. This will slowly burn down for hours and hours.

Danger Mouse said:

The entire smoker had to be built by hand

Click to expand...

Was this a store bought smoker?? Sometimes with these store bought offsets people forget to knock out the piece of metal on the cooking chamber before bolting the firebox on. The piece to knock out looks like a football (an american football hahaha)

Danger Mouse said:

Hello,

I'm new to this here smoking game and could do with some advice as my first attempt hasn't gone well. I've got Jeff's e-course which I'm very grateful for and is very handy but I'm struggling with getting the smoker up to the right temperature.

I've got a Landmann Tennessee smoker. Granted it's been a very, very windy day in West Yorkshire which could explain a few things, but even allowing for that I think I'm doing something wrong. I put a scattering of charcoal, kindling & firelighters in the offset firebox and lit it but it never really got going. The temperature in the smoking chamber never really got above 150 degrees F. It occasionally shot up when I put extra kindling in that caught fire, but the charcoal itself never seemed to get hot enough to heat the chamber. I'm wondering if it's just rubbish charcoal?

The ventilation cover on the side of the fire box isn't the best (it's either open or closed...!) but either option didn't seem to make a difference to the temperature.

Any tips for this novice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Phil

Click to expand...

1st- the windy day will explain quite a bit actually, too much wind will limit temps, especially if your firebox intake vent is opposite the wind direction, if it is you can not get the proper draft to maintain your fire. The firebox air intake should always be facing the wind.

2nd- I don't believe you were using enough fuel to get the temps needed to cook with. From your post I gather that you do not have a charcoal chimney to use to start the charcoal burning before you put it in the firebox. I recommend that you start your fire with wood only before you add any charcoal. Once the fire is big enough then add the charcoal, you will have to wait until the chacoal is burning enough to maintain cooking temps. If you are using charcoal briquettes be warned that the ash that they create will limit the air supply to the fire as it builds up making it difficut to maintain cooking temps. Your other alternative is to use all wood, if you have a good supply, just make sure that you keep a small, hot fire.

3rd- don't worry too much about keeping a specific set temp, such as 225°F, but try to keep it within a target range, I like to shoot for 250°-280°F(120°- 140°C, if your therms are set for it) whether I am cooking with all wood or charcoal.