Air Problem

southern swine · Mar 25, 2015

I'm doing a practice run for Brisket in a new cooker now

golfpro2301 · Mar 25, 2015

Looking for vertical insulated cooker. I need large to go with the fridge as I am catering for 600+ this fall. I am pretty much settled on the vault. I can get all the metal for the vault for $350. I have the welder and grinders. Only need the chop saw and a way to cut the sheets. Figured I can build one for $1000. Plus I found a guy in MS that has one that is going to give me exact measurements from everything so it can be a perfect copy.

southern swine · Mar 29, 2015

If I come across something similar cheap I'll let you know. Let me know how your fridge does once you fix door. Good luck at next Competition and the following.

golfpro2301 · Mar 29, 2015

Did a cheap and easy fix for the door. Had a small piece of 1.5" tube laying around so I cut it into a 6" piece and welded it under the door. I have to lift it up about 1" and the door sits on it like a ledge. I removed all silicone and did the gasket again. Let is cure and then put a very large spot light in firebox. Couldnt see any light around the edges of the door so we are good to go. I was bored the other day so I decided to go see my buddies down at my local grill and gas store. I usually pick up John Henry rub from them to play around with. Started looking around at the outdoor kitchen stuff and decided it would be a good time to add a ceramic cooker to my arsenal. So I pick up my XL Egg tomorrow. Cant wait to play around with it.

Now my plan for the summer is dissasemble the fridge and throw away the fridge part. Use the inner shell to create the vault out of. The dimensions are very similar so I am just going to remove the whole back and macke it deeper then weld back together. So that will be my summer project.

golfpro2301 · Apr 2, 2015

So had a chance to test the fridge a little more today. After having an air tight firebox I wanted to see how efficient it is. I preheated like usual with weed burner. Temp after pre heating was 240*. Started half a chimney of coals. When I dumped coals in firebox the temp was at 230. Set the guru to 240 and it quickly came up to temp. It held this temp for roughly 3 hours without moving then it slowly started moving up. Went up to 252 and held there for a few hours then slowly started going up to 300. I looked in firebox and noticed that some of the charcoal that I originially dumped in was still lit and hadnt turned to ash. the rows going away from the original start still had a lot of coals going so I had about a 2ft string of coals going which caused the temp spike. I guess the coals are staying lit really long. I am wondering if I make smaller rows roughly two coals wide and two coals high it would be better. Any thoughts?

southern swine · Apr 7, 2015

I've been thinking about your fridge for a while. I think your temp spikes come from the way you light your coals. I cooked on my drum the other day, I light my coals the minion method once it runs for 3 hrs the temp stays at 250 once they all get light it goes to 275. That's when I damper it down it goes back down to 250. In my Liberty I got a charcoal basket that holds 20 lbs of coals I just light one end and let the coals light to one end. Same way minion method. Try to start yours that way.

golfpro2301 · Apr 7, 2015

I work put the coals in the firebox in the shape of an "n". I light the bottom right hand corner only and let it burn up and around the back of the basket then back down the other side. I have noticed that the coals stay lit forever. After the 3 hours the very first coals I dumped in to start it are still going. I am thinking of doing it in 6 inch areas where I put a handful of coals then run a single row of coals about 3 inches then do another handful. Almost how a pearl necklace would look. I had Guru hooked up whole time so even when fan wasnt going the temp would stay up. This was with no water in pan but going to try with water at the competition. Since I just got my XL BGE I am only going to use the fridge as my rib cooker so I only need to control it for 6 hours. Might be easier said than done with 80% chance of rain this SAT which I am not happy about.

southern swine · Apr 7, 2015

I wished we lived closer together I would lend you my Liberty Pit. Good luck on your Comp. I would cook Brisket on that fridge. 300 won't hurt Brisket.

southern swine · Apr 7, 2015

I got 8th at last cook out of 56 teams. I'm going to comp on the 17. We're cooking whole hog. We've been fighting a lot of wind. I had to upgrade 3 pits. I've got 3 comps month of May. I wish I was more help.

southern swine · Apr 7, 2015

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southern swine
Apr 7, 2015

southern swine · Apr 12, 2015

How did you do at Comp. Did it rain. Did fridge cook ribs?

southern swine · Apr 12, 2015

Did fridge do ok on ribs?

golfpro2301 · Apr 12, 2015

Comp was good. Poured down rain for a bit Friday night. Good thing I got my new 22FT friend in pic below. Only hickup was the firebox door on the fridge decided to fall off in the middle of the night so my fridge turned into an open pit cooker. I took 2nd in chicken which I am thrilled. Its the one category I havent won anything in yet. Ribs were great but a little too done. Due to the open pit temp ran a little hot and thru my times off a little. I am tearing the fridge a part and turning it into a backwoods style. Also going to look into trading my memphis in for a gravity feed.

southern swine · Apr 15, 2015

Good job on the Chicken. Your new trailer was worth every penny. Chicken is one of the hardest category to cook.

golfpro2301 · Apr 16, 2015

So today was a sad day. The fridge has been retired as it has gone thru to many rebuilds and the skin was shot. A lot of blood, sweat, and $$$ was poured into that thing but oh well. Time to re-think what I am going to do and it took me all of about 2 hours to find a Pitmaker Vault for sale in Orlando. I will be heading down Tues and bringing home a beast.

trashed fridge.jpg

golfpro2301
Apr 16, 2015

southern swine · Apr 16, 2015

It's not easy to retire and old cooker, but when you get a new one it makes it a whole lot better. You'll like that Pitmaker Vault. Its been raining down here just about all week. I'm waiting on it to stop so I can paint my trailer smoker. Send me a pic of your new cooker when you get it.

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