How much free space do you need between racks for proper air circulation?

  • 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.

rikun

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jul 3, 2008
71
11
Hi,

I'm trying to fit three racks into my 160 gallon RF build. I'd be mainly cooking brisket flats, so I'm thinking 4" between racks will just fit flats in there.

Do you think I'll run into air circulation issues with so little free space between racks? Here's a sketch of my plan:


I'll probably weld in additional angle irons between those three, so I can get more space between my grates if I choose to use only 2 of them (or cooking butts, etc)
 
I'm no Smoker engineer but judging from seeing many different smokers and designs, that sounds tight to me. 6" is much more common. A good source for info like this is DaveOmak. Send a PM...JJ
 
Yeah 6" is pretty common, but not doable if I want three grates in there. I did 3.2" on my big baby drum smoker I built just for flats, they did fit in there, but I had a problem when foiling them. The foil didn't fit if it wasn't very tightly wrapped. However the airflow was ok.

I think I'll try 4" and add additional slides for 6" spacing if that's too tight.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky