Smoker mods

barrelcooker · Oct 4, 2015

The first smoker i purchased was a brinkmann off set from home Depot it tan me $99 plus tax. This a smoker and a grill. Let me note now I've had some problems with this smoker.
1 i myself have had little knowledge about smokers at first.
2 i had to build it anyway
3 it only weighed about 20lbs.
4 holes gaps squeezes crannys that when i fired it up came out of all of them.
Only choice i would have to heat it up was to get a raging fire in the firebox and pray no wind came. 100 degree dif from end to end
For people with these problems i do have the solutions.

20150815_191616.jpg

barrelcooker
Oct 4, 2015

i got more of the finished product tips and pics.

trippy · Oct 5, 2015

This is where it starts. You will be able to do things with this, but you will always have your battles doing so. Keep in mind its a 100 dollar smoker grill. It was made for the budget minded person to give you a taste of smoked foods. The big cooks will takes a lot of tending and you may never be able to get your heat, under enough control to pull out a smoke house product. The metal is too thin to retain heat for any lenght of time. With that said it might spur you into a better investment that you can do this with. Perhaps with crafty building you can build something that will as well.

Every smoker has a fit for someone in their needs. This smoker/grill is for the backyard not to serious family cooking. If you get into large family gatherings and want to do lots of ribs you will need bigger. If you like the challenge of the fire, the offset is great for that. Trust me when its truly an art to cooking with offset smokers. They have their own way of cooking when compared to say a vertical. If you are a set it and forget it kind of cooking. Then you need electric or pellet burner. They both have their own unique advantages. They can be of several design types too.

I understand your thread point is about solving some issues with this type of smoker. I don't know that solving these issues will make this smoker all that much better. Its was built as a limited life smoker/grill. They don't last all that many years because the steel is to thin. You will be back to buy another or invest into something that will last longer.

barrelcooker · Oct 5, 2015

I was able to close up 98% of the smoker leaks. Meaning almost all smoke coming from the chiminy maintaining temps for up to 45mins goving some walk away time

barrelcooker · Oct 18, 2015

I did win a trophy for backyard ribs on this smoker

trippy · Oct 18, 2015

I have had no doubt you could do that. It was never a question about turning out good smoked meats. I only said the amount of work you did was far more then what others put into the same cook. I have used said pits back when I got started. I only state what is known truth, to that BBQ. As said its a good starter pit. When you get to the point of wanting to do bigger cooks you will need to move up in a new dirrection. This was said in earlier post, this is a good low priced starter pit. Its not going to last all that many years before being replaced. For doing ribs and chicken you can do fine with it. With enough time tending you could even churn out some good pork butts as well.

I am currently smoking jerky in my smoker. It has been cooking for better then 5 hours now at 165 deg and I have been sitting in my chair watching movies drinking coffee. Have done nothing more open the door to flip the jerky slabs over. It burns wood pellets for heat source. This would be a very tedious task for you and the temp control would prove laborsome. I am not saying it would be impossible. Just saying every smoker has a place and some have far greater versatility.

pittocarrillo · Nov 26, 2015

Hey there folks

barrelcooker said:
The first smoker i purchased was a brinkmann off set from home Depot it tan me $99 plus tax. This a smoker and a grill. Let me note now I've had some problems with this smoker.
1 i myself have had little knowledge about smokers at first.
2 i had to build it anyway
3 it only weighed about 20lbs.
4 holes gaps squeezes crannys that when i fired it up came out of all of them.
Only choice i would have to heat it up was to get a raging fire in the firebox and pray no wind came. 100 degree dif from end to end
For people with these problems i do have the solutions.

20150815_191616.jpg

barrelcooker

Oct 4, 2015

i got more of the finished product tips and pics.

For the kind of smokers it needs some real work to make them good pits
My father in law turn 2 NBblackdiamonds to a great pits
I just score one of the old models on the Charbroil offset smoker and looking forward to modified to make it into a well smoker

He turn them into a reverse flow something you might wanna look into it
He show me some a calculator to get measurement an figure out how to make tuning plates
Fixin the stack
And dropping the FB few inches to get better heat
And also making a charcoal basket
That's a most for good long period smokes

I score like I said a 30 dollar offset Charbroil and it's going to be a ride learnin horizontal cooking
Since all I've done is cook on a vertical NB Bandera

Luckley the smoker was build with a little thicket gauge than now the ones of the store which makes it really good after some modifications

Hope you don't give up on your cooker and finding a lot help in this forum will help you make a bad ass baby smoker

image.jpeg

pittocarrillo
Nov 26, 2015

barrelcooker · Nov 26, 2015

Thanks im looking into making it a reverse flow. After designing my own smoker it doesnt seam to hard. I have already experimented with it. Its really light guage metal so i got to be carfull. It cooks like a monster o just built a cooker so inhave beetn using it alot. Alot

barrelcooker · Nov 26, 2015

Turkey 2 butts chunks cooking 15 pounds. Happy turkey day

wavector · Dec 10, 2015

Trippy said:
This is where it starts. You will be able to do things with this, but you will always have your battles doing so. Keep in mind its a 100 dollar smoker grill. It was made for the budget minded person to give you a taste of smoked foods. The big cooks will takes a lot of tending and you may never be able to get your heat, under enough control to pull out a smoke house product. The metal is too thin to retain heat for any lenght of time. With that said it might spur you into a better investment that you can do this with. Perhaps with crafty building you can build something that will as well.

Every smoker has a fit for someone in their needs. This smoker/grill is for the backyard not to serious family cooking. If you get into large family gatherings and want to do lots of ribs you will need bigger. If you like the challenge of the fire, the offset is great for that. Trust me when its truly an art to cooking with offset smokers. They have their own way of cooking when compared to say a vertical. If you are a set it and forget it kind of cooking. Then you need electric or pellet burner. They both have their own unique advantages. They can be of several design types too.

I understand your thread point is about solving some issues with this type of smoker. I don't know that solving these issues will make this smoker all that much better. Its was built as a limited life smoker/grill. They don't last all that many years because the steel is to thin. You will be back to buy another or invest into something that will last longer.

I would love to know how those two NBBDs were modified into reverse flow. I would love to convert my mind to reverse flow because the fb opening to the smoking chamber is really big and creates a bad hot spot.

trippy · Mar 3, 2016

wavector said:
I would love to know how those two NBBDs were modified into reverse flow. I would love to convert my mind to reverse flow because the fb opening to the smoking chamber is really big and creates a bad hot spot.

There is a good YouTube video on modifing the NBBD. It gives a lot of good tips on how to get this smoker to perform better... As we know the thickness of metal on that smoker it will tend to make you run hotter fires to compensate for the heat loss due to weight of metal. Its not a deal breaker IMO but it makes it harder for some to over come depending on where they live. Warmer climate areas will not have same issue cool climate areas will deal with.

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Smoker mods

barrelcooker

Smoke Blower

20150815_191616.jpg

trippy

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barrelcooker

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barrelcooker

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trippy

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pittocarrillo

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20150815_191616.jpg

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barrelcooker

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barrelcooker

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wavector

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trippy

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