New Braunfels Model 1400 Vertical Smoker – Not much Info

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I am fairly new to smoking and have my Step Dad’s old electric Brinkman Gourmet Smoker that is rusting out. So I am in the market for a new smoker. Leaning towards a WSM 22.5 but haven’t made up my mind yet.

In the meantime, I posted to a neighborhood group looking for a used Weber Smokey Joe so I could build a Mini WSM (I already have the steamer pot). As luck would have it one neighbor gave me a Smokey Joe Silver but another offered me this smoker which had been left by the previous owner of his house and had been sitting unused in his yard for at least 10 years.

Best I can tell is it officially a New Braunfels 1400 Universal Water Smoker. The metal is about 1/8” inch so I assume it is from the Char Broil days and not an original New Braunfels.

I am searched the archives here at SMF as well as several other forums and there are not more than a handful of posts about it that I can find. I assume that means it wasn’t real popular. I haven’t found many threads with mod suggestions.

But I thought I would post here and see if anyone was familiar with this smoker.




The good: It is in really good shape with only light surface rust that I can see. The two racks are ceramic and the charcoal bowl was covered in foil so it is real clean. It has a thermometer; I will do the boil water test tonight. Can’t beat the price.

The bad: It is completely open at the bottom with no way to control air intake.

I cleaned it up last night and plan to do a test burn in it tonight to see what kind of temperature it runs at as is.

But I would love to hear from anyone who has experience with one of these.

Thanks,

-Chip
 

Yeah.. Those legs would be moved to the outside if I had it. I would weld a thickish plate on the bottom and put a damper on 2 sides at the bottom. Also I would add another top damper. I would use a 12" expanded metal charcoal basket with 2 inch legs. An aluminum pan under the charcoal basket. Instead of a water pan above the charcoal basket I would use a heavy gauge deflector plate 15" diameter with a dozen or so holes drilled in it. The racks are 15" so ECB racks may fit. You can buy pizza screens or grates on the internet. :)
 
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