Callow Smoker Review

A word of warning when cooking with the Callow using the inbuilt lid thermometer. In all three units that I have seen the lid thermometer is so inaccurate that using it to smoke will result in severely overcooked food. The manufacturers are aware and are currently trying to resolve this with their suppliers.

Thermometer 1


Thermometer 2


Thermometer 3

I have now been using the Callow smoker regularly at home and for BBQ demonstrations for several weeks and felt that I needed to post an update.

Several people had reported that they were having difficulty getting the Callow up to temperature for hot smoke roasting. As I have really only been using it at ~110 C this had not been a problem for me. I therefore did some more testing over the weekend. 

Firstly, when you look at the position of the air vents compared with the bottom of the fire bowl  you notice that they are positioned slightly above.


My initial thoughts were that maybe the air is entering the side vents and is hitting the hot sides of the fire bowl and then immediately rising upwards - resulting in insufficient air passing down and through the coals.

During the trials below all of the top and bottom vents were left wide open. Once the lit coals had been added the neither the lid or the doors were opened during the logging period.

This theory was explored by using a fixed weight of Head Beads in a Minion - 1.5 Kg unlit with 10 fully lit in the centre. Firstly with the Callow unmodified and then with a ring of tinfoil blocking the gap around the firebowl - forcing the air downwards and up through the coals. 


These photos were taken after ~90 minutes of each test


As you can see the temperature rose steadily over the first hour and with both methods the temperature stabilised at about 175-185 C. From the graph it does appear that with the foil seal the temperature rose slightly faster after the first 30 minutes. The difference though is slight and may not be significant. With both Minions it still took the Callow over 1 hour to get fully up to temperature. In normal "every day" use this time would probably be extended further if the lid or doors are opened.

In both of the Minion tests the Callow eventually reached similar maximum temperatures and so the next test was to see what was the maximum temperature that the Callow would reach. To test this I repeated the above tests with 1.5 Kg Heat Beads that had been fully lit.


When using fully lit coals the Callow reached a stable temperature of 150-165 C after about 10 minutes. The unfoiled (control) trial actually rose and stabilised slightly faster than the foiled trial.

The next thing to test was whether the maximum temperature was proportional to the amount of coals being used. I therefore repeated the above control test but using 3.0 Kg of fully lit Heat Beads.



You will see that using twice the amount of lit coals did result in an initial increase in maximum temperature - after 6 minutes the 1.5 Kg of coals had reached 165 C whereas the 3 Kg had reached 190 C. After about 15 minutes though both of the temperatures had stabilised to between 160-170 C. These results (combined with the previous trial results) indicates that amount of coals in the fire bowl has little practical effect on the maximum temperature of the smoker.


A couple of issues that I am finding with the Callow after several weeks use

Several people have reported to me that the screws connecting to the handle fall out easily under normal use. This also happened to mine last weekend. Callow are aware of this issue and are updating the handle design. If you have any problems with yours then please contact Callow and they will send you a replacement.


This is a little more worrying - After only a few weeks of cooking I am seeing some rust appearing along the top of the door opening on the main body. This has been reported to Callow.

Hi dl

A summary of the review has been published in the UK BBQ magazine https://view.joomag.com/uk-bbq-mag-summer-2017/0952880001488447148?short. There are no real updates other than it is working well as a smoker and it is easy to use. I am still using it with the handle taped and I have replaced the thermometer with a more accurate one. The rust line is still there and does not appear to have increased significantly. I have put some stove rope around the door opening to seal it better.

As a first inexpensive smoker it works well to get those new to smoking up and running. For cooking one or two pieces of meat at a time it is great and will feed a family easily. If you are catering for larger crowds then you may struggle unless you have additional cooking space.

I cannot fault Callow customer services. They have responded quickly and efficiently with issues and I know they welcome feedback - both positive and negative. I understand that they are looking at having a larger "pro" model developed too, but this will not be for a while.

Hi Reti

I am still doing some test modifications on the Callow to see if I can get to the higher temperatures using a Minion. I have also just heard that the new, more accurate, thermometers have just arrived and I am awaiting a couple of them to test.

One BBQ/ Smoker that many of us started on is a Weber 22" (57cm) Kettle. That will grill, roast, low-and-slow smoke and also cold smoke. You can pick up a new one for about £150. At the end of the summer the DIY stores sometimes have them on sale for even less.

http://www.bbqworld.co.uk/weber-barbecues/charcoal/weber-original-kettle-barbecues.asp

I have roasted my Christmas turkey on the Weber Kettle for more than 10 years, It is great for pulled pork, ribs and brisket, and it was where I cold smoked my first cheese and salmon.

Hi Reti - Out of interest, which part of the UK are you from?

The Weber will smoke food without you needing to buy any special gadgets. The most important tool will be a dual probe digital thermometer to ensure that you are cooking at the desired temperature and also some heat resistant aluminium foil adhesive tape.

When cooking low-and-slow on the Weber you will be burning your charcoal in a modified Minion method - or snake. To do this you will make a line of briquettes (I recommend Head Beads or Weber briquettes) about 1/3 of the way around the circumference of the charcoal grate, 3 deep and 2-3 high


You will then place 6-8 fully lit briquettes at one end and any flavouring wood/pellets along the top of the unlit coals. To help ensure that the heat is deflected into the cooking chamber (and not just up the side and out of the top vent) you place a double thickness of foil on the cooking grate immediately above. The meat sits on the cooking grate over a foil tray - to catch the rendered fat. If you want to put hot water in the foil tray then that is fine too.

One thing that you cannot see from the pictures above is that the two air vents that are below the coals are left as standard, however the 3rd air vent that is under the meat is blocked off on the outside using the sticky aluminium tape. Once the meat is cooked this is then easily removed.

Fully open the bottom and top vents and place on the lid, Monitor the cooking chamber temperature until it gets to about 3/4 of your target and then start to close down the bottom vents. You should then be able to easily get it to stabilise at the desired cooking temperature. Once stable you should only need to check it once an hour or so. The snake that you see above will last 6-8 hours at about 110 C. As it begins to look as if the temperature will fall, rake all of the unburned coals to one end and then rebuild the snake and let it burn back. This will give you another 6-8 hours. For speed you can just place new coals on top of the hot embers but if you do this make sure that you watch the temperature for a while so that it does not over shoot.

With either the Callow or the Weber Kettle it should be at least 6 (and up to 10) hours before you need to add more coals. Those adding more regularly are either deliberately cooking at higher temperatures, cannot effectively control their burn, or are using cheap briquettes or possibly lumpwood.

reti said:

I do already have a standard drum BBQ for grilling, so I'm not necessarily looking for something to replace that with a future purchase (perhaps this somewhat mitigates some of the advantage of the kettle?). With this in mind would you still recommend a Weber over the callow for any particular reason?

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At the moment, until the few issues with the Callow are fixed, I would probably suggest going for the Weber Kettle. I specify the Weber as it had much higher cooking clearance in the lid than many of the cheaper alternative kettles. The Callow is obviously cheaper and does the low and slow really well. It is the higher temperature roasts that we are having difficulty with. Once we have sorted these mods out then I am sure that the Callow will be a good all-rounder too but there is still some unknowns here at the moment. Callow are working very closely with us though to get these issues sorted.