Heat Difuser (UDS)... Needed or Not? What do you use?

I currently using the pizza pan with holes, just because it seems to be the most popular, but ive got a second UDS, and just wondering whether I should buy the extra rack, and something to put on it for eat deflection. But more than that, just want to get thoughts and ideas rolling.

toaduck said:

Hi. I'm new here but I've been using a pizza pan diffuser. I like it. It evens the temperature out across the grate imo. I use two probes on the grate for temperature reference. One being the qmaster pit probe and the Maverick probe. Both are perfectly in sync and read the same.

You'll hear some saying no need for the deflector and some liking it. It works. With the qmaster great. I smoke all night for 14 or more hours no checking, adjusting period. It keeps mine within + or - 5 degrees. Sleeping while smoking is a great thing. [emoji]128521[/emoji]

With the minion method I've smoked 3 days straight on 15 pounds of charcoal with about a pound left over. Amazing cheap pit.

In summary, use it with a cook and watch your grate temps. Decide wether it helps or not. Everyone's drum is different because they're not 100% identical.

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Awesome, thank you for the detailed response! Very helpful! I haven't tested temps across the chamber yet at any type of cook, ive only been doing small amounts of meat so far, so I just use the Guru Probe clipped to the center/right by the food. Ill have to run some tests with multiple probes to see what works.

One thing I feel like the pizza STONE is good at is even distribution, but I also feel like it amplifies the heat directly up, so its even, but seems like it just kind of brings the direct heat from the basket below closer up to the food. Just noticed that this weekend, cause the bottom of the ribs were more charred and dry, and the Guru ran a lot less than when I used the pizza pan with holes.

The pizza pan im using is like a 16 inch steel sheep one form Walmart, then I drilled my own holes in a sort of size escalating pattern form inside out, think ill probably stick with that based on your advice.

kam59 said:

 
For doing high heat chicken and what not I do not mind the drippings hitting the coals. For longer cooks like pork butts or briskets I do not care for the flavor so i started with a big pan much like a WSM has then I designed my diffuser  that I now use and have built several for other competition teams. It allows the heat/smoke to travel up the center and sides but never dripping in the coals.

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• kam59
• May 18, 2017

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• kam59
• May 18, 2017

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Wow Kam59, that thing looks awesome! seriously cool build. So far I haven't really noticed the flavor difference when I have tried with and without any type of diffuser (based on charcoal drippings) but, ive only been doing short less juicy cooks, literally just ribs and chicken, since I started using the UDS. Ill try a Butt both ways, and see if I can catch the flavor difference you're talkin about.
I had just sort of figured the flavor would be the same whether it was dripping on the coals and burning, or dripping on a diffuser and burning.