Hey all! Glad to be a member. I'm a rookie griller, and in about 5 hours will be a first-time smoker. I've been lurking the past couple days to glean as much information as I can, from here as well as other resources, and feel fairly confident I'm going to ruin a $55 brisket tomorrow.
I have a 3-in-1 Smoke Hollow Gas/Charcoal/Smoker model 3500 that my wife picked out for me for Father's Day (expecting my first in October!). Today, in an attempt to somewhat familiarize myself with my equipment before throwing the meat on there, I went to Lowe's and purchased some lump charcoal and some Apple wood chips. Upon my arrival home I discovered the following: My smoker leaks air, and heat, and smoke... a lot. I will attempt to remedy this tomorrow by rolling up some tin foil and putting it in any gaps I have; I have an Amazon order with rope gasket and high temp silicone caulk for a long term solution.
Browsing here as well as other places, I found some common mods done to these "COS" units, and attempted some of them. I got some aluminum ducting that is used for laundry dryer exhaust, cut a length of it and rolled it into the chimney, lowering the chimney approximately even with the bottom of the lid. Using nothing but an automotive hose clamp to keep it roughly cylindrical, I still have a lot of leakage between the chimney walls and the aluminum ducting.
Next I took the rest of the aluminum sheet and cut another length which I folded into a triangle shape to use as a deflector in my smoke chamber from the firebox, to help evenly distribute heat throughout the chamber. During my test run today my thermometer I placed in the center of the grill surface held fairly steady around 235 degrees with my firebox intake vents fully open.
The last thing I did was take some diamond mesh and make a charcoal basket, roughly 11x8.5 with 3" high walls. After my test run I'm not thoroughly satisfied with this and will likely attempt another one in the future. However, what I did today was to fill that 80% with lit coal, and the first time I added wood chips to the coals I made sure they were touching the coals. The orientation, for a visualization, went like so from right to left: firebox intake vent, roughly 2 handfuls of wood chips (touching coals), a half-chimney worth of charcoal, cooking chamber. This orientation led to rapid burning of the smoke chips in about 5-10 minutes followed by no more smoke. I added some more coals, let them heat up and burn a bit, then added two more handfuls of chips, still in the same position but this time not touching the coals. The second time, none of the chips lit and smoked. (Should I switch my wood chip and charcoal orientation from [cook chamber<coals<wood chips<air intake]?)
Any and all advice will be appreciated and considered. I expect to be posting throughout the day tomorrow with updates as far as how I'm doing. Thanks!!!
I have a 3-in-1 Smoke Hollow Gas/Charcoal/Smoker model 3500 that my wife picked out for me for Father's Day (expecting my first in October!). Today, in an attempt to somewhat familiarize myself with my equipment before throwing the meat on there, I went to Lowe's and purchased some lump charcoal and some Apple wood chips. Upon my arrival home I discovered the following: My smoker leaks air, and heat, and smoke... a lot. I will attempt to remedy this tomorrow by rolling up some tin foil and putting it in any gaps I have; I have an Amazon order with rope gasket and high temp silicone caulk for a long term solution.
Browsing here as well as other places, I found some common mods done to these "COS" units, and attempted some of them. I got some aluminum ducting that is used for laundry dryer exhaust, cut a length of it and rolled it into the chimney, lowering the chimney approximately even with the bottom of the lid. Using nothing but an automotive hose clamp to keep it roughly cylindrical, I still have a lot of leakage between the chimney walls and the aluminum ducting.
Next I took the rest of the aluminum sheet and cut another length which I folded into a triangle shape to use as a deflector in my smoke chamber from the firebox, to help evenly distribute heat throughout the chamber. During my test run today my thermometer I placed in the center of the grill surface held fairly steady around 235 degrees with my firebox intake vents fully open.
The last thing I did was take some diamond mesh and make a charcoal basket, roughly 11x8.5 with 3" high walls. After my test run I'm not thoroughly satisfied with this and will likely attempt another one in the future. However, what I did today was to fill that 80% with lit coal, and the first time I added wood chips to the coals I made sure they were touching the coals. The orientation, for a visualization, went like so from right to left: firebox intake vent, roughly 2 handfuls of wood chips (touching coals), a half-chimney worth of charcoal, cooking chamber. This orientation led to rapid burning of the smoke chips in about 5-10 minutes followed by no more smoke. I added some more coals, let them heat up and burn a bit, then added two more handfuls of chips, still in the same position but this time not touching the coals. The second time, none of the chips lit and smoked. (Should I switch my wood chip and charcoal orientation from [cook chamber<coals<wood chips<air intake]?)
Any and all advice will be appreciated and considered. I expect to be posting throughout the day tomorrow with updates as far as how I'm doing. Thanks!!!
