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baffle for brinkmann SnP

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ralphbrown05

ralphbrown05

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Oct 3, 2009
125
14
jacksonville, fl
ok i was reading how people put a baffle on the smoker to circulate the heat better through out the smoker...could i use a couple pieces of plated steel, or a few cheap cookie sheets...and how far do i go down halfway down the chamber, 3/4 way down the chamber?
 
The deflector plate is angled just to get the heat and smoke to go down and under the food or below the tuning plate. Tuning is done to spread out or vary the heat so it is consistent from one end to the other using openings with holes gaps etc. spread out horizontally across the width of the cooking chamber. I use fire bricks as tuning plate elements. By simply varying the spacing or gaps between the bricks from narrow to wide as the distance gets further from the end where the heat comes into the cooking chamber across to the end with the flue, the heat is spread evenly and is made equal from one end to the other.  

The brick also helps by adding additional thermal mass which helps to even out and maintain consistent temperature over time.

More thermal mass means it takes longer to heat up and get up to the desired temperature but once it's gets there it wants to stay there so you don't get those wild exagerated hot to cold to hot again swings in temperature.
 
I fabricated a custom fitted full-length tuning plate in mine from light gauge metal. This fits tightly on the fire box end, and the front & rear beneath the cooking grate, and is positioned just above the throat of the inlet to the smoke chamber, and has an open gap about 1-1/2" from the vent end of the smoke chamber. I strategically drilled holes in the sheet to allow some heat through as needed per my oven therm temp checks on the smoke chamber grate...a very time consuming undertaking.

I posted this with some pics in the charcoal smoker mods "sticky" thread awhile back...over a year ago. I just can't find it right now.

One drawback to the increased usable grate space with this particular mod is possibly a decrease in efficiency of fuel use, and a bit slower warm-ups prior to the smoke. To load it up with meat, you can really go to town, though.

Eric
 
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so in turn by doing a baffle underneath the food rack...i can completely load up my smoker with ribs or what ever and it all cook evenly...and by doing this, does it take longer for the meat to cook?
 
Dick Foster: More thermal mass means it takes longer to heat up and get up to the desired temperature but once it's gets there it wants to stay there so you don't get those wild exagerated hot to cold to hot again swings in temperature.
Click to expand...
Just to reiterate adding metal will just increase the time for the smoker internal temperature to get where you want it... once it is warm it stays there. The difference in time is negligible since it makes your smoker better as a whole.

If you do tuning plates ( like mentioned before by forluvofsmoke )  it will take you a little time to get them set up where everything is close to even but after you get them set up you can pretty much forget them.
 
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That all depends on how thermally efficient your smoker is, it's thermal mass and how big of a fire or heat source you have shoving BTUs into the cooking chamber.

One of the nice things about or rather the whole point of having one is some sort of closed loop control system like the temperature controlled stoker fans. That is due to the closed loop nature of the system. As long as you have the thermal horse power to get the job done so to speak, it doesn't matter much how much meat you put in there because it the system will self regulate itself to maintain the target temperature. It may take just a bit longer to get to temp but that's due to the thermal mass again and again it's dependant on how much heat is available going in. Everything has some thermal mass, no matter what it is.   
 
I use an old loaf pan filled with water too.

I place it on the grill just above the baffle plate where the heat enters the cooking chamber from the fire box. Typically it's mostly all evaporated by the end of a long smoke such as a butt or brisket. I think the water vapor helps to conduct the heat to the meat rather than preventing dry out as most suspect. Evaporating the moisture (water) out of the meat is pretty much the process of boiling water no matter what else you are doing.
 
i am making a tuning plate 16" x 27" i was going to drill 3/8 holes in row and columns. do i need to do smaller holes and go bigger as i go away from firebox or just 3/8 holes ( the plate is 3/16 steel )
 
Usually something is done to vary the heat input to the cooking chamber as in more holes, larger holes etc. as the distance from the heat source progresses from the hot end to the cold end.I doubt if it's a linear function.

To give you some idea of what to do you'd have to make, a series of temerature measurements across the smoker from one end to other could be made using one of two thermocouple type sensors so you can read the temps with the lid down. 

I used fire bricks so it could simply adjust the gaps as necessary and not worry about anything I couldnt change as needed. You could use a series a steel plates in a like manner and just vary the spaces between the plates. That is unless you want to do the temperature profile thing. Of course you could always let your common sense be your guide and just eye ball it using SWAG and you may well get close enough. It's not rocket science and you're not building atomic weapons or anything so close is close enough.  
 
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