1st time smoker - temp problems with my Brinkman Smoke N Grill

[jimf]

Jim, my problem is not enough heat, I would like to cook at 250 for six hours. It may be hard to raise the fire in the fire box,but are you saying closing the stack will make the fire hotter.

Craig

Closing the stack will allow less heat to escape from the smoker.  sounds like you need more air in your fire box.

 

[craigroller]

Where can I find a list of the mods needed for a side firebox smoker. I am new to smoking and have been unable to get to 250 with a 150 dollar smoker from target. I saw a 849 dollar yoeder smoker, is this what it will take to get to 250. I have tried lump char and big chumks of wood, but nothing works. Help

 

[jirodriguez]

Go to the Smoker Supplies & Equiptment section of the forum, and click on charcoal smokers, the do a search for either Brinkman mods or Char-griller mods, both are very similar and a lot of the same mods apply.

 

[pvillecomp]

Craigroller,

Here is a great "roll-up" thread for horizontal side firebox smoker mods. It helped me a ton when getting started.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/75110/horizonal-offset-smoker-mods

 

[cab2g]

I've had an ECB for maybe 4 years now. And recently I broke down and bought an offset smoker because I thought that it was just a piece of junk that couldn't maintain temps for longer than a couple hours... But now that I joined this forum I see that there may still be some life left in my ECB! Grant it, I have no need for 2 smokers now, but the ECB is just sitting in the basement waiting for a friend in need of a grill/smoker.

The breaking point for me was with a rack of ribs I tried to smoke this spring. I keep the water pan full and smoked them for about 16 hours and used a full 23lb bag of Kingsford's competition briquettes. But in the end the ribs never bent when i picked them up and they ended up with a dry outer crust because I'm sure I just turned them into jerky. I didn't have a temp gauge, but the darn thing would go from "HOT" to the bottom of "IDEAL" within an hour... I'd continue to let it smoke until it reached upper "WARM" and then I'd take everything out and dump the coals. It was a huge pain, but even the mod to move the legs to the outside and place the charcoal pan on paver bricks would've solved that annoyance!

 

[craigroller]

Thanks, will using a fan to get more air help.

 

[markb2012]

New to Forum and 1st time Brinkmann Smoke N Grill user. I just smoked/grilled two beercan chickens yesterday. After 3 hrs of smoking on the top grill, I removed the water pan (above charcoal pan) and put chickens on medium level grill. The smoker temp shot up to over 450 degrees in 15 min. The chickens went from 145 degrees up to 180 degrees and crisped up the skin in 30-40 min after removing water pan. I hope that helps..

 

[craigroller]

Where can I get some expanded steel  to make the grate and a fire box, see picture

 

[craigroller]

Where can I get the expand metal to make a grate and fire box and what gage should it be. See picture

 

[tmmikko]

Hi, Go to  yotube, look up videos on your brinkman smoker. A lot of great mods. I totally tricked mine out.

The best mods. I put in weber vents in, got them on line. I have 2 extra if you need them.

I use a wood stove rope liner around the top to fill in the gap , it seals well. I have also used aluminum foil

I drilled holes in the wood pan and put a grate in the bottem to get better air flow, A must ! 

I also drilled holes in the top and side to slide in my temp guage so I dont need to open the top.

I made handles out of u bolts to put on the 2 grilling grates

I put aluminum foil over the water bowl, less mess to deal with.

last but not least I mounted the legs on the out side, I set my wood pan a some 1 inch paving block

when I add wood I just lift the smoker right off and add wood and set it back back over the fire.

Good luck , Tom from Maine

 

[everythingsmoke]

Got mine at lowe's...they have two different gauges and I just got the heavier of the two...cost is $20

 

[donovan nelson]

I'm new to this forum and new to smoking but am reading diligently to determine what changes I need to make.  I plan to make the mods to my Brinkman ECB that have been described.  I want thoughts on what I did in my second smoke attempt.  I tried to smoke a small brisket using hickory wood chunks.  I used water in the water pan and added wood chunks through the smoking process.  After a few hours I was out of wood and the brisket was no close to being finished.  I am eager to make the mods and see what results I get with these but I am curious about whether I should use charcoal, exclusively, or mix with wood chunks.  I'm a newbie so please explain it to me as if I'm completely clueless.  Thank you.

 

[raastros2]

i have the ECB too with all the mods...i went from not being able to keep it at 220 to having a hard time keeping it at 230 haha....takes some playing it with to keep it at 225

 

[raastros2]

hey donovan another thing....rule of thumb is to multiply the number of pounds of brisket ya got by 1.5 and thats how many hours it will be close to ready.....180-205 internal temp is fine

 

[donovan nelson]

Thank you, Raastros.  I had heard of the 1.5 hours per pound and I should have been able to get a good brisket finished in 3.5 hours.  I know the temperature is the problem.  Is using straight wood chunks as my fuel source a good idea or should I use charcoal and keep adding charcoal to the fire as needed?  This is my biggest problem at this point.  Thanks again!

 

[raastros2]

i have always just kept using charcoal....lighting it in the charcoal chimney frst is prob the easiest way ...after you turn your legs inside out and get you some bricks to put your charcoal pan on first

 

[donovan nelson]

I used the charcoal chimney to light my charcoal when I smoked sausages and it worked great.  I found myself adding charcoal through the smoking process because it went quickly but I believe the mods will help in that process.  Don't be afraid to offer other thoughts.  :)

 

[craigroller]

What is a good brand of lump?

 

[schmitzmoke]

I go to www.mcnichols.com  for all types of expanded metal.  

They have it all in every imaginable type. They have stainless, aluminum or carbon steel. Plus they will cut to size and ship by freight or UPS depending on the size. You purchase a full sheet, they cut it to size and send all the extra drops to you. I use the left over pieces for all different things. I also purchased 304 stainless steel backsplash materials from them for my outdoor kitchen. It looks and performs great!

 

[craigroller]

Schmitzmoke, I am a retired truck driver who delivered to mcnichols, I called them and they told me 426.00 dollars for a full sheet. How much did you pay for a sheet and what gage.