Adding a second smokestack for better temp control

[Moonshinedave]

First off, know that I am using a Oklahoma Joe offset smoker. I smoked a pork butt last Sunday, in the cooking chamber I had a 15-20lb piece of pipe, a pan of water and two bricks, all to help stabilize the temperature swings, and they helped, some. I still feel I am having to baby the smoker way too much, too hot, too cold, too smoky, almost a non stop adjusting of the smoker.
I start with rather large amount of wood, leave everything open and allow it to burn down to embers before I start my smoking. I add small pieces of wood (mostly preheated) and adjust the inlet, which pretty much stays wide open, outlet always wide open, if the temp starts getting too hot I add cold air by wedging open either the burning chamber, or the cooking chamber. If I start getting too much bad smoke, I'll open the cooking chamber to allow it to clear out. It all works, and I ended up with a darn good smoked pork butt if I say so myself, but it was a battle.
I watch videos on this and one thing that sticks out is the outlet stack on their smokers are, what looks to be twice (if not more) larger diameter than the 3 inch stack on my OK, Joe. I am wondering if adding a second stack would make temp management easier?
Thanks in advance for any input, and sorry about such a long winded post.

 

[Chasdev]

It's the length that really changes how it draws, the longer the better it draws through the cooker.
Wide open firebox door is the only way to go unless the wind is blowing right in there.
Dry wood is key here, less than fully cured wood is a nightmare to manage fire and temp wise.
Properly aged wood at a 15%-20% moisture content lights right up when added, burns quickly, produces the clear blue smoke needed for top level flavored meat and forms a normal but not jumbo coal base which if too large (as what happens when burning wetter wood), prevents the addition of fresh sticks due to the temp over runs.
Burning wood produces 90% of the smoke and flavor in the meat, while the coals produce most of the heat.
Managing the coal base is key to temp control.
I use some charcoal to get a coal base going and to heat the cooker before adding meat, then I use "mini splits" I created by re-splitting the splits and cutting them into shorter sections with a miter saw.
Most long cooks run into a time or two around 3/4 through the cook where the coal base, temps and need for more sticks turns into a muddle and opening the cook chamber door is a great way to steer around that obstacle.

 

[civilsmoker]

Temp swings are a given with any stick type burner a +/- 50/75 ish is nothing to worry about for the normal average smoke. That said this is the method I use that helps keep things very even.

I start with a nearly full chimney starter of charcoal and get them pretty well all lit and then dump them in the fire box. Next, I will put two 3inch splits on the coals and I let these burn in to get the chamber up to temp....It will peak and then drop down. Leave the stack wide open and have the inflow gates almost open. Once it settles down I reduce the intake so that the splits keep a nice comfortable flame. To hot to fast crazy flame reduces the oxygen and can cause bad smoke. Note putting too much wood and opening the fire door will cause this. To keep things in control I will only add a 3 inch split once the old split is just about gone. For longer smokes I will drop a couple more bricks of charcoal in with the splits to keep the coals fresh and hot. When you add the split if it doesn't fire right up then leave the fire box partly open for a min or so till it fires up then close it. With this approach you rarely need to adjust the intake.

The whole theory with this is that fully lit or engaged charcoal produces clean heat and the splits add a little more heat and flavor smoke. By only adding a few unlit coals as the cook goes keeps any "starting" coal smoke to a min. Additionally, by keeping the splits with a nice normal flame and adding the next before the prior one goes out it keeps the about of heat more consistent. Once you learn the base "burn rate" of coals and splits you should be able to keep it pretty consistent.

 

[civilsmoker]

FYI, Just sharing the look of the flame as described above....

This is the initial 2 split fire to get it up to temp....

This is a 225 ish fire.... ie one split wit a comfortable flame.

This is a 325 fire....3 splits

Just notice the fully engaged coals and the comfortable burning flame.....ie very little to no visible smoke...... It took me a while to learn the look of each fire but now it seems second hand to me.....practice makes perfect....

 

[Moonshinedave]

Thanks everyone for your input so far, and for the photos, which were great. The "practice makes perfect" is spot on. I'll keep trucking on.