Almost totaled out my spare ribs

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Smkryng

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Oct 14, 2017
560
295
Doing my first big cook on my Austin XL. Threw two pork shoulders on the left side running it at 300. About 10:30 I put two racks of spare ribs on the right side. Came back to check in an hour and they were at 196! Got a probe out and discovered that the right side of the pit was 140 degrees hotter than the left! I got lucky and didn’t burn them to a crisp I guess. Gotta love figuring out a new pit.
 
Maybe a bread pan filled with water in the right side would help even things out, I'd imagine that's where the firebox or pellet hopper is. I'm doing a rack of ribs myself today on the Pro 100, don't feel like babysitting the stick burner. RAY
 
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Maybe a bread pan filled with water in the right side would help even things out, I'd imagine that's where the firebox or pellet hopper is. I'm doing a rack of ribs myself today on the Pro 100, don't feel like babysitting the stick burner. RAY
The fire pot is actually directly in the center and I put a loaf pan full of water over it. The rounded steel plate under the grates is at a downward angle to the right and the temp probe is on the left. I would have thought that the left side would run hotter due to that but I was way wrong.
 
my pitboss1000t2 is the same way, I took out the heat diffuser (the thin metal piece that surrounds the fire pot and that helped some, not sure if you have one of those on yours, if so it may be worth a shot.
 
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my pitboss1000t2 is the same way, I took out the heat diffuser (the thin metal piece that surrounds the fire pot and that helped some, not sure if you have one of those on yours, if so it may be worth a shot.
A guy on Facebook said the same thing. He said he also made a heat diffuser to go over the burn pot. Looked like a piece of c channel. I may have to try that also.
 
I generally use all 4 probes on my Inkbird ... enough variation top to bottom, and expect similar on most horizontals. Maybe someone someday will adapt a convection system to these to even them out more.
 
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Doing my first big cook on my Austin XL. Threw two pork shoulders on the left side running it at 300. About 10:30 I put two racks of spare ribs on the right side. Came back to check in an hour and they were at 196! Got a probe out and discovered that the right side of the pit was 140 degrees hotter than the left! I got lucky and didn’t burn them to a crisp I guess. Gotta love figuring out a new pit.

This is one of the mods I did to my Austin XL to get my grills temps all dialed in... I kept the stock heat diffuser in and added a SmokeDaddy Heat Diffuser. I also attached a medal rod to the SD heat diffuser and a medal rod to the Flame Broiler Slider to be able too move and slide each one. I can bbq low and slow and then do a high temp sear in seconds... The temps are stable across the entire grill as well...
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So all things are possible.. Keep that Austin XL clean and always preheat your grill for at least 20 mins at 300*-350* before every cook... That’ll help keep the temps stable and keep the temp swings to a minimum.

Pellet Pro Austin XL and a few more mods... in SoCal and Always... Semper Fi
 
This is one of the mods I did to my Austin XL to get my grills temps all dialed in... I kept the stock heat diffuser in and added a SmokeDaddy Heat Diffuser. I also attached a medal rod to the SD heat diffuser and a medal rod to the Flame Broiler Slider to be able too move and slide each one. I can bbq low and slow and then do a high temp sear in seconds... The temps are stable across the entire grill as well...
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So all things are possible.. Keep that Austin XL clean and always preheat your grill for at least 20 mins at 300*-350* before every cook... That’ll help keep the temps stable and keep the temp swings to a minimum.

Pellet Pro Austin XL and a few more mods... in SoCal and Always... Semper Fi
I was cleaning out my Austin and trying to figure out the diffuser situation and I was wondering how much clearance is between the burn pot and the diffuser?
 
I was cleaning out my Austin and trying to figure out the diffuser situation and I was wondering how much clearance is between the burn pot and the diffuser?


On my Pellet Pro Austin XL, there is 1-1/2 inches of clearances between the top of the fire pot and the bottom of the SmokeDaddy Heat Diffuser. The space/distance from the top of the fire pot and the bottom of the Flame broiler plate is about 4 inches. Besides adding a real heat diffuser to your PB Austin XL, which would really help to even out the heat across your grill, is also adding some Fire bricks to the right side of your grill. They help to absorb heat as well. Will everything be perfect across the entire grill? No, but the mods make a huge difference and the temps will definitely be a lot closer and much more manageable.

Pellet Pro Austin XL and a few more mods... In SoCal and Always... Semper Fi
 
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On my Pellet Pro Austin XL, there is 1-1/2 inches of clearances between the top of the fire pot and the bottom of the SmokeDaddy Heat Diffuser. The space/distance from the top of the fire pot and the bottom of the Flame broiler plate is about 4 inches. Besides adding a real heat diffuser to your PB Austin XL, which would really help to even out the heat across your grill, is also adding some Fire bricks to the right side of your grill. They help to absorb heat as well. Will everything be perfect across the entire grill? No, but the mods make a huge difference and the temps will definitely be a lot closer and much more manageable.

Pellet Pro Austin XL and a few more mods... In SoCal and Always... Semper Fi
Thanks, I kinda had fire bricks on my mind already.
 
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