I just recently started looking into adding a gas burner to the bottom of my firebox in addition to the charcoal/wood to help keep temps up.
Any thoughts?
Thnx!
I had a full-blown gas mod on my Brinkmann SNP for about 20 months. High output
turkey fryer burner mounted to the bottom of the fire box close to the intake damper. The burner had a 1/4" stud for mounting to it's stand, so I just drilled a 1/4" hole to put the stud through, removed the gas line from the brass venturi fitting, set the burner inside with the hose connection sticking out through the damper so the hose/brass was not inside the fire box. Temps ran plent hot, in fact I had to use an old 6 quart pot to set over the burner on the stock grill grate as a baffle so I wouldn't burn the paint of the fire box lid, and for wet smoking which I almost always do. It would boil off a gallon per hour in summer, and more in the winter depending on temps.
Pretty easy mod to do though, if you have a fryer burner laying around...took me about 10 minutes from start to finish, then I spent a couple hours test firing it and running grate temp checks, etc. I had a full custom-built tuning plate at the time, and would go through about 10lbs propane on a 12-hr smoke @ 225*, more in winter, but my tuning plate was enherently inefficient...a trade-off in regards to fuel consumption for near full capacity usage of cooking grate space.
Just some food for thought.
I smoke all year long, and with my outdoor kitchen to shelter me from mother nature's wrath, my gas smokers can handle any winter weather she can dish out without even breaking a sweat. My straight charcoal fired rigs are a bit easier to find the thresh-hold...low temps are tougher to overcome...more mods needed to win that battle.
Oh, if you want a charcoal fired smoke with a gas burner for suplimenting the BTU output for temp control, just keep the charcoal fire closest to the smoke chamber...it may need to be a bit smaller than normal, but you don't want ashes dropping on the burner or it could plugg of while on low flame or when shut-dowm. The burner could also cause ash fall-out to become air-born and get carried into the smoke chamber...don't want ashes on the meat, so watch for that one.
Good luck and great smokes to ya!
Eric