- Aug 30, 2014
- 2
- 10
Hey There!
I started my smoking adventure a number of years ago while my fiance and I rented an apartment in Boston with a BTME thin walled Home Depot Smoker.
I read through every single thread I could find on how to improve the smoker, and had it all set up with the following:
Expanded metal fire box
Holes for the probes
Sealed all holes on the smoke chamber and firebox (welded and sealed with felt)
Improved the smokestack with a dryer vent elbow
Compete tuning plates as well as baffle plates
Installed a large deflector plate from 12 guage stainless steel
Etc etc etc
Since I purchased my home two years ago, I wanted to upgrade to a large wood burning smoker. I have plenty of apply orchards and my family is situated on a lot of white and red oak that I can take at my leisure. I had planned on buying a large new smoker, or even making my own from a propane tank with the help of a welding facility, but when a Meadows Creak TS120P came up on craigslist at a total steal, I went up and purchased it that day.
I have run the smoker ~6 times in the last month, and have not done anything to it in terms of design. It came with the extra cooking grate, but not the insulated fire box.
The unit has run great, from pork to chicken and sausages as well as lots of others.
However, the more I am using it, the more I seem to question its design I have run it twice with no food, and with a series of 4 thermo probes along the center line of the bottom cooking rack. I have also done the same on the top cooking rack. The main issue that I am seeing is that there is a large temperature gradient across the cook chamber. When looking at the smoker, the firebox is on the right side, as is the smokestack as it is a reverse flow smoker. i would think that the highest temperature would be on the left side when the smoke comes around the large baffle plate, but in fact it is on the firebox side, and it is mostly due to conduction and not smoke convection. This gradient can be extreme at times, nearing 45F from left to right. The temperature holds fine and is easy to adjust, but the gradient is what is hurting my cooks.
I have done everything I can think of to stop this minus making some changes to the smoker. I use mostly wood, but supplement with charcoal to keep the heat. I even started to use a side fire pit to get everything nice and warm before going in to make sure to prevent any temperature spikes.
Any suggestions on how prevent this heat transfer from the fire box to the cooking chamber? I am looking at putting some fire bricks in the far end of the smoker to prevent some of the heat transfer, but other than that I am loss.
The food always comes out great, it just takes some finesse to make sure that I get the meat in the right areas for the proper temperature cook.
Thanks everyone and happy smoking!!
I started my smoking adventure a number of years ago while my fiance and I rented an apartment in Boston with a BTME thin walled Home Depot Smoker.
I read through every single thread I could find on how to improve the smoker, and had it all set up with the following:
Expanded metal fire box
Holes for the probes
Sealed all holes on the smoke chamber and firebox (welded and sealed with felt)
Improved the smokestack with a dryer vent elbow
Compete tuning plates as well as baffle plates
Installed a large deflector plate from 12 guage stainless steel
Etc etc etc
Since I purchased my home two years ago, I wanted to upgrade to a large wood burning smoker. I have plenty of apply orchards and my family is situated on a lot of white and red oak that I can take at my leisure. I had planned on buying a large new smoker, or even making my own from a propane tank with the help of a welding facility, but when a Meadows Creak TS120P came up on craigslist at a total steal, I went up and purchased it that day.
I have run the smoker ~6 times in the last month, and have not done anything to it in terms of design. It came with the extra cooking grate, but not the insulated fire box.
The unit has run great, from pork to chicken and sausages as well as lots of others.
However, the more I am using it, the more I seem to question its design I have run it twice with no food, and with a series of 4 thermo probes along the center line of the bottom cooking rack. I have also done the same on the top cooking rack. The main issue that I am seeing is that there is a large temperature gradient across the cook chamber. When looking at the smoker, the firebox is on the right side, as is the smokestack as it is a reverse flow smoker. i would think that the highest temperature would be on the left side when the smoke comes around the large baffle plate, but in fact it is on the firebox side, and it is mostly due to conduction and not smoke convection. This gradient can be extreme at times, nearing 45F from left to right. The temperature holds fine and is easy to adjust, but the gradient is what is hurting my cooks.
I have done everything I can think of to stop this minus making some changes to the smoker. I use mostly wood, but supplement with charcoal to keep the heat. I even started to use a side fire pit to get everything nice and warm before going in to make sure to prevent any temperature spikes.
Any suggestions on how prevent this heat transfer from the fire box to the cooking chamber? I am looking at putting some fire bricks in the far end of the smoker to prevent some of the heat transfer, but other than that I am loss.
The food always comes out great, it just takes some finesse to make sure that I get the meat in the right areas for the proper temperature cook.
Thanks everyone and happy smoking!!
