Brinkmann Grill King Deluxe

[hcarter]

Anyone use this grill/smoker? I am still trying to figure out the best way to use it. It is (right now anyway) big enough for most of my family gatherings. My whole family is convinced that I turn out some really good Q. I know that it can be better. Anybody who would like to help, I'm willing to listen.



- Howard

 

[bob-bqn]

Howdy Howard.

I'm familiar with the Brinkmann Smoke King Deluxe (BSKD). I have a NB Bandera smoker which is basically a mirror image of the BSKD. I have only used mine ocassionally as I have multiple smokers.

What question(s) do you have?

 

[hcarter]

I am having the hardest time with regulating the temp and adding more charcoal. Also, I cannot seem to keep the fire going. Any help is much appreciated.

 

[scott in kc]

h, I have a BSKD which I used to cook on a lot. There are a couple of relatively simple mods you can do that will make fire control of you cooker a lot easier.

First, raise the firegrate. The factory configuration of the firegrate being so close to the bottom of the firebox/ashpan doesn't allow for enough air to get to the fire and keeps the fire too far from the cooking chamber.

There are several ways you can approach this, and eventually you'll probably want to do something sturdier and longer lasting, but as a interim measure the simplest is to buy 4 stainless steel bolts 2-2 1/2" long, along with nuts and some washers to match. Put a washer on each bolt and a bolt through each corner of the firegrate with a washer and nut on the underside of the grate. This will make longer legs for your firegrate that will raise it up where there is room for ash under the fire and still room for air to get to the fire.

The other "mod" is called a baffle. This is a deflector that will help force heat under the waterpan and over to the far side of the cooker instead of the heat entering the cookchamber and going straight up the left side.

I'll hunt up a template for the baffle that I can post. The easiest way to do the baffle is from some aluminum flashing available at a home improvement or hardware store. It's easy to cut with snips and quite cheap. If you have a lot of tools and are the handy type, a sturdier version (steel 22-16ga) will last longer, but the aluminum will last quite a while.

As for how to manage your fire, if you'll tell us a little about what kind of charcoal you use (briquette or lump) and what you're using for flavoring wood (chunks, sticks, chips) we'll be better able to point you in a postive direction.

 

[bob-bqn]

I built a heavy duty fire grate for mine to allow the ashes to drop away and allow plenty of airflow.

A few more mods I'd like to do is the baffle that Scott showed and put a metal plate in the top of the firebox lid to keep the heat from filling the lid instead of the cooking chamber. Seems like a great waste of fuel.

I've heard of others lining the firebox with ceramic tiles or fire brick to insulate it.

As far as regulating temperature, I build a fire just big enough to reach the desired temperature in the cooking chamber and fine tune in by opening and closing the intake damper on the firebox. I normally leave the exhaust stack open. Opening the dampers allows more airflow to the fire which causes it to burn hotter and closing the dampers cools the fire. Closing both dampers too far, like if your fire is way too hot, can cause stale smoke and a bitter taste on your food, that's why a smaller fire and open dampers are better when using wood.

 

[hcarter]

Thanks everybody for the replies. I really appreciate it. I think I'll work on learning even more about building a fire. I am not at all handy with tools. Scott, mostly I use lump charcoal with lumps of wood. I think I need to invest in a chimney starter also. I can't wait to do some more Q. Thanks again!!


- Howard

 

[hcarter]

So, I just thought of another question. I know that this is a charcoal smoker, but has anyone used only wood in this one? Would it burn too hot? Should I maybe build one fire and then just shovel off the coals.... I don't know, I'm just thinking things through. Any thoughts?


- Howard

 

[jlloyd99]

Howard, if your thinking of going the only wood route check out the thread that SoFlaQuer (at leat I think it was his thread) posted about a burn barrel. It's a great way to get all wood coals to use in your charcoal smoker. You should be able to find it by searching or just looking in the equipment forum.

 

[brett_s]

I too have a BSKD, and had a hard time regulating the heat. My big problem was being able to get enough heat in the unit during the winter months.

My first mod was a baffle to get the heat under the water pan. I did one very similar to the picture above, but I made it out of 1/8 plate steel, and made so that it could bolt in with the existing bolt holes (longer bolts are needed). This really helped even out the heat of the fire box. Before this, you could have almost 100 degrees difference from one side to the other.

The second mod, was kind of hack, but I need something to insulate the cooking chamber. I took some ½†plywood and lined the outside and top of the smoking chamber (I had it laying around). I then took a heavy duty beach towel and made a “blanket†to go over the front door. This way, the whole cooking chamber was insulated. This made a huge difference. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll go back and make this proper later, for right now it looks bad, but works well.

The next mod was a removable baffle that drops in place of the cooking grate. A piece of 1/8 tread plate with a some angle iron welded around it, and another piece of tread plate welded on top of the angle. This created a ½†air gap between the tread plate pieces. If you just use a single piece of steel, it helps, but the heat transfer pretty readily. With the double wall construction you insulate the top very well. I then put some handles on it so I can remove it easily for clean up and in case I needed to tend the fire from above.

After that I double walled the inside of the fire box (the sides, bottom, and the piece of wall that is under the opening going to the cooking chamber). Used some 1/8†plate. Left about a ¼†gap between the plate and the side walls with vents at the sides to pull air past and remove the heat from the 1/8†plate (you want a diffuser/insulator not a heat sink). You can now hold your hand on the outside of the firebox when the temp in the cooking chamber is 230. Before it used to burn the paint off.

I have two other planned mods yet.

The first one is to figure out a way to get more air at the coals. It needs exactly what Bob-BQN showed. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll probably just scrounge for some heavy-duty grating and copy his.

The other mod is to add an additional heat source for winter use. I was thinking of putting a electric or gas element under the cooking chamber to add a few BTUâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s for when itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s near zero or windy out.

One very important thing to realize is that the front door temp gauge is just about useless. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve “mapped†out the inside of the cooking chamber with a wireless probe and can tell you that the temp is very even across most of the chamber. When you get within an inch of the door/outsides, it acts as a heat sink and the temp drops. Usually the door gauge will read 30-50 degrees lower than actual center temp. Anywhere else, the temp is very even. I now use a mechanical gauge and a wireless probe that measures towards the center of the cooking chamber versus the door mounted one (one gauge is near the bottom center, one is near the top center).

Overall, I can cook some decent stuff with the unit, but the overall construction seems kinda shoddy. If you feel like tinkering with it, you can make it pretty nice.

Brett

 

[parkwill]

Does anyone have a Grill King Deluxe cover for sale?

Thanks.

 

[parkwill]

Hi,

Would you please post the template of the baffle you made.

Thanks