Do you seal a smoker to keep in heat and smoke or keep oxygen just going through your vents?

[archi-nutt]

Wade, what you say seems to be in line with what is happening today. (Burning now)

I literally had to add briquettes ever 35 minutes or they would burn away. Seems a lot better today.

I have seen people use metal plates to make the snake. Seems like that would take less space for
Fuel and also not absorb so much heat.

 

[archi-nutt]

If I needed to keep this thing at 90 for cheese or something the brick and less space might be really helpful.

 

[wimpy69]

You can fabricate dividers as easy as taking a #10 can and hacking it up to make a double wall panel with a 3/4" gap between with return ends. Drill a hole in end piece place in basket and use some bailing wire thru you firebasket holes. If you dont like how it runs,away with it, nothing lost. If it works to your liking upgrade to something more permanent.

 

[gr0uch0]

 
When you are burning fuel and have reached the equilibrium point (where the heat produced by the coals matches the heat lost through the flue and walls of the smoker) you will be burning fuel at the same rate regardless of the amount of fuel that you have. The brick takes up space that would have been available for additional fuel - hence the reduction in overall cook time. I can see why the brick is there to create the maze effect but the fuel also has to heat that up too to begin with before it can later give heat back out. The brick will not be able to create heat and therefore the coals will have to have already created that heat too.

Once the smoker has reached equilibrium then (assuming normal external temperature conditions) then the length of the potential cook is limited only by the availability of the fuel and the air. More fuel = longer cook time.

I understand that the brick won't create heat, nor will it ever exceed the temps of the surrounding coals.  However, this "technology" of using bricks to hold heat has been utilized for centuries:  when we're talking about one brick, the coals in contact with the brick will get it up to temp rather rapidly.  If we were talking about a large wood fired brick oven, then yes, it would take a large amount of fuel to get up to cooking temp from ambient temp.  That's exactly why these types of ovens (wood fired pizza oven comes readily to mind) are seldom allowed to squelch and are kept burning constantly with a minimal amount of fuel having to be added.  In Arch's simple example, it will take a negligible amount of time to get a single brick up to temp (might take a few more briquettes on the front end), and once there, will maintain that heat with the surrounding coals being in contact with the brick, thus using less over the life of the cook. 

 

[wade]

The technology you are referring to is used to take a high heat over a short period of time and the release it slowly over a longer period of time. The comparatively tiny thermal mass of the single fire brick in the firebox will have very little (if any) additional impact on maintaining the required temperature in the smoke box once it is up to temperature. The amount of available fuel here is the important factor when it comes to the potential length of cook. If you cannot see that then I am afraid we will just have to agree to differ.

 

[gr0uch0]

 
The technology you are referring to is used to take a high heat over a short period of time and the release it slowly over a longer period of time. The comparatively tiny thermal mass of the single fire brick in the firebox will have very little (if any) additional impact on maintaining the required temperature in the smoke box once it is up to temperature. The amount of available fuel here is the important factor when it comes to the potential length of cook. If you cannot see that then I am afraid we will just have to agree to differ.

I can see plenty, Wade, but you're correct about one thing:  we'll agree to disagree on this one, amigo. 

 

[wade]

 

[archi-nutt]

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• archi-nutt
• Feb 25, 2017

And the important part!

 

[gr0uch0]

There you go, Archi:  well done, sir!

 

[archi-nutt]

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• archi-nutt
• Feb 26, 2017

Today is completely different. I need to keep The firebox almost full and wide open and can't seem to
Keep it at or above 200. But the pork butt temp seems to keep climbing steadily and burn time for the
Box is about 1.5 hours. So I'm just going with it.

Today is mid 30s and really windy. The box metal is pretty thin so I bet that has to effect it

I also just moved my thermometer to a different place. But it doesn't seem to change much.

I may try to move the tin full of sand to the bottom to finish off with more heat to get through the stall here in a few minutes.

 

[dave schiller]

I've been refurbishing a New Braunfels offset smoker and have all (well, most) of the leaks sealed.  However, the firebox door has gaps that probably need sealing for good temp control.  The FB door does not overlap the end of the FB; it fits into the opening of the FB, as if the opening was cut to make the door.  But it doesn't fit exactly and there are gaps around the door.  I've come up with a couple of ideas to seal it.  One is to simply apply a bead of high temp rtv like Permatex and seal the door shut.  It would allow for air control exclusively through the adjustable vent.  That would require using only the top door of the FB to add fuel.

So, would there be a problem with that approach?  Does it matter whether wood (fuel) is added from the top or end of the FB?  I guess I could seal it shut and if it doesn't work, cut the rtv with a razor blade so the end door can be used.

 

[daveomak]

Use thin metal strips to overlap the opening and make an air tight seal...   rivets or screws are good...

 

[jimmyinsd]

I agree with Wade here.  If you dont let the fire get to big to start with, you will have a slow clean burn through the coal basket.  I have been using the minion method on my UDS for a while now and have never needed to create a maze or anything like that with the coals.   fill the basket with charcoal and wood chunks,  add about 15-20 lit coals on top depending on how hot I want to run and then adjust the air inlets down as the temp increases until you find a nice settle in at your smoking temp.  its about as easy as it gets.  

I also think the top vent runs wide open,  I will play with chimney vents at low temps for smoking (cold-170) ,  and high temps for grilling (300+), but for some reason my Q temps (220-300)  I always run the stack wide open.