Dyna Glo Wide Body: 100F Degree Difference between top and bottom

[desert_fox]

Hello Everyone, Newbie here.

Just got my Dyna Glo Wide body and doing my first season session, with all racks filled with bacon, and charcoal chamber full, the top thermometer is showing ~300F and the bottom ~200F. No baffle is installed. All vents wide open. I'm still confused as to why the bottom is a lot colder than the top. I even plugged the drip hole at the bottom with weber grommet and nothing changed. The thermometers' probe are not touching any metal. They're calibrated (DozyAnt), tested them and are accurate at 212F when probes were immersed in boiling water. Any ideas gentlemen?

Top


Bottom

 

[JCAP]

As with most things in life I could be wrong but I’m not surprised the top is hotter than the bottom. By how much is the question and I’m not sure If your difference is normal or too much. The top of my propane smoker runs a touch hitter.

You could try a few things- pick up a couple of cheap oven therms for each shelf and see the heat distribution. Or you could switch the two dial therms to see. Or if you have a multi-probe there that could help. It might be a good idea to this anyway to get a feel for the hotter and cooler areas of the cooler.
Enjoy and have fun!

 

[Jazek86794444]

Hellow

 

[desert_fox]

As with most things in life I could be wrong but I’m not surprised the top is hotter than the bottom. By how much is the question and I’m not sure If your difference is normal or too much. The top of my propane smoker runs a touch hitter.

You could try a few things- pick up a couple of cheap oven therms for each shelf and see the heat distribution. Or you could switch the two dial therms to see. Or if you have a multi-probe there that could help. It might be a good idea to this anyway to get a feel for the hotter and cooler areas of the cooler.
Enjoy and have fun!

Thanks for the tip JCAP! Will try it out and see where my hotspots are. I heard that using ceramic grill tiles diffuses hotspots. Might try that too.

 

[BigW.]

There are probably a couple ways to even it out some. My guess is there will always be some difference. I second JCAP, buy a multi-probe therm. So you'll know what the temps are and adapt to your smoker. Smoke poultry up higher for crispy skin, rotate top/bottom if needed etc. Trying to outsmart your smoker is half the fun.

 

[carloslara]

Hello Everyone, Newbie here.

Just got my Dyna Glo Wide body and doing my first season session, with all racks filled with bacon, and charcoal chamber full, the top thermometer is showing ~300F and the bottom ~200F. No baffle is installed. All vents wide open. I'm still confused as to why the bottom is a lot colder than the top. I even plugged the drip hole at the bottom with weber grommet and nothing changed. The thermometers' probe are not touching any metal. They're calibrated (DozyAnt), tested them and are accurate at 212F when probes were immersed in boiling water. Any ideas gentlemen?

Top
View attachment 418930

Bottom
View attachment 418931

Has you seen leakage around the body and gasket? Because mine. Which i purchased recently came all around with leakage from the firebox to the smoker section. The best way to identify all those spot is using any wood. I will post some mods that i had done to improve the unit.