- Dec 26, 2010
- 24
- 10
I've been smoking meat for over a decade now, starting with a firepit and a tripod, moving up to a 30" MES, then a 40" MES before buying a Vision Kamado egg. I've been wanting to get an offset smoker for years now and I finally got an opportunity I couldn't pass up.
It's a 120 gallon (I believe) smoking tank with a 40 pound fire box (maybe bigger). In doing my research over the years I knew I wanted a round firebox, I wanted the ability to dampen the firebox, I wanted the firebox to be big enough that I could put a rack in there and grill sides or chicken, and lastly I knew I wanted the exhaust stack to be at the same level of the grill grates. I grabbed this bad boy, welded on a shelf, made some additional racks, bought some temp gauges and slapped on a fresh coat of paint!
I was excited to fire it up but immediately I could tell I needed to order gaskets for it. The smoke came from everywhere. I had about 5' leftover from my recent ceramic cooker project so I got the bad holes sealed up and ordered a new roll off Amazon.
I'm really surprised by two things here. One it takes a LOT of wood to feed this beast. I started with half a bag of lump charcoal to get a base going and then must have dumped 8 pieces of oak on over a 6 hour cook. Maybe more. A few times I came back and had to quickly stoke the ashes and dump small chunks on to get it going again.
Two, I need to do something else to the firebox. I'm not sure if it's too big, if I need to raise the coals so air can get beneath or what, but the smoke was often way too thick. I wasn't able to achieve TBS unless I had the door open and the fire was raging instead of just coals. It has sliding vents on either side of the firebox, but it wasn't enough... if I closed the lid, it was smoking like a fiend. I'm thinking of making a quick platform so that the fire is raised about an inch and a half off the tank floor, but I'm also wondering if the exhaust pipe isn't big enough? I think it's just 4". Is it not pulling enough?
Ok three things surprised me. I couldn't believe how close the chambers were in temp. I was expecting to see 50-75 degrees difference but it was much closer to 10-25 depending on whether the fire was raging or not.
It's a 120 gallon (I believe) smoking tank with a 40 pound fire box (maybe bigger). In doing my research over the years I knew I wanted a round firebox, I wanted the ability to dampen the firebox, I wanted the firebox to be big enough that I could put a rack in there and grill sides or chicken, and lastly I knew I wanted the exhaust stack to be at the same level of the grill grates. I grabbed this bad boy, welded on a shelf, made some additional racks, bought some temp gauges and slapped on a fresh coat of paint!
I was excited to fire it up but immediately I could tell I needed to order gaskets for it. The smoke came from everywhere. I had about 5' leftover from my recent ceramic cooker project so I got the bad holes sealed up and ordered a new roll off Amazon.
I'm really surprised by two things here. One it takes a LOT of wood to feed this beast. I started with half a bag of lump charcoal to get a base going and then must have dumped 8 pieces of oak on over a 6 hour cook. Maybe more. A few times I came back and had to quickly stoke the ashes and dump small chunks on to get it going again.
Two, I need to do something else to the firebox. I'm not sure if it's too big, if I need to raise the coals so air can get beneath or what, but the smoke was often way too thick. I wasn't able to achieve TBS unless I had the door open and the fire was raging instead of just coals. It has sliding vents on either side of the firebox, but it wasn't enough... if I closed the lid, it was smoking like a fiend. I'm thinking of making a quick platform so that the fire is raised about an inch and a half off the tank floor, but I'm also wondering if the exhaust pipe isn't big enough? I think it's just 4". Is it not pulling enough?
Ok three things surprised me. I couldn't believe how close the chambers were in temp. I was expecting to see 50-75 degrees difference but it was much closer to 10-25 depending on whether the fire was raging or not.
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