Hey guys.
I have a custom made smoker, I will put all the dimensions below as info, together with some pictures.
My question to you guys is, why I seem to have trouble keeping my fire lit with my firebox door wide open. When I keep the top door open, my wood burns crazy, but when I close it and keep the side door fully open, after about 1 minute my fire begins to smolder and the longer I wait, the thicker the smoke gets.. until it's just only thick white smoke and my fire has gone out fully.
Is it because my smoke stack is too small for the smoker? If I put it in the calculators, it seems like it is 7.5 inches too short, but that does not seem like THAT big of a problem, if I keep my firebox side open, does it? I mean, would 7.5 inches really mean I can't have a fire at all? Because of too low airflow?
Or is there another issue?
Important: I have removed the baffle plates and that actually gives me a much better left to right temperature, but does not help with the fire. From now on though, I will not be using those baffle plates anymore.
My logs are dry, I place my logs so that there is still enough air under it, I have a good coalbed ( tried with a chimney of charcoal aswell), but nothing works..
The smokechamber and firebox are made out of 3/8th inch thick steel, the chimney is made out of 1/8th inch steel.
Smoke chamber: 47.25x15.75 inch
Firebox: 23.6x15.75 inch
Smokestack: 27.5x3.15 inch
Side door opening of firebox: 7.9x7.9 inch
firebox opening into smoke chamber: 12x7.9 inch
When I use the basket, it seems to be doing fine, but I have a harder time getting higher temps+ have to use thinner splits + harder time keeping my ash bed big enough + have to always have everything FULLY open for reaching 250, barely.. So I would prefer to just be smoking in the bottom of the firebox
I have a custom made smoker, I will put all the dimensions below as info, together with some pictures.
My question to you guys is, why I seem to have trouble keeping my fire lit with my firebox door wide open. When I keep the top door open, my wood burns crazy, but when I close it and keep the side door fully open, after about 1 minute my fire begins to smolder and the longer I wait, the thicker the smoke gets.. until it's just only thick white smoke and my fire has gone out fully.
Is it because my smoke stack is too small for the smoker? If I put it in the calculators, it seems like it is 7.5 inches too short, but that does not seem like THAT big of a problem, if I keep my firebox side open, does it? I mean, would 7.5 inches really mean I can't have a fire at all? Because of too low airflow?
Or is there another issue?
Important: I have removed the baffle plates and that actually gives me a much better left to right temperature, but does not help with the fire. From now on though, I will not be using those baffle plates anymore.
My logs are dry, I place my logs so that there is still enough air under it, I have a good coalbed ( tried with a chimney of charcoal aswell), but nothing works..
The smokechamber and firebox are made out of 3/8th inch thick steel, the chimney is made out of 1/8th inch steel.
Smoke chamber: 47.25x15.75 inch
Firebox: 23.6x15.75 inch
Smokestack: 27.5x3.15 inch
Side door opening of firebox: 7.9x7.9 inch
firebox opening into smoke chamber: 12x7.9 inch
When I use the basket, it seems to be doing fine, but I have a harder time getting higher temps+ have to use thinner splits + harder time keeping my ash bed big enough + have to always have everything FULLY open for reaching 250, barely.. So I would prefer to just be smoking in the bottom of the firebox
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