First real test of our Dyna Glo Offset propane conversion

[EaOutlaw1969]

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Hi guys today will be our first real test of our propane conversion.
It is a real windy day in South Florida so I turned the smoker to prevent the wind from disturbing our burner. The smoker is heating up nicely and we have big plans for today.
All of which will be a first for My Wife and I. on the menu today
Smoked hamburgers with thick cut smoked bacon (bacon candy recipe ) found on YouTube
Pork Burnt ends as a trial run for beef brisket point burnt ends and flat brisket we plan on doing later this month or early next month.

Today is just a good test to make sure we can maintain steady temperatures even in high wind and to make sure we get no Flame out issues because of the Wind.

Since I installed the Orifice valve from Tejas Smokers our burner flame seems nice and consistent with no hunting from our cheap regulator. More post and pictures to come as our day progresses. wish us luck and as always we welcome any advice from all you fine pit masters.

 

[jcam222]

Good luck!! Looking forward to pics. I LOVE smoked burgers!! Often when I am doing a longer cook I throw in a tray of sirloin burgers for lunch.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

One hour in bacon flipped ( I fear our pork chunks are too small for the grates and in general for smoking they most likely will fall through during the smoke. At least they will be dripping on the burgers for some time.

I bunched up the pork chunks to hopefully save some of them from falling into the water pan. I wish I had just bought a pork Belly instead of what my local grocery store had.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

It is raining like crazy with high howling winds and the smoker is going like a champ. So far I am pleased with the conversion.

The smell is amazing coming off our pit I missed this sooo much. it has been years since we have been able to smoke meat.

 

[jcam222]

One hour in bacon flipped ( I fear our pork chunks are too small for the grates and in general for smoking they most likely will fall through during the smoke. At least they will be dripping on the burgers for some time.

I bunched up the pork chunks to hopefully save some of them from falling into the water pan. I wish I had just bought a pork Belly instead of what my local grocery store had.

For small chunks like that don’t hesitate to use a disposable foil pan. You will get plenty of smoke. You can also get disposable grill pans with little holes in them that work well.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Thanks for the tip jcan222
So far they are hanging in there. I plan on putting foil on the shelf under them before I pull them to hopefully catch anything that falls LOL.

The burger came out amazing, nice smoke ring, the pork fat that dripped on them also gave us great flavor profiles. It was hand down the best burger I have ever eaten. and perfectly done. Smoked for 1 hour at 225 seared 2 minutes a side let rest for 5 minutes. no soggy bun just simply delicious.
Now that the Wife and I have a handle on smoking burgers I do not think I will make them any other way for a long time.
The bacon we smoked was good not great because it was not crispy like we like so next time perhaps smoke for half hour then finish in skillet?
I am not sure but I will be looking into smoked bacon recipes on this forum.
It was worth it to smoke the bacon the way we did because it along with the pork chunks sure did add a lot of flavor to our burger.

 

[jcam222]

Thanks for the tip jcan222
So far they are hanging in there. I plan on putting foil on the shelf under them before I pull them to hopefully catch anything that falls LOL.

The burger came out amazing, nice smoke ring, the pork fat that dripped on them also gave us great flavor profiles. It was hand down the best burger I have ever eaten. and perfectly done. Smoked for 1 hour at 225 seared 2 minutes a side let rest for 5 minutes. no soggy bun just simply delicious.
Now that the Wife and I have a handle on smoking burgers I do not think I will make them any other way for a long time.
The bacon we smoked was good not great because it was not crispy like we like so next time perhaps smoke for half hour then finish in skillet?
I am not sure but I will be looking into smoked bacon recipes on this forum.
It was worth it to smoke the bacon the way we did because it along with the pork chunks sure did add a lot of flavor to our burger.

If you have a grinder grind the bacon into the burger then smoke the patties.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

No grinder yet But we were just talking about getting attachments for my Wifes kitchen aid mixer

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

That all looks fantastic!

G

 

[SmokinAl]

That looks like a very successful conversion to me.
I see you have plenty of temp gauges on the side, how much did they differ from top to bottom?
That burger looks fantastic!
Al

 

[tropics]

Burger looks great loaded with bacon. Likes
Richie

 

[uncle eddie]

I am curious about the temperature gauges as well...

Your conversion looks pretty spot on. Your burger looks pretty good too, but could use a little more bacon ;-)

Congrats on making the SMF banner-headlines!

Like!

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

That looks like a very successful conversion to me.
I see you have plenty of temp gauges on the side, how much did they differ from top to bottom?
That burger looks fantastic!
Al

Hi I found with the few test seasoning runs with charcoal and propane that with no modifications the majority heat would go up and out of the fire box and straight out of the chimney ( obvious poor design ). all the gauges except for the door gauge would read pretty close to each other ( with no food in the main chamber ) hottest would be the lowest gauge. The OEM door gauge would run 50 degrees cooler than my installed gauges. and all of these gauges would be different from my iGrill 2 probes placed on the two uppermost racks ( where I would do most of the smoking )
The water pan is supported on the lowest rack point just above the firebox mounting point. while testing I found out if I wrap part of the rack with aluminum foil to cause the heat go around and under the water pan it works much better. now once warmed up all of my gauges seem to match pretty close. It seems if you ran it without any other gauges other than the factory installed gauge and no modifications you would think your at the proper temperature but in reality it would be much hotter at the firebox side of the food and have cold spots throughout the smoke chamber.
It was so unbalanced the first session with charcoal for a two hour run The water pan was still full because the heat just went past the pan.
I am not sure what would have happened if the smoker was full of food without adding the aluminium foil But I think I would not have been happy with the smoker. While running it yesterday I tried to keep in mind for every recipe for smoking the same food everyone has their ideal time and temperature one recipe for example the hamburgers varied quite a bit. Oklahoma Joe's called for 270 I think for one hour while many other sites called for 225 also for an hour. I think the difference is the pit in question. some people measure at grate temperatures other measure at the OEM gauge.

It is confusing to say the least.I could have drilled my pit with 100 holes for a 100 gauges but what matters to me is the temperature at the grate the food is on. ( which changes as soon as you put food on it LOL )
I really only installed these gauges where I did because I knew upfront what would happen without modifications. But I needed them there to dial in what mods I needed to make and perhaps still need to fine tune. I will say if I did not take the time to properly seal this smoker I would still have my food on the smoker since it would have leaked like a screen door in a submarine.
This is a great pit for the money and just what I wanted The ability to burn charcoal and wood with the option for propane and wood for smoke.
It is much easier and I think better for our taste and physical restrictions to run propane.
The one thing that still needs work is the valve- orifice that I bought from Tejas smokers. it is super sensitive a micro fraction of a turn makes a large change in temperature. Once it is set it is very stable.
I just wish the valve itself was a needle valve where it needs at least one complete turn to make a temperature change.
I plan on adding a good quality needle valve just before the orifice valve to see if I can get better control of the adjustment.
If I did not mention it anyone doing a conversion like this needs to consider how hot the orifice and line gets at the burner which is why I added the 18" brass flared extension ( where the rubber line meets the copper extension I only get ambient temperatures ) at the orifice and anywhere near it it can get very hot causing the rubber line to fail and burst into flames.

 

[tx smoker]

The bacon we smoked was good not great because it was not crispy like we like so next time perhaps smoke for half hour then finish in skillet?

First off, great cook and some fantastic looking eats!! Congrats on the carousel ride. Interesting...we did burgers also last night and they too were my best so far. Smoked low for a bit on the Rec Tec then ran the temp up got sear them and topped with a pile of homemade pepper crusted bacon and all the goodies. Well done!!

What you may want to do is leave the baco in the smoker. When everything else is done and removed, run the temp up to 350 or so. That should crisp the bacon and with it being a propane smoker, temp should come up pretty quickly.

Robert

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

First off, great cook and some fantastic looking eats!! Congrats on the carousel ride. Interesting...we did burgers also last night and they too were my best so far. Smoked low for a bit on the Rec Tec then ran the temp up got sear them and topped with a pile of homemade pepper crusted bacon and all the goodies. Well done!!

What you may want to do is leave the baco in the smoker. When everything else is done and removed, run the temp up to 350 or so. That should crisp the bacon and with it being a propane smoker, temp should come up pretty quickly.

Robert

Thanks for the idea but I had the pork going also which took like 4.5 hours The bacon and hamburgers were out of the smoker at two hours. ( should have put the bacon on my grill at 350 for a few minutes ) but I was starving from sucking in all the delicious fumes we ate some of the bacon as it was. but we froze the rest and plan on heating it up at 350 till crisp to see how well it responds.

BTW the pork burnt ends came out fantastic, but it was such a small amount once rendered and done it was hardly worth the effort and propane cost.
Next time I will buy a whole pork belly if I want to go the pork route. it was just a test run for Beef brisket point burnt ends.

The good thing was, we were so full still from the burgers we really were not hungry ( but we ate them anyways ) I will post a picture later of those when I get a minute. ( we did the Oklahoma Joe's recipe )

 

[gmc2003]

Good looking burgers, It's nice to see a full and happy smoker. Congratulations on the successful maiden run.

Point for sure
Chris