GOSM: Question about customization and experiences

[mattssacre]

Hey guys!  I was wondering if people who use a GOSM smoker could give me a few pointers on how to customize it.  I believe the one I have is the smaller version.  It has a single vent on top.  Any info would be great!

Where would be the best place to mount my temp probe (i have a wireless maverick) I can drill holes to mount as needed. Do you guys see highly varying temperatures depending on probe location in the smoker?  I pulled the door temperature gauge out and it reads correctly in boiling water as does my maverick.  While smoking the door gauge will be reading as much as 350 while the temperature near the meat (i have the probe stuck thought a piece of cork) will be around 220-230.  I also seem to have a great deal of trouble getting the temperature to stay at or near 225.  I'm guessing its around the medium setting on the burning.  Do you guys use the water dish?  If so, what do you use water in it? Water, sand, stones?  I recently lined the bottom on my smoker with firebrick to see if that would let me control the heat a little bit better.  I've only used it once since.  Seemed like it helped some, but took longer to get to the right temp i wanted (225 ish).  

Thanks again!

 

[s2k9k]

I have a GOSM 3405BGW it is the widebody but not the one called a big block, the BB has vents at the bottom but my widebody doesn't, so I'm not sure which one you have. I don't trust the factory therm on the door at all, I have a Mav ET-73 and I trust it and the door therm is sometimes high sometimes low so I don't even look at it. Since the 73 has short leads on the probes I drilled 2 small holes in the side right by the handle to run the leads through and I have a table right next to the smoker to set the transmitter on. Mine came with a little clip to hold the probe to the rack so I just put it wherever it will fit away from the meat.

I ran some temp tests once and found the bottom rack is about 5* cooler than the top rack, other than that it is pretty consistent throughout.

I put sand in the water pan and it really helped maintain temps better though I do still get a lot of fluctuations which I think are due to ambient conditions, wind and sun. It doesn't fluctuate too bad maybe 30*. I smoked some ribs this weekend and for 6 hours it bounced around 215* - 245* and it was really windy all day with sun and clouds. The sun beating on that black cabinet will really raise the temp and when a cloud comes by and some wind I can watch the temp fall. I thought about insulating it but the fluctuation isn't that bad and I can deal with it.

When I first got it i couldn't get it to go below 250* on the lowest setting  so I bought a needle valve which let me get it down to about 185*. I wanted to start using it to smoke jerky and I needed much lower temps so I put a smaller burner in it and can now maintain 135* with no problem.

I just built a firebox for it because I want to use an AMNPS for hot smokes in it. I was going to start a thread on my firebox mod today but I left my SD card at home with all the pics on it so maybe tonight or tomorrow I will get that up.

Hope that helps a little and if you have any other questions just ask, I know there are a lot of people on here that have been modding gassers to get them to work better.

 

[mattssacre]

Thanks for the reply.  Where do you suggest i get clean sand?  I'm in San Diego, so could I just grab some beach sand?  I use to have a clip to stick the sensor on the grate.  I lost it when I moved though.  Today i was smoking ribs, the temperature different between the top and bottom grate was as much as 25 degrees at times.  I guess I'm just supposed to rotate the food a few times to insure even cooking?

 

[s2k9k]

I just use what I saw most people on here have used, Play Sand, you can get from Lowes or HomeDepot or hardware stores, the type used in kids sandboxes, I think it's sterilized. It's only a few dollars for a big bag.

I would run some temp tests after I put the sand in with no food in the smoker, (the ribs could have been affecting your temps), set your smoker up just like you would be cooking but without any meat in it, then move the temp probe to different locations and make sure the door is closed for at least 10 minutes before recording your temp to allow the smoker to recuperate after the heat loss. 25* difference between top and bottom seems like a lot to me, like I said my GOSM only has about 5* difference from top to bottom and the top is warmer.

You really shouldn't have to rotate the food around.

Keep us posted!