high temps

[rhousley]

I work for a large privately owned BBQ chain, so have pretty good knowledge about large electric rotisserie smokers with hot boxes, temps and cooking times for meats and woods and rubs, but I bought a brinkman smoker for home smoking and am in the curing process right now, and am already dealing with high temps.  The way I understand the directions is that you are keeping the chimney closed and fire box closed to DECREASE heat? Maybe I started with too much charcoal/too much fuel? I have access to an internal thermo, how accurate are the external thermos? should I keep it completely closed to bring temp down, or open the chimney ? I've seen conflicting info.  Heard lots of mods, not really sure if I'm ready to start drilling holes to a brand new smoker if I can help it.  I'm pretty comfortable with the process and length of smoke as long as I can get temps consistent.  Please advise...?

kit

 

[pellet]

I cant speak to having too much fuel or too little fuel except to say that if you have all the vents shut and you are heating up too much, it would seem that you have too much fuel or a lot of air leaking into your fire box! If not enough heat and vents are closed, try opening the chimney and setting the FB vent and try again. After getting everything sealed of course.
The mods would be to use a good sealer to seal up any smoke leaks not from the chimney stack. Possibly a deflector inside the smoke chamber.. I would start with getting any leaks sealed up and build a charcoal box experiment and then move on to a deflector and then maybe some tuning plates. So the order of the mods might be a charcoal box, then heat resistant sealer, then a deflector plate, then tuning plates. Work with each step til you get it dialed in and don't try to absorb all the info on the mods. I found when I first started looking at all the mods and tricks I got a headache, Its really not that hard, I just made it that way. Outside temps as well as wind will have some affect also. Good luck!

 

[daveomak]

Pellet has good advice.......... Seal all air leaks...... leave the exhaust wide open for good smoke flavor..... control the heat with the air intake...