Masterbuilt Gravity Feed

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How did you like the results ?

Did you apply the lava lock to the lid or to the cook chamber ?

lavalock to chamber sealer and flat rope gasket for fire boxes. Liked it but flare ups will jack up the cook chamber one less you put it on the door not the chamber itself. Flare ups WILL happen eventually we all have it happen lol. I liked it a lot any time you can seal up a cooker better yet stay in specs. I might try the magnetic slider thing for back vent on my 560 though i have not done that yet.
 
Anyone purchased the lss griddle shroud yet? I have one coming to try it out as using my griddle has been challenging. I have had to run the grill temp way up to get it to a good temp. Hopefully this will fix that.
1612542737640.png
 
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Joe's Grates shipped my new grate on Feb 12 , it went through Texas , slowly. Got it yesterday and seasoned it today. Did not really like having to pound those tabs down so it could slide in, but I'm sure it was worth it. Those factory grrates were a pain to deal with. I'm ready to barbecue now

mb560 grate.jpg
 
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It is I have the top 2 on my 560 and he tells you before hand you gotta bend the tabs. I just Jamed mine in a few times. Lazy man's way lol.

Oh yeah, I knew I'd have to hammer down the tabs, I watched his vid, but still, I did not like doing it. I had to hammer them a lot more than I was prepared for.
 
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Joe's Grates shipped my new grate on Feb 12 , it went through Texas , slowly. Got it yesterday and seasoned it today. Did not really like having to pound those tabs down so it could slide in, but I'm sure it was worth it. Those factory grrates were a pain to deal with. I'm ready to barbecue now

View attachment 486078
Looks nice. Finally got my 800 assembled after sitting in the box in the carport for almost 2 weeks. It looks like in the 1050 and the 800, the supports for the warming shelves are only large enough for one shelf on each level. So much of the side wall of the cook chamber is part of the lid. Right now, that's the only disappointmet I've got with the cooker (though I've only done one cook). I was hoping to be able to put a pizza stone on one of the upper levels to try to get better top browning. I'd be interested in any mods to get more square inches on one of the upper warming racks, if anyone knows of them.
 
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Masterbuilt has redesigned the charcoal grate. Pretty pricey, $15 and shipping makes it $25 . Its double the cost of the original grate, they want $8 for that one along with , I guess, $10 shipping /tax.

https://www.masterbuilt.com/products/gravity-series-charcoal-grate?_pos=1&_sid=a3737280a&_ss=r

I did not see a problem with the larger chunks falling through, especially if I had wood chunks in the ash bin. Just gonna get more smoke. But during my brisket cook, was standing behind the cooker, I heard a chunk drop into the ash bin and a few seconds later saw ash go out the back vent. I seasoned my new grate yesterday, 2 hours at 350*, and when done there was a very light coat of ash on the grate. I did not empty the ash bin before starting.

I'm thinkin smaller chunks means less ash to be kicked up when they drop through, and then picked up by the fan.

Instead of doing the mod with the skewers, I ordered the new grate from Masterbuilt. Maybe its better than the mod, maybe not.

I'm also thinking that emptying the ash bin during the cook, would be advisable. That's hard to do with live coals in the ash bin, but I've got a Behrens bucket with a very tight lid that will smother lit coals.
 
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Masterbuilt has redesigned the charcoal grate. Pretty pricey, $15 and shipping makes it $25 . Its double the cost of the original grate, they want $8 for that one along with , I guess, $10 shipping /tax.

https://www.masterbuilt.com/products/gravity-series-charcoal-grate?_pos=1&_sid=a3737280a&_ss=r

I did not see a problem with the larger chunks falling through, especially if I had chunks in the ash bin. Just gonna get more smoke. But during my brisket cook, was standing behind the cooker, I heard a chunk drop into the ash bin and a few seconds later saw ash go out the back vent. I seasoned my new grate yesterday, 2 hours at 350*, and when done there was a very light coat of ash on the grate. I did not empty the ash bin before starting.

I'm thinkin smaller chunks means less ash to be kicked up when they drop through, and then picked up by the fan.

Instead of doing the mod with the skewers, I ordered the new grate from Masterbuilt. Maybe its better than the mod, maybe not.

I'm also thinking that emptying the ash bin during the cook, would be advisable. That's hard to do with live coals in the ash bin, but I've got a Behrens bucket with a very tight lid that will smother lit coals.
My 800 came with the new design charcoal grate. I was happy to see it, as I had planned on using the stainless skewers to modify the older version if I got it.

My understanding is most people modified the older version to help with fuel consumption. The complaint was that with the larger gaps, too much charcoal would fall down into the ash bin and would go out (smothered in the ashes), thus needing to use up more in the hopper. I hadn't seen any complaints about the falling charcoal kicking up ash dust into the cooking chamber.

One person, however, said that adding the skewers to the old grate made it difficult to get the cook chamber up to 700 degrees. They thought that it might restrict the airflow some. My first cook with the new grate was a reverse seared ribeye, and I was able to hit 700 fairly quickly after smoking at 225. The chamber would drop to about 670 when flipping the steak, but came back up to 700 in about a minute. It worked fantastic, and I have to say it was the best crust on a steak I've ever had.
 
Same here. I picked up a set of skewers after I ordered mine in anticipation of the mod. My 1050 also came with the new design. Have only ash in the bin and am very pleased with the operation and fuel consumption of the pit.
 
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Same here. I picked up a set of skewers after I ordered mine in anticipation of the mod. My 1050 also came with the new design. Have only ash in the bin and am very pleased with the operation and fuel consumption of the pit.
Have you had any issues with wood chunks placed in the ash bin for extra smoke? I was wondering if the new grate would prevent the chunks from catching fire because no large chunks of charcoal fell through.
 
I try to mix the bigger chunks in with the charcoal and smaller pieces scattered around in the ash bin. Seems to help with the smaller coals falling thru the grate.
 
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I did this mod today. It was not as easy for me as Tom Horsman makes it look, but I think I got it done good enough. Not tested it yet. And I still gotta do the FB door.

 
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Does anyone else subscribe to Trendkiller on YouTube ?

Last May , he bought a 560. And he was very excited about it , about the whole concept of backyard gravity feed smokers. This vid will start with him talking about how GF's will give pellets competition. He did several cooks with the 560 and then nothing ......... I can't find another one past last June.

What happened ?

 
I did this mod today. It was not as easy for me as Tom Horsman makes it look, but I think I got it done good enough. Not tested it yet. And I still gotta do the FB door.



I tested this mod today, it leaks worse than the factory gasket. I'm gonna call this a waste of money and go back to factory.
 
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