Well years ago I had a chargriller offset smoker. Since I have tried electric smoker which I modded out with a more accurate controller and smoke generator. Made all nighters easy peasy. Made ok bbq but I still remembered bbq from the chargriller. So next was the pellet grill. Great for convenience much like a gas grill but at least it was burning wood. Finally I was back to grilling on my weber kettle grill. No smoker but I was wanting a stick burner.
I now have the perfect place at my fish camp for a smoker. Been looking. I see that Home Depot has the Chargriller offset on clearance. Cheap!! Since I intended to mod it out anyway as an experiment and with my past experience with the same smoker it was a done deal.
First step seal it up. Lavalock gaskets and high temp silicone. Next cam cleats on the fire box ash drawer. Sealed up now!
Next the electronics. Love gadgets. Chefstemp S1 and Brezo fan. Now the learning starts. I got the smoker all seasoned up with spray canola oil and a hot fire. Next I installed the S1 and the fan through one of the damper vents on the firebox. Blocked the others with the supplied silver tape. Got the charcoal going in the fire box and started adding splits. Fire was getting pretty hot. I look over at the fan and it is drooping. The nose had melted. All stop at this point. Back to the drawing board.
Well I decided that the fan needed to be a little further from that hot steel. So I got a 1” pipe nipple 6” long, cut the nose off the fan and using the lavarock gasket material and a screw much like was on the original nose secured it through one of the damper holes. Still blocking the rest of the damper holes with the silver tape. That was aggravating so I took a 6” square of 1/8” steel, drilled a hole in the middle of it that the 1” pipe would fit through, and bolted it over the old damper location with a little high temp silicone behind it. Now I have no fire box damper. Just the fan.
Now for the real learning. Started out with too long a splits. Too much fire in the box. To cool it down you had to smother it. That created the dreaded dirty smoke. What to do? Simple! I got an alligator chain saw and cut the splits in half.
Fire Management:
Be patient. Start with charcoal. Get it going then add a couple of splits. Turn the fan on and the fire will get going quickly. You want to burn down those first few splits and get a good coal bed of wood coals. I don’t use a grate in my firebox. The coals fall through it and the splits aren’t in contact with them. Now you can put on a couple of more splits and close it up. Often this process takes an hour. Turn the fan on and set your target temp. See what happens. You may have to play with the fire or turn the fan on wide open for a while. You don’t want to put the meat on until the fan and temp. are cycling and holding temp within 4 or 5 degrees +/-. You want to keep a small hot fire in the firebox. No smothering to cool it down. That fire should always be blazing. Now with the airflow controlled I only have to add splits every 30 or 45 minutes and have beautiful thin blue smoke. Oh I preheat my splits on top of the firebox. That way the quickly catch when added to the hot coals.
Operating a stick burner is a learning experience. I have enjoyed the journey. As a bonus my BBQ is awesome.
I now have the perfect place at my fish camp for a smoker. Been looking. I see that Home Depot has the Chargriller offset on clearance. Cheap!! Since I intended to mod it out anyway as an experiment and with my past experience with the same smoker it was a done deal.
First step seal it up. Lavalock gaskets and high temp silicone. Next cam cleats on the fire box ash drawer. Sealed up now!
Next the electronics. Love gadgets. Chefstemp S1 and Brezo fan. Now the learning starts. I got the smoker all seasoned up with spray canola oil and a hot fire. Next I installed the S1 and the fan through one of the damper vents on the firebox. Blocked the others with the supplied silver tape. Got the charcoal going in the fire box and started adding splits. Fire was getting pretty hot. I look over at the fan and it is drooping. The nose had melted. All stop at this point. Back to the drawing board.
Well I decided that the fan needed to be a little further from that hot steel. So I got a 1” pipe nipple 6” long, cut the nose off the fan and using the lavarock gasket material and a screw much like was on the original nose secured it through one of the damper holes. Still blocking the rest of the damper holes with the silver tape. That was aggravating so I took a 6” square of 1/8” steel, drilled a hole in the middle of it that the 1” pipe would fit through, and bolted it over the old damper location with a little high temp silicone behind it. Now I have no fire box damper. Just the fan.
Now for the real learning. Started out with too long a splits. Too much fire in the box. To cool it down you had to smother it. That created the dreaded dirty smoke. What to do? Simple! I got an alligator chain saw and cut the splits in half.
Fire Management:
Be patient. Start with charcoal. Get it going then add a couple of splits. Turn the fan on and the fire will get going quickly. You want to burn down those first few splits and get a good coal bed of wood coals. I don’t use a grate in my firebox. The coals fall through it and the splits aren’t in contact with them. Now you can put on a couple of more splits and close it up. Often this process takes an hour. Turn the fan on and set your target temp. See what happens. You may have to play with the fire or turn the fan on wide open for a while. You don’t want to put the meat on until the fan and temp. are cycling and holding temp within 4 or 5 degrees +/-. You want to keep a small hot fire in the firebox. No smothering to cool it down. That fire should always be blazing. Now with the airflow controlled I only have to add splits every 30 or 45 minutes and have beautiful thin blue smoke. Oh I preheat my splits on top of the firebox. That way the quickly catch when added to the hot coals.
Operating a stick burner is a learning experience. I have enjoyed the journey. As a bonus my BBQ is awesome.
