Just got this unit. Did a lot of research before buying. I am a charcoal guy and my research lead me to this smoker, mostly because thought it was very great unit for the money. I had been looking for a vertical offset smoker for while. I am replacing a Brinkman straight Vertical Smoker
Assembly was about 1.5 hours by my self. Despite instructions telling me I needed assistance to attach the firebox to the chamber I was able to do it with both pieces lying flat the back.. I put Nomex gasket between firebox and chamber to prevent leaks. When I fired it up there are leaks between firebox and chamber! I was expecting at least few small leaks!
Seasoning
I liberally coated all areas of inside of chamber with Pam olive oil. Started fire with chamber completely empty (not even a water pan). Ran for 2 hours, Flue and vents wide open, opened chamber and all surfaces were coated with blackish liquid. Closed door and the fire off and was completely cooled off..Temps ran around 325-375.
Maiden Voyage
I didn't do ant mods yet and ran straight out of box. I then put 5 chicken breasts on, one on each shelf and stagger in position by either left or right side of chamber. The purpose for this alignment is two fold. First, I wanted check how evenly the smoker cooked. Secondly, I didn't want load it with alot of meat until I was sure I had at least reasonably learned to control temp. Simply didn't want to have a whole smoker full of meat either under cooked or completely burnt to a crisp.
Fired it up with a mixture of Kingsford and lump charcoal, the coal holder was a little over halfway full. Put on Western hickory chunks that had been soaked for about an hour. Once smoker got into cooking range (at least according to the built in thermometer) and played with the Flue and vents to try to keep at 210. After 1.5 hours I opened the chamber. I noticed that chix breast on the left side of the were fairly charred. This told me too much heat was coming up the left side of the chamber, side opposite of firebox. During my research, I saw several posts where people put a baffling device across the bottom of chamber to solve this issue. More on my solution to this issue during my 2nd smoke later on.
Moved all the breast to right side of chamber directly above the water pan on bottom rack. Let cook for another 45 mins and pulled them off. Aside from the initial charring, there was little addition charring This told me that above the water pan, heat was ideal for cooking. So yes appears without any mods, the smoker does not heat evenly, which was mentioned several times throughout my research. See my next to see how I solved this problem
Until then my friends
Happy Smoking!