- Jan 22, 2017
- 344
- 254
So I just picked up a new smoker from a new small bbq company in southern missouri. Hell Bender BBQ. Not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to there website?
So on this thread I will be documenting this smoker and showing at least the first few cooks along with my thoughts.
So initial thoughts was the price was good, tho they are not a big name like fat stack or franklin or any number of other manufacturers. Its built very stout. I would guess with minimal maintenance this will outlive me by a large margin. It is very short. In my case not a big deal because it will be going up on blocks. The guys who built it were looking for feedback and will be making adjustments on future pits. If I was going to leave it on wheels, I would defently ask them to make it taller and also ask for locking castors on the wheels. I love the large collector and the large/tall stack. The fire box is also semi insulated and huge! The design how the firebox is embedded into the main chamber by 6ish inches is different. Im not sure if this will be good or bad yet. Im hoping good.
Forgot to post dimentions. Firebox is 24 x 22 inches. Cooking grate is 36 x 23 inches. Stack is 6 inches and is 48 inches tall.
Measurements:
84 inches tall.
48 with stack removed.
30 inches from back to handle.
84 inches from collector to firebox handle.
So, on to the first fire and biscuit tests.
I loaded it with 3 or 4 handfulls of lump charcoal and starter. Once the coals were going some i added 3 small splits to get it started. The wood im using is bad. its oak that is a bit punky. But after it settled in smoke out the stack looked good and smoker rose to 325F at left side grill level pretty quickly. It then slowly came back down to 270f. I then started adding wood slowly. Again wood is bad but i was curious how it maintained temps and how much wood would to add and how often. Here are some pics while we wait for data, then i will put the biscuits on. So far Left side and middle are around 1F difference. Right side of course is much hotter.
So on this thread I will be documenting this smoker and showing at least the first few cooks along with my thoughts.
So initial thoughts was the price was good, tho they are not a big name like fat stack or franklin or any number of other manufacturers. Its built very stout. I would guess with minimal maintenance this will outlive me by a large margin. It is very short. In my case not a big deal because it will be going up on blocks. The guys who built it were looking for feedback and will be making adjustments on future pits. If I was going to leave it on wheels, I would defently ask them to make it taller and also ask for locking castors on the wheels. I love the large collector and the large/tall stack. The fire box is also semi insulated and huge! The design how the firebox is embedded into the main chamber by 6ish inches is different. Im not sure if this will be good or bad yet. Im hoping good.
Forgot to post dimentions. Firebox is 24 x 22 inches. Cooking grate is 36 x 23 inches. Stack is 6 inches and is 48 inches tall.
Measurements:
84 inches tall.
48 with stack removed.
30 inches from back to handle.
84 inches from collector to firebox handle.
So, on to the first fire and biscuit tests.
I loaded it with 3 or 4 handfulls of lump charcoal and starter. Once the coals were going some i added 3 small splits to get it started. The wood im using is bad. its oak that is a bit punky. But after it settled in smoke out the stack looked good and smoker rose to 325F at left side grill level pretty quickly. It then slowly came back down to 270f. I then started adding wood slowly. Again wood is bad but i was curious how it maintained temps and how much wood would to add and how often. Here are some pics while we wait for data, then i will put the biscuits on. So far Left side and middle are around 1F difference. Right side of course is much hotter.
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