New propnae vertical smoker

[virgo53]

Racin,

Mine has 4, just didn't have it in like you stated. That gas control needs some finesse to keep it from overheating.. Mine doesn't seam to be 20 degrees out but I will check it again, Two like units usually have similar idiosynchrasies.. Suggest keeping that tank of a smoke box in therer, ine stabilizes the temps real good. I get the smoker going WITHOUT chips in the box or food. I get it up to temp with the water bowl filled with hot water and/or mixture of apple juice andor/etc.. Then add the meat followed by filling the box. Hot YES, I use two tongs to get the box out of the smoker and fill it with completely soaked wood chips, ( I use my Vacuum sealer attachments to pull the appla juice into the chips for about two hours, Then dump the juice into the bowl and place the chips in the box) After this, The smoker gains in heat back to where I had it with a slight reduction due to the load. I keep mine at 220, that way the chips start smoking in a little while and continue for 1-2 hours. Don't underestimate that smoker box due to its size and weight, Whoever thought that one up seems to have gotten it right. My experience with this anyway.

Great to have ya aboard!!!~!

Keep in touch, I woulf like to know how yours works.

PS. I place two full racks of ribs hanging from the hooks with one rack under them on top of the water pan. Apeple juice with water in pand and apple chips only in smoker. 7 Hours later they were done, tips were a little overdone since I didn't wrap in foil. (operator education) Near the end I pushed the temp due to time constraint.

Mine doesn't seem to care about wind, The flame makes noise and you think it was going out. It didn't, Temps did not change 10 degrees after arriving back to the preset temp setting before addition of the food and chips. I spray PAM for grilling all the way around all of the rack and above and below the pan. Dishwasher turns them out spotless evertime

L8TR, Mike

 

[racingstudebakers]

Hey Mike!

I dunno about that heavy, ol' cast iron wood box. I used it the first two times I did chickens, (2 chickens the first time, 4 the second cook), but both times it took waaay too long to start smoking. Now having said that, I will say that I started both sessions "cold", no preheat. That might be the secret! I did preheat the concoction I put into the water pan. BUT, when I used the heavy box I noticed that just the center portion of the wood chips, (roughly in a circular pattern, conforming to the shape of the burner), were burnt down to ashes, while the outer chips were hardly burnt, with some that were hardly discolored!

Here's my take, it seems that the smoker, (specifically that big, brass burner), is so efficient at getting/keeping the heat up that I have to keep the flame too danged low, which reduces the effectiveness of the big cast iron smoker box. Also, the distance from the low flame is a factor. Due to that low flame and distance from it, the large, thick, cast iron box can't effectively utilize all of the chips. That means less smoke, all around. I think that cooking chicken would provide the optimum conditions for getting optimum performance from the big cast box, because you can cook chicken at higher temps. However, mebbe it would work fine with something that had a much longer cook time? Hell I dunno, guess it's gonna require more time to experiment. I haven't cooked anything that requires a long cook time yet....

The third time I cooked a couple of chickens, I switched between a thin baking pan, and a much, much smaller, cast iron chip box, (that I use for my regular cooking grille). The bake pan was ok, but even using the much thinner pan, (in the same position normally occupied but the big cast iron box), I basically had the same results. The chips outside the center of the pile were mostly unburnt. To use the smaller cast iron chip box, I placed one of the smoker shelves right on the bottom of the smoker, with the small cast iron box sitting on the shelf, directly over the burner. The results using the small box were great! I did have to add chips about every other hour when I spritzed the chickens, but I had great smoke all during. The small cast iron box heated up pretty quickly and all of the wood chips were pretty much used up.

I dunno, but you're probably correct, preheating everything with the big chip box in place could be the ticket. I just really would rather not load the smoker hot, it's already hard enough to get everything strategically placed! (never knew how unwieldy a greased chicken could be!

) In fact, how about the rest of you folks? Does everybody preheat and load their smoker hot? Heck, mebbe I've been missing something all along!

My-way-o-thinking, I like to get the smoke rolling right away, before the meat is too heated up, reducing it's ability to absorb that great flavoring. If it doesn't get as much smoke when it's getting closer to being cooked, I don't think that's a real problem. I think if it gets that smoke flavor right away, it gets mixed in and absorbed with the applied flavorings, resulting in better taste without needing an overabundance of smoke later. BUT, I HAVE been wrong previously!

You're right, the smoker seems pretty much unaffected by wind, and gets right back on temp very quickly. I honestly think that we made a great choice in smokers. It's not real big or real fancy, but it sure gets the job done, efficiently.

GREAT idea using the vacuum deal to get more apple flavor into the chips! I'm definitely gonna try THAT one! Thanks a million Mike!

 

[lance-a-lot]

Hello- I just received the Grillware smoker today for Fathers Day. This is my first smoker, cant wait to get going!!!!! I have read everyone's posts about all the little things to look out for on the Grillware smoker so that will help out. It looks like on mine that the seal on the door isn't perfect, there is a slight gap on the top left side (handle side), does anyone else have this and does it really matter? Also, my vent on the top will not close all the way, shouldn't it be able to?.....it isn't to obvious I'm new to to the whole smokin' thing is it??? what would be a fairly straight forward meat/recipe to try first? Thanks everyone!!!.

 

[gypsyseagod]

i can't advise on your smoker but pork shoulder or butt in the 5-8lb range is pretty cheap & easy. plus,everyone loves pulled pork.

 

[racingstudebakers]

Cool Father's Day gift! I'm sure that you're gonna love that ol' smoker. As for the slight gap at the top of the door, it might/possibly/mebbe effect it's ability to get up to higher temps, but I really doubt that it would be by much. In any event, the problem with the door is what a car body man would describe as being "cranked" or twisted a tad. The problem is probably not at the top corner of the door, more likely the bottom corner of the door is bent in slightly. Look the outer edge of the door over carefully and see if you can determine exactly where the problem is.

If the door is twisted, you can fix it yourself. Lay the unit down on it's left side, (the flat, handle side), on something like your wooden deck, (so it doesn't get scratched up). Get some help to hold the unit down carefully, pick the door up, (open it), then with one hand on the corner with the gap and the other hand on the opposite outside edge, twist the outer edge of the door, (CAREFULLY) so that you're applying pressure to close the gap at the top while pulling out the bottom of the door to open the gap, (basically a twisting motion of the outer edge), veeery carefully, a little at a time, checking fit as you go, until you've taken the twist out of the outer edge and the gap at the top is gone.

Seams/doors on smokers aren't really air tight anyway. Since I dunno how much of a gap you have, if it's a very slight gap, (although mine has none), I just wouldn't worry too much about it.

Concerning the top vent, look closely and you'll see a tab made especially to prevent you from closing the vent completely. You must never close that top vent completely. Foremost, closing that vent completely could allow a buildup of unburnt gasses and the unit just can't work correctly without that hole or draft anyway. The idea is that you want the hot air to rise, dragging that sweet smoke with it.

Congratulations on your gift, it really is a hell of a nice smoker! Smart of the gift-giver too! I'm sure that they realize they're gonna enjoy it as much as Dad! It's kind of like giving Mom a new stove for Mom's Day!

Let us know how the first smoke goes!

 

[lance-a-lot]

Thanks for the advice, the gap looks fairly small so I think I'll give it a shot and see what happens. I have heard a couple times now about using the 3-2-1 meathod for ribs. I've looked around the site but cant find any info on it. Does anyone where it is? thanks again.

 

[racingstudebakers]

You're very welcome, always happy to help/make something easier if I can. The deal is, when you accumulate experience, you have to pass it along too!

Oh, did I mention that everyone here seems to enjoy pictures VERY thoroughly?

Hmm.... I KNOW that I saw the 3-2-1 method SOMEwhere on here! I'd have to look too. LOTS of great information, huh?

 

[virgo53]

Lance a Lot

# of us who have this smoker have found out, and discussedhere, that the adjustment of the gas control for temperature is REEAALL touchy..

Watch out for that one right away,

My door is a little ajar also, doesn't seem to affect it any.

My control for the gas is loose, It wouldn't tighten up with the little screw provided. I will have to fix this with something else, It was bad from the start, Since I thought it a minor issue that is repairable with what should be a small effort, I didn't bring it back. Plus the time it took to "build" it.

Don't forget to look along the top inside. There are hooks for whatever you might like to hang up for smoking.

Have fun with it, Just watch that throttle.

Mike

 

[devolutionist]

Hey guys - sorry, been away for a bit.

RacingStudebakers is on the money - the vent at the top has a little catch on it to keep you from closing it completely - that's the intended design and keeps you from messing up by accidentally closing it.

Now all this talk about the smoke box is very interesting and had me thinking. The first time I used the smoker I had no trouble rolling out tons of smoke - but then again I was doing chicken and wanted the temp a little higher. When I did my first pork butt in it two weeks ago, I noticed not nearly as much smoke was being produced, but then again I was trying to keep a steady 220-225 temp. So I'm wondering if the door thermometer is indeed off a tad? I'm going to fire it up this week with another probe inside and see how much the variance is.

Regardless, from now on I'm going to start hot like Virgo53 mentions - that's what I've got all those oven mitts and tongs for anyway, right?

I'd also like to know what the temps are at the lower shelves when the door thermometer is at a given temperature, so I'll check that out as well and report back.

I get a little smoke out of my door, but not much at all - I don't think that's an issue on mine... but then again the gap isn't visible on mine either. If you can see inside the smoker through the gap, then you may want to adjust it. If you'd like a nice tight fit, maybe we can look into getting some kind of gasket material around the door to seal it up a bit better. That sounds like another thread topic!

Oh also - I got the BBQ Grillware smoker cover that is sold at Lowe's and it's about a foot too short. Covers the body of the smoker but my knobs at the bottom are exposed. Also, I'm pretty sure that in the next 6 months of searing Florida heat that the vent tab is going to poke a hole straight through that cover. It's already poking up pretty good...

My ol' Dad was down this weekend - and I think Lowe's owes me some commission money because I think I sold them another one of these bad boys!

Awesome father's day present - that's what mine was too, but I got mine about a month early... one of those "honey, let me just buy it now and that'll be my father's day present" deals

 

[devolutionist]

BTW - me and ol' Dad had a big discussion on the hooks inside - what exactly would you put up there? Beef Jerky and link sausage is all I could think of

 

[deejaydebi]

bacon would work, small hams that sort of thing

 

[squeezy]

That is strange, because I just changed one of mine! No problem!

 

[squeezy]

Here is another view of it ....

Click for the big view.

 

[devolutionist]

Wonder why you still can't pull it up on Lowe's web site? It's been available there for a while and it's hard for me to get my friends to buy them without a link

 

[watery eyes]

Best I can figure is that if you have a local store identified - their web site will only show items sold by that store. So if your store doesn't carry the product it won't show when you do a search.

Might try removing their cookie from your browser and try that way.


Just my observation.....

 

[devolutionist]

Good thinking - tried that and still doesn't pull up. Also remembered that I bought it from my local Lowe's and they had 3 more in stock... oh well, can't expect the web to be perfect I guess.

 

[deejaydebi]

They propably only list the most popular items on their site. They can't list everything in a store.

 

[lance-a-lot]

OK, I've had my smoker for 3 days and haven't done anything with it yet. I took a week vacation and am busy bringing the kids all over the place so not enought time to commit to smoking anything.

Today at 4:30pm I decided enough is enough, I found 2 chicken leg quarters in the fridge (partially boneless, whatever that means), found an Emeril rub that looks like it's a couple years old, rubbed down the chicken with it and off I went.

I'm not expecting great results but I needed to do something. I set up the smoker to a steady 350F, inserted my new temperature probe into the chicken and in it went. In the meantime, I took 4 ears of corn, peeled them, got all the silk off and they are currently soaking in water. I dont have any butchers twine so I plan on just wraping them back up in the husk as best I can and am going to put them in the smoker for an hour or 2.

I preheated the smoker and the wood box before placing in my wood chips. When i put the chips in I used about 2 handfulls. I noticed the smoke got rolling fairly well but after about 1/2 hour there was no more. Is this normal? should I just keep adding more? I read in the 5 day eCourse by Jeff that he stopps adding wood for smoke once the meat temp reaches 140F, anyone else do that?..............well, I better get back to tending the chicken, hopefully it comes out ok for how unprepared I am.

Lance

 

[watery eyes]

I cook my birds at 300 and use chunk wood or chunk wood mixed with chips.

Hard to say why your wood went up in smoke so fast not knowing how much you used initially. Your smoke should be minimal but consistent.

A lot of this is real trial and error stuff....but I know that you will get the hang of it quickly.

 

[lance-a-lot]

WOW!!! It all came out great, my 8 year old said it was the best chicken I ever made for her. The corn that I left in the husk came out ok but I rubbed one ear down with a little evoo, sprinkled some seasoning on it, wrapped it loosely in alum foil and that one came out great after about 1 1/2 hours....I'm inspired to move on!!!!

The wood flavor seemed just about right, I thought that it might have burned out to quickly but the taste was right on the money