New smoker for me

[firejoe20]

Hi! I have a new smoker for me, a friend of mine was throwing it away as he bought a new one. I was offered it and it is in good shape but clearly not cared for properly. It is a Char-Griller with side firebox and I made my first brisket on it this past weekend. All went well but clearly the internal thermometer is not right as it told me I was smoking at 190-200 all day. I am also unable to control the fire in the side box as well as I could with the UDS I used to have. I know there are a lot of posts for the Char Griller and I have done some of the mods already. I really need to know the below few questions:

* How can I re-calibrate the thermometer if it is at all possible?

* How can I maintain a better more consistent temperature between 225-250?

 

[wimpy69]

Trash the therm. If it's rusted around therm pull it and seal or silicone around to seal. Try to seal up air leakage for more constant temp. Get a good smoke goin, close off intake/exhaust and you'll find your leaks. Go to search bar and you'll find a ton of info.

 

[oddball]

Any therm that is in the smoker/door, will likely not be accurate.  The key is to use a known good therm to learn the actual temp.  Personally, I use a digital unit and place the smoker probed at the rear of the grill. 

Otherwise, as noted, it's just a matter of sealing up the unit as well as you can.  The best mods, in my opinion, are lowering the stack to grill level (gets the heat/smoke to meat level), and heat plates under the grill(s) to help heat flow evenly inside the entire smoker as they all suffer from having a hot side (by the fire box) and a cool side (by the smoke stack).