South Texas smoker in Wisconsin

[2cold2smoke]

I grew up in South Texas and learned to smoke on a small homemade offset smoker using split mesquite wood. I Mostly smoked chicken as it was inexpensive.
Relocated to Wisconsin over 10 years ago and these last few years I've been getting back into smoking meats. I started out with a cheap offset I found on CL. The Brinkmann professional smoke'n'pit had a 16" diameter cooking chamber. I made it work for the first two years using tunning plates but then Started looking into mods last year. Another used smoker came up on local CL and I decided to buy this used reverse flow smoker instead. These are being made buy guy out of Waukesha, WI and he began building these first RF smokers out of thin 1/16 gauge steel. They have a 22" diameter cooking chamber by 30" long with a 16"x16" Fire box. It's been a huge difference in my cooks using this RF compared to my old cheap offset smoker.
Fire temp management has been my issue. I can babysit this stick burner and keep temps within a 10 degree swing if I don't open up the cooking chamber. Probably due to the thin gauge steel this RF smoker was constructed from. I've never smoked during these long cold winter months and just clean and put the smoker away late in the Fall.
I'd like to insulate this smoker so I can be able to use it this winter. Thinking of installing a CyberQ Cloud for fire temp management. Have never used this type of technology before and at $400, being able to leave the smoker alone for 1-2 hrs would be worth it.
Does the CyberQ Cloud work well on stick burners? I've been using seasoned cherry wood, hickory, Apple wood and sugar maple with great results getting that TBS.

 

[gmc2003]

2cold, Welcome aboard. Have you thought about a welders blanket? I don't think they're to expensive. Looking forward to seeing some of your cooks. Someone with your smoker(or one like it) will chime in on the CyberQ. If not you may want to repost in the charcoal or stick burners forum. More people will see it.

Chris.

 

[2cold2smoke]

Thanks Chris. Will look into a welder a blanket. I'll try posting on stick burners..

 

[gmc2003]

2cold, My bad it's actually wood smokers. Not stick burners. If you

 

[SmokinAl]

I wouldn't waste your money on a pit controller for a stick burner.
Your going to have to add a split every 45 minutes to an hour anyway, so just set you intakes & see where the smoker settles in at. Fire management takes a little time to learn. You have to start with the right sized fire & add the right sized split, when needed. My offset is made of heavier gauge steel than yours, but you should still be able to keep pretty steady temps with practice. By the way I do have a BBQ Guru port on my firebox, but I can keep the temps steadier just by adjusting the intakes, than the Guru can. It tends to over shoot the temp, then shut down the air causing thick white smoke.
Al

 

[2cold2smoke]

Al, that thick white smoke is what I was worried a CyberQ may accomplish when it shuts down a wood burning fire. Thanks for explaining that.
I have been splitting and cutting smaller sized (6-8" long) log lengths to maintain lower temps (190-200) while having a constant fire inside the fire box. This gives me steady thin white smoke or even clear no smoke during the cook.

Recently added 3/16" plate steel to the 1/16" RF baffle plate. I just cut the steel to size and dropped it in. That's what you see in the picture. I test is out by opening the lid to spritz the last pork butt I smoked. After closing the lid my grate temp came back up pretty fast. I'll work on insulating the outside of cooking chamber and fire box.

 

[2cold2smoke]