To go Vertical or not?

[sammartin]

So im eyeing a 24x40 lone star grillz offset smoker mainly for the simple fact i need a larger cooking surface and im giving my bother-in-law my old offset smoker. Im im debating on getting a vertical add on to it. Ive heard alot of good about stand alone vertical smokers but i was curious what the temp control and split is like when its added to an offset pit? Or is it even worth getting a vertical option and just get a bigger pit say 24x60? Any input would be great thanks for the help guys!

 

[3montes]

I have both style smokers. Horizontal offset and vertical offset. I much prefer my horizontal it is much easier to cook on and has a more even heat flow. In all fairness the fabricator who built my horizontal did a far better design job. My vertical had the exhaust mounted on one side so of course it ran much hotter on the side of the exhaust. Like 50 to 70 degrees hotter. Exhaust should have been mounted top center. I had another fab weld another exhaust to the other side but it still runs hot on that one side. So now I'm thinking the baffle at the bottom next to the firebox needs some mods and also the fire box is too big.

I can make it work and just did 13 racks of ribs on it this weekend but it takes a lot more operator input than my horizontal.

Also the vertical gets problematic when doing multiple meats. You don't want poultry dripping down on other meats. I don't like beef basting my poultry while cooking either. So if you don't like one type of meat dripping on another during the smoke like me the vertical poses problems.

I looked very hard at Lone Star Grillz a few years back. I like his stuff and he will custom anything the way you want. He may build a better engineered vertical than mine that runs smoother but you will still have the multiple meat issue.

For my money I'd go with a larger horizontal offset.