To Vent or Not to Vent-That is the Question

[morkfrompork]

Never one to just leave things alone when you can experiment..

I`ve got some rope gasket on it`s way to fill the gap between lid and body of my 

EEEEEEElectrical ECB.

QUESTION-

Will I need to vent the lid?

I`m thinking yes, probably..but then again..that bit of gasket isn`t really going to hermetically seal the bullet and smother the smoldering wood????????

Or will it?

Thoughts???

Opinions???

Share a success or Failure???

Too New to Know

 

 

[thinblueduke]

I'd recommend some vent holes.  The issue isn't so much starving the fire of oxygen (that'll probably come up through the bottom) but rather having stale smoke on your food.  Stale smoke can leave a bitter, acrid taste.

 

[gary s]

Here is what you need to do to your ECB,  Works Great

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• Apr 10, 2015

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[morkfrompork]

 
I'd recommend some vent holes.  The issue isn't so much starving the fire of oxygen (that'll probably come up through the bottom) but rather having stale smoke on your food.  Stale smoke can leave a bitter, acrid taste.

Hmmmmmm...the thought of "STALE SMOKE" never entered my mind.

My thoughts were, the more smoke-the better.

Who Knew!!!

Good to know, thank you.

GaryS..

I`ve seen your mods, but mine being ELECTRIC, not charcoal, the bulk of your well done mods wouldn`t apply.

Since you seem to be a pretty handy kind of guy, I`ll ask you this.....

For a long time I`ve looked at that useless(to me)side burner on my grill and thought that could be the base for a pretty decent propane mod for a smoker.

Your thoughts?

Thanks for the info guys.

Saved me form some frustrations and skunky meat.

 

[thinblueduke]

I drilled ten 1/4" holes near the handle, and that's all the venting I've needed on top.  Propane should work fine.  I use a portable burner that takes butane canisters, and it's much more convenient than charcoal.

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• thinblueduke
• Apr 10, 2015

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• thinblueduke
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[morkfrompork]

I`ve looked at your mods as well.

Just using propane wasn`t the end goal..I just keep looking at that stupid side burner on my grill and think, I should use that for something other than just another side shelf.

One of those, too good a thing to just toss or ignore--it should be put to some reasonable purpose.

I`m never going to haul the grill into the wilds and a perfectly good stove is 25 feet away from the grill, just the thought of that side burner sits there mocking me.

 

[bill1]

Yes, you HAVE to have a vent at the top, otherwise your smoke won't be guided past your meat so your meat won't smoke.  But remember the physics. If you want more "draw" on the smoke "exhaust", you want to lengthen the vertical (gravity-aligned) path from the hottest point (where the wood is burning) to where the outside cool air is, ie add a smokestack or chimney.  I usually use an external 2" pipe (like a Smoke Daddy) to generate my smoke so find ~15" of 3/4" EMT conduit as a "chimney" helps keep the chips smoking at just the right rate.  If you're using the stock Brinkmann charcoal pan, you're probably generating plenty of smoke so just simple holes in the lid (and some adjustability never hurts) is enough.