Hello all, So I have been throwing around the idea of building a barrel smoker. I've seen all the sites that sell the parts to help with the build. Question. I have a billows and signals temp controller. If I plan on using that to help.with my cooks. The way I see it is that I only need a inlet at the bottom just for the billows fan. No need to 2 air intakes with valves or those inlet pipes. Correct? The way I see it, One hole for the fan and a exhaust on top should be efficient. Thanks for any info. Kevin
Kevin, I’ll try to help; I'm newbie but have the setup you describe, only used it once so here goes. You are correct, Billows is only inlet you need. In fact,
ThermoWorks sells a yellow damper that snaps in where the protective yellow hockey puck comes out of. I highly recommend, as even when fan is not running, you get ‘blow-by’ thru the big hole and past the fan. I shut that Billows damper almost all the way, say 1/4”. Also, you’ll need to close your exhaust down a bit also, say 30% closed.
i started with about 2/3 basket of Ol Blue with 3 pecan chunks layered in the middle, a Tumbleweed nestled in the middle. Lit the ‘weed, made sure it caught, lowered basket into drum - literally 2-3 minutes. When the pit probe on Ch4 hit 180-200F, close all intakes (except Billows) and throttle exhaust to 30% closed. Set pit probe to 225F and let it ride.
Important lesson: it is waaay easier to bring your pit
up to temp than try to bring it back down! Don’t let it get away from you! Ask me how I know.
Kevin, follow those simple rules and I guarantee you’ll be in love. Within 30 minutes of lighting my basket, I had TBS @ rock steady 225F for 6+ hours on an estimated 1/2 chimney!
Full disclosure: this is my 3rd burn on a uds and first cook using Billows. I could not possibly be happier with Signals, Billows and my first uds build; even easier than my
RECTEC pellet.
Hope this helps!
