Uneven Temps in OKJ Longhorn

[soulvids]

I've done a several smokes on my Oklahoma Joe Longhorn with the following mods:

1) Horizon Convection Plate
2) Horizon Grill Grates
3) Horizon Charcoal Basket
4) High Temp Gasket (felt material w/adhesive) to seal all leaks
5) Foil-Wrapped Fire Bricks Lining the entire floor of cooking Chamber

The grates from Horizon leave approximately a 3 inch gap on the firebox side of the chamber. I've found that moving the convection plate to the right or left within this gap heats up the relative side of the chamber (ie. sliding it to the left heats the left side of the chamber). With manipulation, I can usually get both sides within 2 degrees of each other and it would remain that way for the 1st couple of hours of a cook, then temps may begin to shift and fluctuate. I'm unable to re-tune while food is cooking. I have also played around with my refueling methods to see if this would make a difference. I usually start the fire with lit over unlit charcoal bricketts and then refuel with unlit lump. I check for and address ash accumulation periodically. If the smoker falls below temp, it's often difficult to get it back up and stabelize it. A few times i re-fueled with unlit brickettes but so far that has worsened the problem. This summer, I plan to use oak and applewood logs as my primary fuel. Has anyone experienced these problems with this type of set up or have suggestions? This summer I will also be adding a stoker to my repertoire to try and maintain temps. I am approaching my second season using this smoker and hope to get better results. I now understand the reason Horizon makes offsets with pre-installed sliding convection plates as this would allow additional tuning during the cook.

 

[thebarkhound]

I recently posted about doing an all wood smoke in an OKJ. First all wood smoke

One thing that I think is important when burning wood is to not let the the pit temp tell you when to refuel, rather let the fire tell you. If you let the pit drop down 15-20 degrees below desired, you will be behind the 8 ball to get the fire hot again. Also refueling with unburned cold wood will produce a lot of white billowing smoke which is not good on a prolonged basis. 

#1 - Keep a handy stash of kindling (.5"-1") diameter splits on hand in case you need to get the fire back up to form quickly. Throw them on the ember bed beneath the grate in the firebox to get the stack engulfed quickly.

#2 - Run the fire as far right in the box as possible, and to keep the inlet open. It will burn faster and hotter, but this will prevent the fire from dying.

#3 - Preheat your wood on the warming plate, or in the far side of the FB

#4 - Refuel every 20 mins or so, depending on how large your splits are (I did 2-3" diameter, 6-8" long).

#5 - Watch your fire throughout the cook via the ash clean out. You will be able to see the condition without opening the FB door and dropping temp. When you see there is mostly ember and not a lot of wood left (~1/3 of peak ), you need to re-fuel. 

After dropping on you new splits poking around, redistributing the embers, you let them catch and burn off for 1-3 minutes with the FB lid ajar. This will catch them quick, and reduce the billowing smoke going throughout the cooking chamber. Your pit temp should not really move by doing this, since you are never letting the fire die down to start. 

Basically my approach is to keep the pit at or above desired and refuel proactively. Its much easier to bleed off excess heat rather than quickly come back up to temp, so I always err on the hotter side.  

Also, burning all wood is a tedious affair. Don't plan on being away from the pit for more than 15 mins at a time.