What do you think of the smoker part of this brick combo?

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davgam

Newbie
Original poster
Nov 29, 2013
11
10
Salisbury, MD
Hi folks, 

I'm considering building a brick Argentine grill and smoker pretty much along the lines as shown in this video:



That time lapse video is just fun to watch period but this set up would scratch all my cooking itches to cook over wood fire as a grill and for smoking. 

The guy who made this one was also kind enough to post some diagrams and a material list: http://www.ralfgomm.com/BBQ.pdf

My question for you experienced smokers is if the smoker portion of this design looks like a good one to you. It's a basic vertical smoker with a five foot tall chamber, with a 16x17.5 grate. Think that would smoke reasonably well? Venting ok? He has just one in the fire door. I think it would be fine for my need size wise although it may be a bit snug for a turkey. 

Thanks for your comments. 

David
 
After poking around a bit more on the forum, I'm now leaning toward doing an offset brick pit like PJ created here:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/136400/adventures-in-la-brick-smoker/40

but I would add some length beyond the firebox and put the argentine-style grill on top of that, leaving some room for additional counter space. Or perhaps bolt a shelf on the end. 

I saw another design that had a lid on top of the firebox that you can open and convert it into a grill but I wonder if that creates poor solutions for both smoking and grilling by splitting the difference. 

Called the city today and I found out I won't have to pull a permit to build a bbq pit, so that's makes life a bit easier.
 
Dav, evening... There are some drawbacks to a brick smoker.... The amount of thermal mass can take many hours to get to temp.... I had a block smoker 4x4x10 that took 24 hours to get to temp.... that's a lot of wood.... Just sayin'..... they do hold a pretty uniform temp once you get them dialed in....

Dave
 
Thanks Dave, that's certainly a consideration. The chargriller that I'm about to retire already burns through a lot of fuel since it's more of a sieve than a smoker after the abuse I've heaped on it. I'd love to get to something more efficient.

At risk of appearing schizophrenic, I've come back around to buying a manufactured smoker rather than building a brick one. As I added up component costs and some of the work I would need to hire out (like laying the slab, making doors), plus my wife not being too thrilled with the idea of a pile of brick in the back yard, I realized it wouldn't save much money and would be a lot more work! Another factor is that I've never laid brick although I'm fairly certain I could have figured it out. I would have had some false starts though, I'm sure. 

It was a fun thought exercise for a few days though!
 
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