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unless you want to stand there and feed it a twig every 3 minutes

That stack is not actually "low" really. Yes, it is not at the top or coming off the side at the very top, but it is still above the grate. If you assume that the cook grate is even with the bottom of the door opening then the actual connection for the exhaust is above the grate by a good estimated ...

Similar mods to those I initially did to my smoker. Mine is an Oklahoma Joe though. Start off by saying absolutely no expert so just giving observations from my experiences with my smoker and the mods I did. Hopefully they help. The temp deal could be a combo of condition differences and fuel differ...

certainly

RodCrafter - Usually like that here. Well, maybe in another month or so. Actually got a bit warmer so I welded up the issues on the exhaust box and got the smoker going. Two pork shoulders cooked and came out really nicely. Did not think of taking a pic of them in the smoker until I'd already got th...

Puff wrote:8" of new snow on top of the old 6" of ice and right now it is 18.4 degrees on its way down to near 5 tonight.

YIKES!

Big T - Thanks.

Yes, thinking I'd try and clean up the areas the best I can and weld them up this AM. Guess going to have to wait a bit though as got up to 20 degrees out so hopefully it will warm up soon!

Don't knock me too bad for my limited construction skills.

Thanks Big T. Finally got the mods finished today. Test burn with blue bag charcoal to season it showed mixed results. Got it up to 400 degrees and held it there no problem. Adjusted the inlets down and got it down to 250 and held it no problem. Biggest result is that once the adjustments stabilized...

Wanted to take a quick moment also to truly thank all those too took the time to post and take interest/help/give opinions on my original question and quest to dial in my smoker. I do truly appreciate it. Every one of the posts was read with interest, was taken into account when formulating what to ...

Yep, those shoulders like it a bit hotter just fine. Thanks for the tip! Think that is how I'll proceed cook wise. After Pete's post, Puff's and yours (sorry if I missed someone who said the same) I'm not going to sweat the temp difference as much. Still going to build my new exhaust and get rid of...

Funny you mention ribs. My very first use of a smoker was my 275. I'd only known how to regulate temps by having lit the firebox 8 or 10 times pretending there was food in it to see how it worked. The following week I had my first cook of 32 racks of ribs. You could not slip a spatula between the r...

On that point, it is good to have different zones so you can cook chicken in the hotter spot and big items in the lower areas. jm2cw Excellent point! I don't cook chicken on the smoker. Maybe missing out on that bit. I tend to cook a lot of ribs and pork shoulders and the occasional brisket. Usuall...

For what it's worth, my 275 RF smoker can be 10-15 degrees apart and during the same cook may be 4-10 degrees apart. Since it has not impacted the food quality, I just shift things around a bit to get it settled. Even a constant 15 seems to have little effect based on the maverick ET733 with probes...

Personally, I wouldn't worry about a 10 - 15 degree difference. Was thinking the same thing, but then I know me. I can never leave well enough alone. I get caught up in tweaking and experimenting until I get the result I want. Enjoy learning and trying to figure things out. If I left it alone I kno...

Rodcrafter wrote:Good job, and interesting data.

Thanks!

I read this with interest as the best way to learn is to experiment. I did a bunch of experiments with my smoker to find the sweet spots. I still think, and this may not be so, that the longer length of stack increases heat efficiency in the draft and helps bring up temperatures. I'll have to exper...

Don't know if anyone is still interested or that even it means a hill of beans as each smoker will probably react differently and mine is modified as listed in previous posts, but thought I'd not fall off the page as it were and post up results during a test run. Finally had good weather so did a lo...

Thanks for the post BigT, DCMan Yes, think the horizontal is too much of a wild card in the whole deal. Have not made any real progress on it as I did just a burn with the smoker and some testing with different length pipes both outside and inside the cook chamber, but then after spending all that e...

I bought some metal to modify my smoker and ended up picking up a piece or two of zinc coated metal by mistake. I took it back as even if the temps would never reach enough maybe to be any health risk, I just did not want to risk it. There are probably cheaper alternatives, but when I was looking ar...

Hi, Outside of the smoker looks exactly the same as stock right now. Same collar and same factory pipe that comes out at a 90 and goes up. All held with a set screw per factory other than I loosened the set screw and pulled the factory pipe out a bit and retightened it in place. This allowed the int...

What I have found (jump in guru's) is that quantity of wood, quality of wood and vents gets you both the temperature and smoke you want. If you have too big a fire then you are going to have to choke it down with the vents to get the temp under control. When you do that you stand the chance of havin...

Rodcrafter: Thanks for the post! Think you are correct in the horizontal stack deal. Too much of a wild card. Was hoping to be able to use what I have to be sort of a test bed to let me know length and placement before I did any drastic cutting and welding. Asked the initial questions because I was ...

Guess I wrote too much and took too long as the system logged me out and I lost the post I was making. SmokinFF- I looked at coming straight up with it, but the way the door is I'd have to come out towards the back corner of the chamber. Wondered about what effect that would have and also the diffic...

It is sort of a weird deal as you see many that think billowing smoke coming out of the smoker is what is supposed to be to "smoke" the meat. Not so, as said above. Hope not against the rules (please delete if so), but Lang has a pretty good video on Youtube showing how to get their backyard model f...