Horz Reverse Flow Smoker 36L 16" OD pipe build but like ideas suggestions help

[LeonardK]

After 3 or 4 smokes on this, I just wasn't used to using this much fuel coming from only using a small 1.3 sq foot grill.
But now I really like this smoker and it seems reasonably economical and cooks good.

Put firebox latch, prepped, painted put angles for table. One more coat paint and it's done.

Since cleaning to paint, noticed this gets a really thick coating after just a few cooks, inside the stack.



How do we clean these out and how often. Heard some say they preasure wash like on trailer at car wash or home if you have a preasure washer. Looks like a tarry smoky layer over 3/32" thick just 4 cooks. Guess this may keep it from rusting?

[Dirtytires]

If your stack is building up that fast I would look at your wood or fire build. My guess is your fire is not burning very cleanly and causing too much smoke/soot. How old is your wood and what kind is it?

I’ve burned on my last pit for 12 years and never cleaned the stack as there was no need to. As far as the interior of the cook chamber, I run a light wire brush on it as needed (maybe once a year) if the creosote layer starts to flake and fall.

[LeonardK]

I used some old real old mesquite in the back yard and some dead branches I pulled out of the tree for last cook. Along with the cook at first I used Royal Oak lump charcoal then a couple 16# bags HEB brand mesquite charcoal.

Which one or all caused the dirty burn, old rotten mesquite wood, Royal Oak lump, HEB charcoal?

Could you list some better clean burning charcoals if these are not good?

Do you just use wood alone in your smoker, not with a mix of charcoal?

Thank you Dirtytires
Leonard

[towtruck]

If your stack is building up that fast I would look at your wood or fire build. My guess is your fire is not burning very cleanly and causing too much smoke/soot. How old is your wood and what kind is it?

I’ve burned on my last pit for 12 years and never cleaned the stack as there was no need to. As far as the interior of the cook chamber, I run a light wire brush on it as needed (maybe once a year) if the creosote layer starts to flake and fall.

[LeonardK]

What could be the cause of the fire not burning clean??????




I get that it could be the choice of wood rotten old or just dead and dry.



But also how about the burn, not getting enough air, you know we use the air supply and damper to control the temperature.

Maybe I'm not understanding how to use both these. Should air be almost wide open and control heat choking down flow with the stack damper????

Wood/charcoal choice. Burn character by controls air in or damper out.

I didn't think it would hurt but I put lard or fat from the previous smoke over the coals to get them started.

Leonard

[towtruck]

Open the stack fully and control the temp with the intake on the fire box. Your pics don't look bad though.

[jose-da-weldr]

From what I've been reading and trying to understand is, that your controlling your smoke with exhaust damper? If that's so, then your choking your smoke too much in your CC and it's not flowing out of your exhaust getting that thin blue smoke you want. You need to have your exhaust all the way open and control your air with your intake damper. I started a build last year with 18 in pipe, but I haven't finished it. Have a few projects that I need to take care of first, then I will concentrate 100% on it. Will post once I get back on it. Your build looks good by the way!!![emoji3][emoji3][emoji3]

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

[LeonardK]

You know, a friend joined me while cooking told me to tighten down on the damper to raise the temp. So on this smoker with 4x24" pipe I've been adjusting the damper kind of tight like 3/16 to 1/4 to maximize temperature and having the air on FB about 1" open but it's like 2.7" or about and while smoking, a condensation collects, so does this mean damper too tight choking flow...guess your saying it is.

Controlling the heat and smoke is really a matter of idea or concept... knowing how you should do it. Sounds sim to someone I also heard talking about his Gravity Feed that his 2.5" pipe stack was open and then used the air to control temp.

I'm going to try this from now on then, and glad yall both spoke up, there's only two controls besides the size of the fire, but I got it wrong.

Had some pretty good smokes so this should be even better now


So what about the dirty sooty stuff and dirty burn. How are the fuels I mentioned. Heard Kingsford burned hotter and thought about getting some.

Is it better and cleaner burning?

Do we have a list of what IS clean burning and what charcoals burn dirty. I don't know if I can tell and don't know if my friend can tell me either. He uses wood only in a kind of deep looking grill. Fire is about 2 feet under the food.

Thank you... anything else you figure out about fire clean burn. In this I regularly use some coal and some wood. what is right?














Also I have some furnaces built for Gravity Feed smokers. Can you get just as good and strong a smoke on meat with those as with the reverse flow smokers? How does the taste compare???


I still want to build these, one regular maybe, and one combo with a big ash box at bottom that's for stick burning

Looks like a set of speakers, huh?

[Dirtytires]

Your wood is too old. Remember your wood is going to impart flavor and taste to your meat. If you use rotted wood expect poor results. Wood needs to be dry, clean, split, and seasoned 1-2 years. Some, including myself, even try to knock off the bark.

No more burning fat. Again, why would you burn an “oil” in your smoker and risk ruining the meat? It also burns super dirty and will leave soot on everything. I won’t even burn briquettes in mine due to the binders/wax/coal dust in them. A lot of people do, and they are fine but no more fat drippings, cardboard, newspaper, or other trash.

[Pete Mazz]

[LeonardK]

Gotta learn sooner or later how to smoke if you never did it before, looks simple right? Only two controls.

I sure am thankful for your helpful directions, and will RECAP:







Stack Wide Open to give thin blue smoke

Control Heat by AIR INPUT

Clean Burn ... Wood needs to be dry, clean, split, and seasoned 1-2 years, even removing bark
................. Lump preferred most clean, briquettes have waxes, binders, coal dust
................. Don't burn oils or grease, paper etc to help fire along, very dirty sooty









Now this Reverse Flow Smoker 16x36 is finished

Your help, advice, and participation has been needed and much appreciated, thank you very much.
Leonard

[towtruck]

[Chromeski]

Well done

[Big T]

[nickanya]

Great!!!!

[LeonardK]

Hi

On one or two smokes, I let fire die down, took some time to recover and then also while getting ready for a job not having time to devote to a 9 hour smoke I thought of another just like this but with a gravity chute.

For 9 hours, 225 deg about 6 and 2.5 to 3 foil 300 deg I filled that burn box about 3x almost full.

So a chute for decent 9hr smoke and easy access not too tall 15" above top of smoker, this would allow for 4 fires, that is 3 in the chute and one burning below, and no grill or burn grate like a Stumps clone has.

I just couldn't rest till I drew and planned this. You can see there is a tight conflict for space for the stack, area of 4" pipe is 12.5" so then a slot beginning stack would make most of tray width just like you see some large 1000 gallon smokers have 12 x 1.25 goes up and transitions into a 3.25 x 4 at stack top and is angled away from chute to allow the angle iron with gasket seal at chute top.


This is addictive and I like planning and building special projects with a good purpose, the GF fire would burn on unattended till the smoke was done. This chute about 13.5x9 would allow some larger wood pieces.

But if I build it or not I just had to plan it and see how it would look. Just like the other drawing I followed, this one is to scale full size and would look just about like you see. I think I might do this, got the stuff already just lacking some 3/8 plate pipe sides and some half inch plate for above the burn box.

Imagine a cook with this? Start it with the meat and not come out to check on it for 6 hours. Even if outside with friends, nothing needed, just cook till foil time.


Leonard

I sure like the look of these temp gauges, on Amazon, they cost more but I might get one. This one claimed to be TelTru rebranded, quality just as good if not better.

[Big T]

A guy built a GF chute for his RF a few years ago and he said it worked fine but it went through an excessive amount of charcoal. If you decide to build it then you have to make sure that it's completely air tight or you'll end up with a runaway fire that you can't put out.

[LeonardK]

I'm glad you said that Big T, being made aware of others mistakes, to avoid is valuable

Might not build that GF RF then, just watch fire closer

This RF is working good. Going to cook two briskets today. Gonna try more pork butts in the future.

These one color lime green glow gauges sure look good, here's the tel tru I originally wanted to get. Midwest doesn't make you buy the nut and washer separate for $10 like Tel Tru.

No matter who makes these I like them both, could buy the cheaper ones, but when it's a thing I like to do, the better looking instruments just make it more enjoyable ( like fluke volt ohmeters, hp calculators, porter cable saws, dewalt drills, and scorpion brushless motor kits! )

Leonard

[LeonardK]

After about 10 or more smokes on this, finding it's 100 degrees colder at bottom main rack 14x33, I have to make fire for 350 to cook at 250 here.

So I considered chopping the top and expanding to be able to cook on a main tray 4" from top where the heat and smoke is with a maintray size of 20x42

Here's my plan in red and will expand length to be over the firebox:

Bottom of expansion 9" over firebox is at the dashed red line. Pic is scale

New Cooking Chamber would be 10" hi x 46" long x 20" deep losing some area by chopping the top but adding a bit more with 20" depth and 46" length. Cooking with it as is, flow is very good, and I expect flow will slow down some with added volume but still work good going from old rack 3.2 feet to new rack 5.25 sq feet. Burns about 20 something pounds fuel/wood for 10 hr smoke, so I feel I should be cooking more for the time and fuel spent


Many of you like Big T, MP4, Chromesky, Towtruck, Pete, DirtyTires etc have commented and helped and thank you, so today, how good do you think this will work?

Thank You
Leonard

[towtruck]

If you change the CC size your firebox size needs to be adjusted as well. I would leave well enough alone and cook in the area your temps are correct for what you making. Get creative and cook different things at different heights to take advantage of the temp differences.


Sounds like it's about time to step up and build a bigger pit.......maybe a Mack?

[Big T]

Before you rebuild the whole thing I would suggest that you try moving the exhaust higher up on the end of the CC. You can just move what you have now straight up as high as possible and weld a patch over the hole. It may not help your issues at all but it's pretty quick and easy to give it a try and see what happens.

[towtruck]

Before you rebuild the whole thing I would suggest that you try moving the exhaust higher up on the end of the CC. You can just move what you have now straight up as high as possible and weld a patch over the hole. It may not help your issues at all but it's pretty quick and easy to give it a try and see what happens.

Good advice right there!

[Dirtytires]

Forgive me, you have put out quite a few ideas on this post so I’m not sure if this has been answered already. Did you double check the numbers on this? It’s probably just the angle of the camera/picture but the firebox looks like it is mounted really low and I wonder if the throat is properly sized. Double check the exaust as well....probably just me but it looks out of proportion.

A full calculationand re-measure will take a lot less time than a re-build. It is amazing how easy it is to get numbers mixed up during a build.

[LeonardK]

Hi
Thank yall for answering, the area of max heat is already exclusively AT the top so putting the exhaust higher up probably won't change that, will it? I mean build a fire for 250 and I want to cook where the heat and smoke are MOST, in the upper radius I built a shelf but the cooking area is ONLY 12 x 33

What I am thinking trying is to "Channel" the heat and smoke right over a more generous size 20 x 42 (put 18" briskit depthwise instead of lengthwise) size rack instead of 12 x 33, wish someone with more knowledge/experience of how the heat distribution works would have spoke up ------BEFORE------ I built this...... I definitely would have built a long rectangle that effectively channeled heat, in the beginning.


I'm sure THIS question has NEVER been asked or answered already or before... this is after 10 or so cooks, uses lots more fuel than I thought and I have to make fire for 350 to cook at 250 on the main tray or cook in a larger area 100 degrees colder


About the throat I believe I followed closely the suggested area by forum calculator and also Feldon's. I know I'm probably stretching it to hope it works with a bit more volume, chopping the top, the height over the diverter plate would be 10" total but would be extended lengthwise 9". Remember about the exhaust, I asked Big T "...matter how tall, what's counted...." "...distance above the CC..." it's 4" pipe. Exhaust seems right. I would be hoping the throat as built now, would also work with the new volume, haven't done any calculations, tho.

new rectangular volume without throat 20x10x42 = 8400 about ---- 4.86 cu ft
old rev flo without throat volume = 5945 ---- 3.44 cu ft

Difference about 2450 over.... divided by 1728 cu inches = 1.4 cubic feet over, that sounds better




So losing some overhead volume to pipe ID of 15.25", BUT, taking more back increasing depth to 20" and 9" more length, the flow right now is really vigorous, as is, DO yall think this stands a good chance working?

[towtruck]

Move your stack to the top of the cc first and try that.....it just may get rid of the hot top section and allow a more even temp on the cc.

my 2 cents worth.