1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Mo Smoke · Post by **Mo Smoke** » January 22nd, 2014, 7:34 pm

I'm thinking about buying a 250 gallon propane tank from I guy I talked to. He said its approx 3ft by 7ft. Most tanks I have seen this size have two doors on them. Could I get away with 1 door if I put a counterweight on it? I want to leave room to put a whole hog in if I ever decide to cook one.

Smokeone · Post by **Smokeone** » January 22nd, 2014, 7:45 pm

By all means you can do one door. You could also build out a frame and make cabinet style doors, seen plenty of these and they look cool, and you get the full opening.

SmokinFF · Post by **SmokinFF** » January 22nd, 2014, 8:28 pm

I hate to do this.

SoloQue · Post by **SoloQue** » January 24th, 2014, 12:50 pm

I've got a 250 with a single door. Works great, no strain opening or closing and looks awesome.

Mo Smoke · Post by **Mo Smoke** » January 24th, 2014, 3:10 pm

Got pics ? I'd like to check out both setups, the single door and the cabinet style doors.

SmokinFF · Post by **SmokinFF** » January 24th, 2014, 3:45 pm

Check out thr RF section of the site. You may find other ideas you'd like to implement.

Smokeone · Post by **Smokeone** » January 24th, 2014, 7:46 pm

Here's one with the squared off doors. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2559 this one is very detailed
You should find all kinds of ideas here!

coma44 · Post by **coma44** » January 29th, 2014, 8:05 am

I did mine with one door because I do a lot of pig roasts. I needed the big door. I use a old boat winch to raise and lower the door. Less weight on the trailer that way.

: 200 pounder and 2 brisket and 2 pork butts.

SmokinFF · Post by **SmokinFF** » January 29th, 2014, 3:58 pm

Coma, how wide is that door?

coma44 · Post by **coma44** » January 30th, 2014, 9:49 am

Coma, how wide is that door?

Think it is 65 " if I remember right. It was a 250 gallon tank I cut one end off and added a ring that was 9 1/2" wide to it so I could maximize the cooking space and use the strip of left over steel.

SmokinFF · Post by **SmokinFF** » January 30th, 2014, 10:36 am

Thanks.

Mo Smoke · Post by **Mo Smoke** » February 5th, 2014, 5:33 pm

A couple of days ago I went to look at the 250 tank up close. It's big. Double my original plan for a 125. I can definitely see why many opt for the two doors. Weight is one issue, but it seems to me another issue would be heat loss each time you opened the door. It may be proportional to any other grill with one door, but tell me, is heat loss a major issue with a 1 door setup on a smoker of this size? Is the two door setup more efficient to maintain temps? What other advantages or disadvantages exist? My original reason for the 1 door setup would be so that it would be easy to place a whole hog in the cooker, but looks like I need to compare both setups pros and cons a little more. WHat can you guys tell me?

And btw, I have searched but havent found many 1 door setup pics. Show em if you got em, but it seems most 250g setups are 2 door.

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » February 5th, 2014, 7:21 pm

Design to the way you are going to use it.
The more often you use it the friendlier it should feel to operate.
The more weight you have to lift every time you go inside the CC the quicker you will get tired of using that cooker.
A friendlier-to-use cooker is really nice after you've had one that wasn't.

Otherwise it's just appearance.

Besides, with a little head scratching you can make your center post removable on a 2 door design for whole hog the few times you'll likely do one. Not a big price to pay if you do one a year or something like that.

Fiveflat · Post by **Fiveflat** » February 5th, 2014, 7:46 pm

How big of a door do you need for a whole pig? I've never done a whole one.

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » February 6th, 2014, 5:24 am

After 3 years and 11 million dollars, a government study found that when cooking whole hog you want a door that's just a little longer than the hog.

I'm sorry - couldn't resist.

SmokinFF · Post by **SmokinFF** » February 6th, 2014, 5:49 am

bluecatfish · Post by **bluecatfish** » February 6th, 2014, 11:15 am

SoloQue · Post by **SoloQue** » February 6th, 2014, 11:17 am

Fiveflat wrote:How big of a door do you need for a whole pig? I've never done a whole one.

If you are looking at the single door design you need to take into consideration your rack design within the smoker. If you are intending on full length slide out racks for easy loading then you automatically need doors slightly wider than your cooking surface. From experence with a top rack that pulls out and a lower rack that does not, a slide out rack is almost a must unless you truly enjoy wearing your BBQ creations on your shoulders and sleeves. Being able to pull that whole rack out and correctly place your meat cuts is a definite bonus. As for the heat loss, just target ~50 degrees above your intended cook temp before you ever open the door to load your cooker. You will have plenty of time to pull out the sliding rack, toss in the meat and seal everthing back up tight. Your Cook Chamber will also be ready to handle the heat sinks (cold hunks of meat) you just tossed in and will probable stabilize right at your intended cooking temp a whole lot faster than you expected. Since I seldom open my smoker doors more than one every other hour and even then it is for a short period of time, heat loss is minimal as the body of the smoker is fairly residual to the cooking temp.
Hope that helps.

coma44 · Post by **coma44** » February 6th, 2014, 11:20 am

This is what I do also ^^

SoloQue has it right. I find that about 50 to 70 degree extra before I load her up helps a lot.

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » February 6th, 2014, 1:13 pm

I call it "overshoot" and it gets more accurate the more times I do it….

coma44 · Post by **coma44** » February 6th, 2014, 2:29 pm

The worlds best smoker is always the one I'm going to build next….

Practice makes perfect!

SoloQue · Post by **SoloQue** » February 6th, 2014, 5:07 pm

coma44 wrote:Practice makes perfect!

My mama says I wuz perfect when I came intos this world ... I just likes ta practice

Mo Smoke · Post by **Mo Smoke** » February 7th, 2014, 9:28 am

50 - 75 degrees higher than target temp...got it. Thanks for that tip. Man I thought I was a decent grillmaster before watching pittmasters, and joining this site, but you guys are going to turn me into a beast once I get a cooker built.

BBsSmokeShack · Post by **BBsSmokeShack** » February 11th, 2014, 11:23 pm

I've had this same question. I am considering doing a 2 door design like the Bubba Grills. 2 doors but one overlaps the other...the opening is full length. That way I can cook hogs but still open just one side if doing ribs, chicken, meats that take shorter cook times.

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1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

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Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank

Re: 1 or 2 Doors for 250 gallon tank