Does Stick burning require more airflow?

[PetesMeat]

Hi Everyone,

I have been experimenting with stick burning in my small RF offset. I did a 12 hour smoke today,and it went ok but i struggled to keep the temp up all the time.

My smoker is converted to RF from a normal direct flow smoker, and the original chimney is still there, but with the damper closed. I decided to open this damper to see what happened and the fire went mental, glowing like crazy, both chimneys pumping heat out, and the temp went way up (up to where it should be, around 250F). I usually get very good hot burns with charcoal with just the RF chimney, but when stick burning, it behaved best with both chimney open. It worked out OK, as there was smoke coming out of the RF chimney so the smoke was passing over the food, so I saw no real issue with doing this, but it got me wondering if this is expected?

I could install another chimney or lengthen the one that is there. According to pitcalc, the chimney is the right length, but it really struggles with just the one chimney open when its running on oak.

It makes sense that a big hot flaming inferno would use more air than some glowing coals, but im not sure.

Any advice? Its got me worried about my centre feed build, as I want to stickburn that, im worried I might weld in some nice pretty stacks that turn out to be too small...

Thanks,

Pete.

[Big T]

Was the wood green or was it well seasoned ? I built my stack to the spec that the calculator said it should be so I always have it wide open but I have noticed that if my wood is damp or a little green I have to open my intakes a lot more than if I'm using good dry wood. When I build my next pit I'm going to make my stack a little larger in diameter that the recommended size or maybe go with twin stacks like Solo Q has on his pit.

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

I too was going to ask about the wood you were using. I always leave my stack wide open and only adjust the air dampers. What did your smoke look like before you opened it up and raised the temp? Was it burning white or were you getting thin blue?

[Rodcrafter]

I'm sure if you do the same thing with charcoal the temp would be even higher. The small pile of smoldering coals put out more heat than the wood does. But the combustion of the wood is not as easily achieved, as the charcoal has already done the footwork the wood is doing presently.

jm2cw

[Frank_Cox]

A smoke stack damper serves a different purpose on a traditional offset than it does on a reverse flow pit. On an offset that is where you set the draft or velocity of the air movement in the smoker. On a reverse flow that is done in 2 places both the baffle plate gap and the stack damper. Most guys will tell you on their rf pit they leave the damper open and it works best that way. I never close mine more than half. As Big T and clover ridge said the stack is already sized properly by the calc.
I adjust the air inlets as the cook changes and conditions around the pit change before I adjust the stack damper. remember one more thing, like rod crafter said, the coals are doing the cooking. the wood is just making more coals and giving you flavor.

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[PetesMeat]

The wood was not wet, its been sitting in a barn for about a year. Its not absolutely bone dry though, but pretty wet.

So I guess the next question is, how big should the gap between the BP and the end of the CC be? I was going to ask this anyway for my centre feed...

Thanks,

Pete.

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

We would need to know more about your cooker to answer that Pete. Did you run your build through the pit calculator? That would tell you the exact size of the gap. It also would be helpful if you could post of pics of your pit and FB.

[PetesMeat]

Hi Clover,

I did but as its center feed, im not sure if the numbers directly apply? Also don't remember seeing a number for the baffle plate gap, although I could be missing it.

Smoker looks like this so far:

Firebox is 500x500mm square (I belive that is 19 inches) and 650mm high. The cooking chmaber is 1250mm long, 500 deep and 600mm high.


Pete

[Big T]

I'm not sure if the same rules apply on a center feed but on a RF your BP gap would be the same size as the throat or just a little bigger.

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

If memory servers, the cals are different for a center feed vs a RF. Either Frank or Gizmo would know for sure. You may want to PM them and ask

[Gizmo]

Pit calc dimensions are fine. Just split the throat area in half and allow that much "openness" on each end of the BP. If you would like to over think this then make the gaps adjustable and you can "fine tune" it as you heat it - great fun!!

Look at Edgar's build for what I'm talking about. If memory serves the calculated throat opening was 72 sq. inches and I ran him at a combined gap opening of 30 sq. inches most of the time - so some restriction but HEY - he liked it there…..