First 250 RF build help

[TRC]

I finished my smoker and had a dry run today. It took very little to get it hot and a very small fire to keep it to temperature. When I opened the door and then closed it the recovery time was very quick. It worked great, the calculator and the advise helped a lot. I am going to smoke a deer shoulder tomorrow so I hope all goes well.

[TRC]

Thanks for all the help!!!

[Big T]

[Gizmo]

TRC that came out GREAT

[bstory]

That's very nice

[bluecatfish]

Really looks good!

[Rev.Mike]

[The Czar]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[SmokinFF]

Strong work!!

[Miketheforester]

I like it!

[TRC]

I did my first cook on Sunday and the meat (venison front shoulder) was great! I did find it takes a very small fire to run this smoker. I did not put any seals on the doors yet and was wondering if I should. If I close the dampers on a hot fire I get a lot of white smoke, I am not sure this is correct. Any advise on how to keep the cooking temperatures down would be appreciated. I am planning to put RTV on the fire box and CC chamber doors to see if it helps.

[Rev.Mike]

maybe this link will help, frank demonstrates how to build a fire in a reverse flow
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=775

[TRC]

I tried it like that and it gets very hot 300-350 F. I had to let it die down and close the dampers over half way then keep a small fire to maintain 225-250 F.

[Gizmo]

If that were my cooker knowing what you just said, I would put 8 pounds of briquettes in the fire basket (in a pile) and dump one lit charcoal chimney (not quite 2 - #10 cans) on top of those. Set the draft at half the recommended opening size from what the pit calc says and the stack to half. Then leave it alone. Don't even cook anything.

This is boring stuff without refreshments by the way….

That size fire and air supply should be around half of the cooker's capacity. I'm gonna guess in about an hour you'll see the temp stabilize for a while then start back down. Then you know from there which way to change your fire size.

If you prefer an all-wood fire then transferring to a wood fire from a charcoal one once you know how big it needs to be is a lot easier than jumping straight into a wood fire from the beginning. Plus, it's impossible for me to explain the "how much" in this suggestion.

And remember - This advice is worth exactly what you paid for it…..

[Big T]

I agree on the dry runs until you figure out what it takes to dial it in. My cooker is roughly 108 gallons and I start off with 8 lbs of charcoal lit and 2 fist size splits on top of that. I have my stack and intakes fully opened, after 45 minutes or so I reach my temp around 225-250, I throw in 1 more split and give it a couple of minutes to get going, I close my intakes until I start to see white smoke and then I open the intake just enough that the white smoke clears up. Once I reach this point I close my stack damper until it's about 1/3 open and I make sure my temp has stabilized where I want it, if I need to raise the temp I open the stack a little more and if it's too hot I close it down a little bit. I usually end up with about 4-6 square inches open on my intake and my exhaust about the same. I have to add 2 splits about 45-60 minutes. Now that I have been cooking on it for a while I don't have to go through all these steps, I pretty much know what adjustments to make to get it where it needs to be. I know everybody has their own method that works for them so I guess I should have just left it at making dry runs until you figure it out. Maybe some of this will help you, if not just forget I ever said anything.

[TRC]

Thanks for the replies. I have never cooked on a smoker but I have watched a few videos and read about how to start it up. I was concerned about air leaks so I did put some gaskets on it last night, but I think it is fairly tight.

I thought you were supposed to get the smoker hot to steam clean it before use so that is what I have done. I think it would be better to clean after cooking so you don't need to get it so hot when starting it up. If my calculations are correct the CC is around 120 gallons and I followed the recommended sizes from the calculator. The fire box is about 10% oversize and everything else is related to that.

I think my biggest problems are not waiting long enough for adjustments, inexperience and not understand the relationship between the stack vent and the intake vets. Other than that I think things are going well.

I will try some more dry runs thursday and Friday and I am going to cook on Saturday. I do have several people coming over that have been smoking meat for a good while so I will let them read your replies and see if they can help. Thanks and I will keep you informed on my progress.

[Rodcrafter]

That will help a lot just dry running it. Allow the adjustments to have time to alter the cookers behavior before doing something else. I would stick to using the same amount of fuel and only adjust the air in and air out for a while and see how that works before changing the fuel.

jm2cw

[TRC]

I ended up running the smoker taking all the advice everyone gave me. I could maintaine 225-250 all day and night even with constant rain. Keeping the air in about 50-75% closed and the stack at 50-60% closed it was fairly easy to keep a constant temperature. Right now I am 9 hours into a Boston Butt and it is looking pretty good. Every hour I put two splits and four pieces of charcoal and the smoker is running great. Tomorrow I am smoking a bunch of chicken for all the family plus we will be eating the pork I will finish in a few hours. Thanks to all who have helped me . I will try and post some pictures of the meat I have been smoking.

[Big T]

I'm glad to hear that you're getting it figured out.

[TRC]

Here is some of the chicken and pork I smoked. Some of the best I have ever had, out of 20 people that came for dinner no one was disappointed. The advise I received helped me look like I knew what I was doing.

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

[Smokeone]

[Rev.Mike]