Lang Smoker

lkapigian

Been looking for a nice offset like Lang or Klose...found a 3 year old 36 offset for 850.00....upgraded stainless grates the rest looks stock...not significantly low but if you factor in no freight as I can pick it up, that saves me 1k right there

Any Lang owners out there input appreciated 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

i think foghorn has a Lang. Hope you like staying up all night

lkapigian

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

i think foghorn has a Lang. Hope you like staying up all night

Ya, I know it's a drawback, I've got a cheap offset I've modified to reverse flow, it's a lot of work, but sometimes that makes it interesting...with the Lang a stoker should buy me a few hours of sleep

SGH

Lang is one of the Big 5. They are great units without question or doubt. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

lkapigian said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

i think foghorn has a Lang. Hope you like staying up all night

Ya, I know it's a drawback, I've got a cheap offset I've modified to reverse flow, it's a lot of work, but sometimes that makes it interesting...with the Lang a stoker should buy me a few hours of sleep

Not really. A stoker isn't going to run a Lang. The problem is that they aren't airtight or insulated. You can't keep the temp down on many older offsets because of all the air leaks. 

SGH

For the record, Lang was the first to bring reverse flow to commercial offsets. Backwoods was the first to bring it to vertical cabinets. Unit #6 is baffled on the same split as the older Langs. Lang is a solid design.

SGH

@lkapigian A controller is less than desirable on most offsets. The exception being Peoria and Pitmaker. Both are heavily insulated and air tight. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but it offers little if any benefit at all. A offset is best controlled with the door, the door damper and the amount of wood you feed it. Not a blower. This is just my findings with running the wood fired units.

JohnH12

I have a Lang 36 Patio that sits next to the XL Egg. I got it off Craigs List several years ago. It has it's place under my cook shed. The egg is for long and slow but the Lang works great for anything up to a few hours. I also have a hydraulic splitter and reasonable sources for various types of wood. The food generally has more smoke flavor from the Lang so you have to pick and cheese the meat you cook. My friends and I can sit out there and not be bothered too much as we add wood to the fire and cold beer to ourselves. The side benifit is I can tell the wife I can't be bothered with other chores because I have to watch the fire.

buzd504

JohnH12 said:

The side benifit is I can tell the wife I can't be bothered with other chores because I have to watch the fire.

Hell, I tell her that with the egg.  I think she is starting to figure it out, though...

Foghorn

I have a Klose Backyard Chef with horizontal and vertical cooking chambers that I bought used off of Craigslist.  As SGH said, it is more challenging to control temp on an offset than an Egg.  The Lang's reverse flow will give you a more even temp throughout the cooking chamber than my Klose.  I only use my Klose a few times a year.  I use it when I want to cook A LOT of food (for example, I've done 12 racks of ribs but it could do 20 very easily), or I just feel like playing with fire all day.  It does a great prime rib and you can do a brisket without cooking overnight if you run the temp around 280 (which means fluctuating between 250 and 325).  Check all the places where air can leak.  If they seem good and tight you are in good shape.

When I get the cook just right, I honestly can't tell the difference between the Egg and the Klose.  The best prime rib I've ever done was on the Klose.  But the Egg produces more consistently great food as there is less variability.

lkapigian

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

lkapigian said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

i think foghorn has a Lang. Hope you like staying up all night

Ya, I know it's a drawback, I've got a cheap offset I've modified to reverse flow, it's a lot of work, but sometimes that makes it interesting...with the Lang a stoker should buy me a few hours of sleep

Not really. A stoker isn't going to run a Lang. The problem is that they aren't airtight or insulated. You can't keep the temp down on many older offsets because of all the air leaks. 

Thanks for the heads up

lkapigian

SGH said:

@lkapigian A controller is less than desirable on most offsets. The exception being Peoria and Pitmaker. Both are heavily insulated and air tight. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but it offers little if any benefit at all. A offset is best controlled with the door, the door damper and the amount of wood you feed it. Not a blower. This is just my findings with running the wood fired units.

Thanks @ SGH just will this thing go 1 hour 2 hours or ? without having to feed or fiddle with? or is it ongoing tweeking

lkapigian

Since I was hoping to use the Lang for over night cooks where I need a bit more room, and a stoker wont work on this, I really don't want to tend a fire for 24 hours and for a shorter cooks I have plenty of others stuff to cook on, I may take a pass and get the Lang/Klose though out of my mind............but they sure look nice

SGH

How long a offset will hold a set temp depends on many things. Examples: pit size, over all metal thickness, condition of the pit, how air tight it is, firebox size etc, etc. All play a part, but all things being equal, metal thickness and insulation are usually the biggest contributors to temp holding time. All that said, on average a good quality pit in sound condition has to be fed every 45-60 minutes depending how heavy it's loaded and how high a temp that you are running. Also a reverse flow will use considerably more fuel than a non-reverse flow or "direct fired" if you will. As of late, some pit builders have went to very thick metal. 1/2 inch or even thicker. Also they are incorporating the use of insulation. These type pits will extend burn time to beyond a hour. Ones that comes to mind is the Pitmaker Sniper and Peoria MM. Just to give you a example of fuel use I will reference Unit #6. It is 30" in diameter and 84" long. It is built entiely out of 3/8 steel and is reverse flow. To maintain 275 degrees with a moderate load I have to feed it 3 sticks every 45 minutes. At first that doesn't sound like much but when you figure it over a 12 hour period, it's a small pick up truck load. My point is this, the smaller the cooker and the heavier it's built the longer the burn time. When you go larger than 24" in diameter, fuel use increases considerably. No matter what you do, in the end you have to feed them. But again, on average you are looking at every 45-60 minutes. 

lkapigian

SGH said:

How long a offset will hold a set temp depends on many things. Examples: pit size, over all metal thickness, condition of the pit, how air tight it is, firebox size etc, etc. All play a part, but all things being equal, metal thickness and insulation are usually the biggest contributors to temp holding time. All that said, on average a good quality pit in sound condition has to be fed every 45-60 minutes depending how heavy it's loaded and how high a temp that you are running. Also a reverse flow will use considerably more fuel than a non-reverse flow or "direct fired" if you will. As of late, some pit builders have went to very thick metal. 1/2 inch or even thicker. Also they are incorporating the use of insulation. These type pits will extend burn time to beyond a hour. Ones that comes to mind is the Pitmaker Sniper and Peoria MM. Just to give you a example of fuel use I will reference Unit #6. It is 30" in diameter and 84" long. It is built entiely out of 3/8 steel and is reverse flow. To maintain 275 degrees with a moderate load I have to feed it 3 sticks every 45 minutes. At first that doesn't sound like much but when you figure it over a 12 hour period, it's a small pick up truck load. My point is this, the smaller the cooker and the heavier it's built the longer the burn time. When you go larger than 24" in diameter, fuel use increases considerably. No matter what you do, in the end you have to feed them. But again, on average you are looking at every 45-60 minutes. 

@sgh I noticed since I converted my cheap offset to reverse flow it does chew up more fuel........Thick metal is nice, but good insulation will trump thickness every time- Why do you think more of these pits aren't  lighter metal, but double walled with insulation in between rather than going to heavier plate?

SGH

lkapigian said:

Why do you think more of these pits aren't  lighter metal, but double walled with insulation in between rather than going to heavier plate?

In short, money. Most major pit builders build their pits by hand. Double walled insulated offsets are a real pain to build and are extremley labor intensive. This is not the case with a vertical smoker and thus why they are becoming more and more popular. I will use unit #6 for reference again. If you built it yourself to avoid labor cost, you would have 2,000 dollars, give or take a little invested in material.  Now build unit #6 double walled and insulated fully. You will push the material cost well in excess of 3 grand for the same size unit. When you figure in the extra labor expense you have now more than doubled the cost of the original unit #6. As with most things in life, money is usually the driving force. And that is certainly the case with pit builders. 

Crimsongator

lkapigian said:

Been looking for a nice offset like Lang or Klose...found a 3 year old 36 offset for 850.00....upgraded stainless grates the rest looks stock...not significantly low but if you factor in no freight as I can pick it up, that saves me 1k right there

Any Lang owners out there input appreciated 

Is it the deluxe model that has the warming box

lkapigian

http://fresno.craigslist.org/for/4900922827.html Crimsongator said:

lkapigian said:

Been looking for a nice offset like Lang or Klose...found a 3 year old 36 offset for 850.00....upgraded stainless grates the rest looks stock...not significantly low but if you factor in no freight as I can pick it up, that saves me 1k right there

Any Lang owners out there input appreciated 

Is it the deluxe model that has the warming box

No warming box

Crimsongator

That is a little discount. I think that Patio model is about $1000 new. Those are good smokers.

lkapigian

Crimsongator said:

That is a little discount. I think that Patio model is about $1000 new. Those are good smokers.

Yes it was around 1K new, but where I am add another 1K for freight ( give or take) this one I could pick up myself

Crimsongator

I have a 48" offset (not Lang) and really like it. The added horizontal space is nice to have. That firebox is not insulated so be extremely careful on how hot it would get.