Restoring Another Offset Smoker and Pork Butts

WeberWho

It appears to cook hotter on the bottom. It also looks like the middle runs hotter than the front and back. The back end needed more time with the biscuit's. The bottom right took me extra time to put on as I had to squish two half biscuits together while the others were already on. So that one didn't have as much time as the others. Sorry for the crappy pics. I couldn't see anything on my phone with the reflection of the sun. 



I have another tube of biscuits in the fridge. I'm going to give this another go. This time I'll peel all the biscuit's prior and start from the backend and work my way up to see if anything changes.... 

lousubcap

Now you've a biscuit banquet to audibilize.  

WeberWho

lousubcap said:

Now you've a biscuit banquet to audibilize.  

Have to like Aldi. Some cheap biscuit insurance!  The wife will have no problem with some extra biscuits. She loves bread. I wasn't blessed with the "Eat whatever you want and not gain an ounce" body. 

Foghorn

FYI, this can also be done as a bacon test.  Just sayin'

WeberWho

Foghorn said:

FYI, this can also be done as a bacon test.  Just sayin'

D*mn it! Now I'm stuck with biscuits! 

WeberWho

The heat appears to be very even the first 3/4 of the way but quickly drops off after that. 



I'm going to have to figure out what to adjust. I do recall someone mentioning that they keep the convection plate offset and not pushed up against the firebox. I have some playing around to do yet.....

WeberWho

Ribs on nonetheless!

Photo Egg

Maybe you are drafting a little too much air too fast so at the end it's a little cooler?
Either way, great test. Maybe I will pull mine out this week if the rain eases up.
Front to back looks pretty even...

WeberWho

Photo Egg said:

Maybe you are drafting a little too much air too fast so at the end it's a little cooler?
Either way, great test. Maybe I will pull mine out this week if the rain eases up.
Front to back looks pretty even...

That very well could be. That's a great point. I need to grab a couple thermometers that I can set on the rack and see what I'm working with from front to back. The ones I had in the other smoker were getting pretty grubby. I think I unfortunately pitched them otherwise they'd come in really handy right now.

Photo Egg

WeberWho said:

Photo Egg said:

Maybe you are drafting a little too much air too fast so at the end it's a little cooler?
Either way, great test. Maybe I will pull mine out this week if the rain eases up.
Front to back looks pretty even...

That very well could be. That's a great point. I need to grab a couple thermometers that I can set on the rack and see what I'm working with from front to back. The ones I had in the other smoker were getting pretty grubby. I think I unfortunately pitched them otherwise they'd come in really handy right now.

But I bet, loaded up with food, the temps will be more even.

WeberWho

Photo Egg said:

WeberWho said:

Photo Egg said:

Maybe you are drafting a little too much air too fast so at the end it's a little cooler?
Either way, great test. Maybe I will pull mine out this week if the rain eases up.
Front to back looks pretty even...

That very well could be. That's a great point. I need to grab a couple thermometers that I can set on the rack and see what I'm working with from front to back. The ones I had in the other smoker were getting pretty grubby. I think I unfortunately pitched them otherwise they'd come in really handy right now.

But I bet, loaded up with food, the temps will be more even.

It seems to be a happy medium with the vent open all the way and the door cracked. Clean smoke coming out the exhaust. Once I mess the vent, close the door, or adjust the exhaust I start to get dirty smoke. She's picky. 

WeberWho

I think it's the first time in 10 years I haven't had any foil on hand. These will be going naked. Making its way. 

Photo Egg

WeberWho said:

I think it's the first time in 10 years I haven't had any foil on hand. These will be going naked. Making its way. 

Great color on the ribs and looks to be cooking very even.
I was struggling with clean smoke if I tried to choke mine down as well.
My cooking chamber is a little longer, but not much.

YukonRon

I am glad to see the completed project cooks. I remember when you started this, your smoker looks outstanding!

WeberWho

nolaegghead said:

I figured out how to make wood last a long time for applications like your shelf.  (and still look great)

I've done this a few times.

Make sure wood is dry.

Soak in epoxy, a low viscosity epoxy.  Saturate the wood.  Let cure.  Sand.  Cover wood with one sheet of light-weight fiberglass and epoxy.  Sand.  Then 2 or three coats of a good spar varnish (urethane).  I'm still amazed that I have some stuff that looks great after a years.   You can combine the first couple of steps.

When the spar starts looking bad depending on environmental conditions, might be 2-7 year, sand lightly and re-apply the spar.  Until you get a leak into the inner wood through the fiberglass epoxy shell and if you can protect the epoxy, which is susceptible to UV damage, you can keep it looking good forever. 

The fiberglass "disappears" with the finish - you can't tell it's there.

Thanks for the information Nola! I've never heard of such a thing. Really appreciated!

WeberWho

Photo Egg said:

WeberWho said:

I think it's the first time in 10 years I haven't had any foil on hand. These will be going naked. Making its way. 

Great color on the ribs and looks to be cooking very even.
I was struggling with clean smoke if I tried to choke mine down as well.
My cooking chamber is a little longer, but not much.

Thanks Darian! Not too bad so far. Going to be pretty dark outside once these come off. 

WeberWho

YukonRon said:

I am glad to see the completed project cooks. I remember when you started this, your smoker looks outstanding!

Thanks for the kind words YukonRon!

WeberWho

I'm sorry the picture wasn't plated a little nicer for the photo. 





Hardly four hours in and it has turned into leather. The bottom is completely charred. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I have a few things to learn yet with this smoker to say the least. I guess I'll be cooking some more ribs tomorrow.

Time to do some more research.....

Photo Egg

WeberWho said:

I'm sorry the picture wasn't plated a little nicer for the photo. 





Hardly four hours in and it has turned into leather. The bottom is completely charred. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I have a few things to learn yet with this smoker to say the least. I guess I'll be cooking some more ribs tomorrow.

Time to do some more research.....

That sucks!
Any chance your temp gauge is off?

Or with your diffuser plate, maybe the gauge in top right corner is poor placement?

.

WeberWho

Photo Egg said:

WeberWho said:

I'm sorry the picture wasn't plated a little nicer for the photo. 





Hardly four hours in and it has turned into leather. The bottom is completely charred. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I have a few things to learn yet with this smoker to say the least. I guess I'll be cooking some more ribs tomorrow.

Time to do some more research.....

That sucks!
Any chance your temp gauge is off?

Or with your diffuser plate, maybe the gauge in top right corner is poor placement?

.

The temp gauge was my first guess. I ditched the original Brinkmann thermometer. I switched to Tel-Tru on my other smoker and had the stock temp thermometers sitting around. So I plugged one of those on this smoker when cleaning it up. 

I grabbed the thermometer off the smoker and did the boil test tonight. It was within two degrees of my Thermapen all the way up to boil. So the thermometer checked out. I was really hoping it was the thermometer. No such luck. 

I'm really stumped on what the issue might be. I had a nice coal bed and would add a stick when needed. It stayed around 250 the whole cook. It was running really hot under the convection plate. Enough to char the the ribs from below. I'm going to remove the tin foil and slightly move the convention plate further away from the firebox. To see if I can cool down the bottom and even out the backend of the smoker. 

I'll be grabbing a couple oven temperature gauges for the racks tomorrow. Ribs might just wait until Wednesday. I'll need to play around tomorrow and see what's going on....

The journey continues.....

Photo Egg

WeberWho said:

Photo Egg said:

WeberWho said:

I'm sorry the picture wasn't plated a little nicer for the photo. 





Hardly four hours in and it has turned into leather. The bottom is completely charred. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I have a few things to learn yet with this smoker to say the least. I guess I'll be cooking some more ribs tomorrow.

Time to do some more research.....

That sucks!
Any chance your temp gauge is off?

Or with your diffuser plate, maybe the gauge in top right corner is poor placement?

.

The temp gauge was my first guess. I ditched the original Brinkmann thermometer. I switched to Tel-Tru on my other smoker and had the stock temp thermometers sitting around. So I plugged one of those on this smoker when cleaning it up. 

I grabbed the thermometer off the smoker and did the boil test tonight. It was within two degrees of my Thermapen all the way up to boil. So the thermometer checked out. I was really hoping it was the thermometer. No such luck. 

I'm really stumped on what the issue might be. I had a nice coal bed and would add a stick when needed. It stayed around 250 the whole cook. It was running really hot under the convection plate. Enough to char the the ribs from below. I'm going to remove the tin foil and slightly move the convention plate further away from the firebox. To see if I can cool down the bottom and even out the backend of the smoker. 

I'll be grabbing a couple oven temperature gauges for the racks tomorrow. Ribs might just wait until Wednesday. I'll need to play around tomorrow and see what's going on....

The journey continues.....

That’s crazy.
Just doesn’t seem like running at 250 would cause that much radiant heat from the diffuser plate to burn the sh*t out of your ribs like that.
Would like to see the same biscuit test with no diffuser in place.
Will be following. Sorry it’s not working out better, but great details in your post.

nolaegghead

I know nothing about stick burners but it seems to me too much heat is coming through that diffuser plate.  Maybe try one without holes in it or a double walled shield.  🤷‍♂️

Foghorn

This is precisely the issue I was concerned about in my earlier post.  I had a slightly similar result (not so bad that whole racks had to be thrown away as we discovered it a little earlier and only had to throw away a few ribs on the ends of some of the racks)

I think the explanation is this.

To cook like the big boys on the giant offsets, you need to get the hot air UP before it hits the meat.  Then it flows across the meat with hotter air on top, slightly cooler air (but still hot enough to cook the meat) below.

The diffuser plate keeps the hot air down low and the meat cooks with hot air rising onto the bottom of the meat.  

You had the rack of ribs on there and the "dome" thermometer was reading 250 while sitting above several pounds of cool meat.  At that time, the bottom side of the ribs was being exposed to temperatures significantly above 250 - apparently.  

So, in my simple mind, there are 2 solutions.

1) Get the hot air up as soon as possible after it leaves the firebox.  Moving the diffuser plate away from the firebox might accomplish this.  That's what I'm going to try the next time I cook in my home offset.

2) Recognizing the situation and just realizing the A) the meat will cook from the bottom and the dome temp is an overestimation of the temp that is cooking the bottom of the meat.  So, if this were my plan, I would cook a brisket with the fat side down and shoot from a dome temp of 200-225 or so - at least during the early part of the cook while the meat is cold and likely influencing the thermometer reading.

Or am I way off?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Foghorn

On the issue of the temp drop on the end of the cooking chamber that is opposite the firebox, that's where having the smokestack opening down at the grate level can make all the difference.  That would keep hot air in and let slightly cooler air escape.  I've talked to Franklin's manager (Benji) and one of the guys at LaBBQ and their smokers all have their smokestack drop down to cooking level - which allows them to not have a temp drop in a smoker that is over 20 feet long.

lkapigian

WeberWho said:

I think it's the first time in 10 years I haven't had any foil on hand. These will be going naked. Making its way. 

Ribs as they should be! only thing I remove is the Chine Bone....sometimes 


P I think you are better off going with a diverter 30-45 Degrees down right@ the chamber without much extension , tuning plates get hot and radiate , Large Coal bed, plenty of draw, get that heat moving. I would extend the stack before using tuning plates My 2 Cents 

WeberWho

Thanks guys. I plan on grabbing some more biscuits from Aldi after work along with a couple oven thermometers to get a little more grasp of what is going on. 

I blame operator error more at this point than anything. I don't think this particular smoker would still be made after 20+ years if it couldn't smoke a rack of ribs. I'll get a nice coal bed going to get the convection plate warmed up and give it a little gap next the firebox to see if I can force some heat upwards so it's not only coming from under the convection plate. 

WeberWho

I'm seeing multiple posts now that are using the same convection plate and using the tinfoil trick. They're getting 5 to 7 degree difference from front to back. 

It must have something to do with my fire. I wonder if my splits need to be smaller? Which still doesn't make any sense as it's reading 250 degrees on the smoker. I don't know what else it could be. I'm getting more of a 5 to 7 degree swing on the back end of it. 

WeberWho

Okay, I found it! This sounds promising. At least a place to start. 

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111780

nolaegghead

makes sense to me

Foghorn

WeberWho said:

Okay, I found it! This sounds promising. At least a place to start. 

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=111780

Agreed.