test smoke problems

[jayarab]

well fired up the new smoker today to try and get to know it a little b4 i do my first cook tomorrow and no sooner did i pour in the charcol and trow some chunks in the sky opened up on me. So with that inmind when i was watching my thermos i noticed that i was only hitting about 200 but it was within 5-10 degrees from side to side. I had the smoke stack choked down to try and keep the rain out but im hoping with good weather i can get the 225 i need. I did notice that alot of smoke was coming out of the door in the SFB. So after letting her burn for about 45 min i came back to check on it and the side closer to the SFB was reading 70 degrees lower that the side further away? and sugestions would help. im useing a chargriller and have done all the mods even added some foil to fill the gap between the side wall and the charcol tray i have fliped over to help difuse the heat better. Im guessing i may need to use more wood chunks and maybe not soak them also thought about ditching the kingsford and going to lump. since this is my first offset im still adjusting last cooker i used was a brinkmann gourmet and had great sucess.

[Catfish]

I have a reverse flow and closing the damper will cause the temps to drop and make it smoke alot. Closing the damper essentially chokes out the fire on mine.

I leave my intake vents wide open all of the time and use the damper to control the temperature. If I close the damper to 45*, my air temp will drop about 100* in a matter of a few minutes. The grate temp follows at a slower rate because the steel takes a bit to cool down.
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Smoking on a Lang 84 Deluxe and Lang 36.

[nes_matt]

I think choking the exhaust is not good for 2 reasons:

1) you limit flow through and choke the fire.
2) You can build up creosote in the cooking chamber and taint the flavor of the food.

If I were you I'd try to fashion some sort of cover for your exhaust (preferably the whole smoker) so that you can leave it open and not choke the flow.

I think getting some good flow through may also help your temperature uniformity problem.

[jayarab]

i forgot to say i did have the intake damper on the the fire box all the way open the whole time

[Canadian Bacon]

I leave the exhaust wide open all the time on my offset,i use the intake vents to control temp,but i never choke down my exhaust.
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Horizon Offset (Marshall RD Special)
30 " Electric Masterbuilt(Digital)
Large BGE
Napoleon Legend Gasser
20"& 26" Discada
Two of the fastest Thermapens ever made ... Black& Blue
LIAR #25

[nes_matt]