BBQ Pro Deluxe Dome Smoker Cook Today (now w/pics)

[necron 99]

Well, I did my second cook in my BBQ Pro Deluxe Dome Smoker today. I had a 8 lb. pork butt and 4 racks of pork loin back ribs to cook today. The weather was cooperative and got all the rain out of the way yesterday!

I used OCC Rancer charcoal and pecan heart wood from a bag of mini-logs I bought at Academy and subsequently split and then chunked some of the wood. I buried 3 chunks of Pecan in the Rancher briquets. About 8 lbs. of briquets filled the charcoal basket and lasted about 8 hours.

I used a 'Piedmont Pan' setup rather than use water in the pan, by setting the water pan that came with this cooker on my old Brinkmann Gourmet water pan that had a hole. I foiled the inside of the top pan to make cleanup easier.

Shifting winds today kept me a bit on my toes, so instead of closing off one of the bottom vents, I throttled both back to around 15% to 20% open, and kept the top vent 100% open. I'd add a pecan chunk every hour or so after the first 3 hours were up.

I took the pork butt off at 175 F internal, as the last bits of charcoal were fading. The pork butt is cut in half with each half enjoying a warm spa treatment in chili verde in the oven to 195 F internal; sun's going down and I have to be at work tomorrow morning, so time to clean up. Ribs are done and I'm ready for supper, so posting of pics will happen later.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the cooker for the money I spent on this unit ($64). I make better pork ribs on this cooker than I do in my Bar-B-Chef offset, but I'll always keep an offset going forward for brisket at minimum.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[necron 99]

OK, here are the pics from 6/22.

Cooker charcoal dome with basket and mods. This shows the 14" grill I added to the charcoal basket, with the grate slats 90 degrees to the charcoal basket grate slats.



Smoker cookin' away fueled by OCC Rancher and pecan mini-log chunks.



I had one lead from my remote therm in the pork butt, and the other pushed through an old wine cork that wedged just right between the cooking grate slats.



I started with the pork butt on the lower grate, then moved it to the top grate when I put the ribs on the lower grate. Pork butt is at 175 F internal temp at this point.



Here's the ribs. The two 2 lb. rack racks went in the end positions on the rib rack, the two 3 lb. racks were in the inner two slots. The Charcoal Companion Platinum Rib Racks I found at Marshall's for $9.99 each fit just right!



All 4 racks of ribs off the cooker and in the pan.



I cut the pork butt in half beside the bone, then each half went in an aluminum pan with half the batch of homemade chili verde I made while the meat was on the cooker. These went in the oven covered in foil until they hit 195 F internal, then rested for a half hour. The meat pulled great, this goes well with some rice and a bit of sour cream! I didn't grow up around much chili verde in South texas but I found I liked it when I lived in the Panhandle area for a year.



So, the cooker. Is it a WSM? Absolutely definitely not. Is it a ProQ Frontier? I don't think so based on recent threads on that cooker, the internals sound different around the charcoal basket area. I don't have a ProQ Frontier so I can't directly compare. Is it an easier cooker to use out of the box than a Brinkmann Gourmet? Definitely, and it's easier for rainy day or overnight cooks than my small backyard offset. It's also a lot more efficient on fuel consumption than my horizontal offset. Do I think I got my money's worth at $64 + tax in today's economy? Absolutely, relative to how much cooker one can buy for those $$$ elsewhere.


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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[BBQMAN]

Nice review, and the grub looks great!
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BBQMAN
"I Turned A Hobby Into A Business".
Providing "IMHO" Since 2005.

[Canadian Bacon]

Good job,food looks great.
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[Doc1680]

Good job on the cook Necron. Those ribs look wonderful. It's good to hear the cooker worked out for you. Turning out grub like that. You definitely got your money's worth.
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Doc

[necron 99]

Thanks everyone! It's been a while since I last posted pics here. I've been doing a LOT of business travel this year.

Here are my other observations (thus far) on my BBQ Pro cooker.

The internals in the lower section of the BBQ Pro cooker are a bit different from the ProQ models looking at what I can see on the ProQ web site. The BBQ Pro charcoal basket doesn't have handles, for one thing. Another is the charcoal basket sits on three brackets that are held in by some of the same bolts & nuts that hold the legs on the charcoal bowl section of the BBQ Pro cooker. It looks like the lower rim of the ProQ charcoal basket just rests on the inner wall of the charcoal bowl section from what I can see on the ProQ web site for those cookers.

The handles for the BBQ Pro unit have been plenty sturdy, at least for my first 2 cooks. I have not experienced any bowing of the can sections where the handles attach when loaded up with meat and up to cooking temperature. I think my choice of not using water nor sand in the water bowl might be a contributing factor to that, but maybe not. I don't plan to use water or sand in my setup just to find out. These handles are 'cool touch' design but I found it was best for me to use gloves anyway as this minimized issues with potential knuckle contact against the cooker can section outer walls when first curling my fingers around the handles.

The dome thermometer in my BBQ Pro cooker was somewhat more accurate during the second cook (I think). The reason I'm not sure is the dome thermometer showed it was a lot more sensitive to variations where it's placed vs. my remote therm in the wine cork at cooking grate level. Sometimes the two were less than 5 degrees F different, sometimes they were 45 degrees F different. The remote therm didn't jump around a lot like the dome therm did when I added wood or adjusted air register settings. When everything settled down they were usually within 5 degrees F of each other.

The doors and door handles are the areas where improvement could yield better results. The door seals and attachment of the door handles was easy enough to work around using some foil tape and some pliers during assembly. The weak point for ergonomics is the door handle. These have the same kind of metal handle the Brinkmann Gourmet has, except a wooden dowel piece has been added to try to make a cool touch surface. However, the wood knob isn't well placed for actual leverage, so I got some hot fingertips since my natural reaction after first trying to open the door was to grasp more firmly near the pivot point (which isn't 'cool touch' design). I just need to remember to always use gloves when using the doors and making air register adjustments.

I think my next cook with my BBQ Pro cooker will be some variation of beer can chicken, to test stability of operation around 325 F to 350 F, and yield the crispy skin I can't easily get on my small horizontal offset.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[k.a.m.]

Great job on the cook necron food looks delicious. My wife would like to know if you have a recipe for that pan of goodness.

[necron 99]

I sent a PM with recipe to your inbox k.a.m - I've been real wordy here already.

Looking over rprata's thread in the cookers section, it's clear there's another significant difference between the ProQ Frontier and the BBQ Pro Deluxe. The ProQ Frontier evidently has only one vent in the bottom charcoal bowl section. The BBQ Pro cooker has two vents in the bottom section, 180 degrees apart.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[nes_matt]

[necron 99]

I used some foil tape to make a kind of weatherstripping on the doors, looking at what OkieJay had done with his BBQ Pro Deluxe. This also allowed me to route the remote therm cables through the doors without much leakage at the doors.

To get the door knobs to stay on better, use some pliers and crimp the tabs that hold them in away from each other instead of towards each other. Use slip joints to hold everything else steady while using needlenose to re-bend the tabs. This will also let you get the whole door assembly to seal tighter on the cooker. My wife fixed mine for me this way.

You should try calling their troubleshooting number and discussing the problems you're having with the doors. They agreed to ship me 2 new door assemblies, I'll have those on hand if my wife's fix-it job wears out.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[nes_matt]

don't suppose you have the #?

I'm not one to keep manuals.

[necron 99]

Sure - my wife is the organized one for us 2 and had filed it with some of my other BBQ manuals.

1-800-265-2150

Hours 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM ET Mon-Fri

Model # 126.15883800

Part # for the Access Door Assembly is 31818K-12

I spoke to someone in Canada, I think the name of the company is Broil King(?), that's handling questions and problems with these in North America.
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Let's hope SoEzzy can ditch his heavy hand on photos in 2016!

[nes_matt]