Brinkman Heating problem

[tac71]

1st off I have only used this Brinkman SnP twice. But both times I couldn't get the smoker to maintain any kind of heat. The left side next to the offset firebox was hot. But midway was barely warm and full right next to the exhaust was very cool. Now I would guess the factory thermostat is junk, but based on the fact that I could lay my bare hand on both the moddle and far right of the smoker tells me something isn"t right.
I used almost half a bag of charcoal to get any type of fire going in the boc. In fact I hade to actually put some wood in there to bring it up. I tried adjusting both the intake and exhuast flow and found very little differance. my unit came with a fire sheet insert. I guess that is if you plane on cooking inside the main chamber with charcoal. I raised the grate up and down in the cooking chamber and the moved the charcoal closer to the back of the firebox to get more heat in there but very little changed. What am I doing wrong here? I have seen a few of the upgades you can do to this model. Wasn't sure if I needed to worry about those so soon.

[feldon30]

With some minor modifications, you can sort out the temperature control on this unit and turn it into a decent smoker.

Search the site for "tuning plates" and "baffle".

By adding a flat piece of metal bent about 50 degrees on the cook side (a baffle), it will force most of the heat/smoke to the bottom of the box. Then the tuning plates will distribute heat and smoke to come up at different points so that you get a much more even heat. Some folks have reduced a 50 degree differential from the hot side to the cool side down to 5 degrees.

You definitely want at least one, possibly 2 replacement thermometers.

Might check out:

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1943

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32860

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=810&start=120

[giterdone03]

I have had a Snp for about a year now and havent had really any problems out of it i did noticed that there needs to be a few changes in the lay out of the cooker like the stack needs to be lowered down to grate level and the coals need to be lifted up from the bottom of the fire box. I dont know what type of charcoal you are useing but i did notice that the smoker does not work that great with regular charcoal. If you are already useing it try lump coal like royal oak that is what i use and it works great. I have never been able to get a good cook out of regular coal. Thats my input if that help great