smoke box insulation

[chillydigits]

Hello all......I am green as a gourd to low and slow cooking. After an unsucessful boston butt smoking atempt, I am working on the brethren mods to my bandera. My question is. Has anyone used 3/4 inch alum. faced duct board to make an insulated box taped with 3 inch metal tape at the seams to fit over the top ( vent cut out of course) and 3 sides of the smoke chamber to hold the heat evenly? This insulated box could be removed or slipped over the smoke chamber as conditions call for and would still alllow the top fire chamber door to open without rubbing......just thought I would throw that idea out there

[willkat98]

Welcome Chilly

Let me read this in the a.m. before vodka mod to answer correctly

[kcquer]

Chilly, This isn't idea I remember in the threads on similar subjects. It is a good idea, I would think that stuff would be heat resistant enough, maybe a little extra clearance would be needed around the firebox area but everywhere else I think it would be fine.

You shouldn't be having trouble maintaining temps this time of year though. If you had trouble getting up to temp I would ask if you had reliable means of checking temp. The other possible problem would be fire grate posistion. If its still on the floor of the fire box you need to get that mod taken care of and insulation can wait until football weather.

[chillydigits]

KCquer,
You are dead on. My temp problems were related to the positon of the original fire grate. I have installed firebricks in the bottom of the firebox,A drain in the floor of my smoke box, After spraying my deer food plots this morning, I am going to weld up the new fire grate later this afternoon. Hopefully a test burn tomarrow will show better results. As for measuring temps, I used a digital fluke 52 thermometer with a probe in the meat and the other probe in the center of the smoke chamber. Thanks for you reply, I will gladly take all the advice I can get.

[Neil]

Hello all......I am green as a gourd to low and slow cooking. After an unsucessful boston butt smoking atempt, I am working on the brethren mods to my bandera. My question is. Has anyone used 3/4 inch alum. faced duct board to make an insulated box taped with 3 inch metal tape at the seams to fit over the top ( vent cut out of course) and 3 sides of the smoke chamber to hold the heat evenly? This insulated box could be removed or slipped over the smoke chamber as conditions call for and would still alllow the top fire chamber door to open without rubbing......just thought I would throw that idea out there

What is faced duct board?

[chillydigits]

Faced duct board is rigid fiberglass insulation with a foil covering on the outside it comes in 4x10 ft sheets and is used to replaced metal ductwork in home heating and cooling systems, It comes in various thicknesses from 1/2 to 1.5 inches thick with r values betwen R-3 and R-6. It is easily cut with a sharp utility knife and edges and jointes seamed with 2 or 3 inch wide metal tape... hope that helps

[kcquer]

chilly, if you get the firegrate up a ways you'll not only have amuch easier time hitting 200-250 in the smokebox, you'll be amazed how much less fuel it takes.

[BBQchef33]

Look around this site.. im sure theres a picture of MY insulation mod.. I believe Big Al experimented with the duct board. He will chime in soon. Also do a search of the siue for "insulating".. or insulation. We've tried many options before.