Abe's 48" insulated cabinet smoker seasoning, first cook and thoughts

First smoke with Abes entertainer. Charcoal maze with fire bricks. Water in pan, guru enabled. I am having trouble keeping temps down where I would like it around 240. Running at 270 with guru damper at 25%. My unit only has one intake so it is sealed pretty good.
 
Cabinets take a long time to bring temps down. Seal off the one intake, close exhaust at least halfway, open the cooker door to let the heat out, shut door and it should come down. Those intakes don't seal well at all. You can use big magnets or cut up a foil pan for intake covers. Very easy to make but necessary to control temp. Exhaust on a cabinet is a little different than on an offset where it needs to be wfo all the time. If that doesn't work let us know.
 
Abes smokers report

We have been using our Abes demo unit a lot and everything you see on this thread I will concur. To keep temps down, I make sure I only light a very small fire , maybe 10 briquettes ..then let the guru slowly bring it up to temp. Also with the Gurus they will overshoot by about 20 degrees...in other words, then preset temp is hit, the guru is still triggering the fan .. I'm not sure why they have it programmed this way but regardless, set your guru for 20 degrees under your target temp ... then adjust slightly if necessary down the road .

The Abes units are so well insulated that is you get it hot ... it does not want to come down easily or fast enough. I ran ours at 240 for 14 hours yesterday with on issues whatsoever .

Many of these necessary mods will be incorporated into the next design I am told.
 
Thanks for the reply. Mine only has one intake with the guru adapter. I have been opening the door to help. :) 30 minutes later it's at 290 again. Guru not running since I'm above my set point. It must be sucking air somewhere I guess. I just put some high temp around guru adapter to see if that helps. Going to put a couple slabs of ribs on soon would like to get temp down to 250 for those if I can.
 
^^^^^^
Correct on starting with a small amount of lit charcoal. I cook at 300 and I start with 1/2 - 3/4 of a chimney of lit charcoal. I shut the intakes at 275 and it will run about 10 hours at 300 on 5-6lbs of charcoal. I don't use water and keep both intakes sealed. I don't use a guru.
 
Hmmm....i started with a small chimney but had about more than 5lbs in the box. Maybe just too much charcoal in fire box?
 
I think you had too much LIT charcoal. In my experience ..and I'm using one every day ... I have it down to 10 briquettes in a chimney .. or I use 10 matchlite ... when going good I put them at the guru / inlet side of the box .. on top of the charcoal. It takes longer to get up to temp but stays lo and slo nicely. Also ...again as in my earlier post, always set your guru 20 degrees below what your target is when you start. I also have my guru gate door about 1/2 closed for 240 to 250.
Fred B
 
seems counter-intuitive to have both intakes closed...how is the fire getting air? it needs some, right?
 
lencav said:
Hmmm....i started with a small chimney but had about more than 5lbs in the box. Maybe just too much charcoal in fire box?
Click to expand...

Size of the maze also matters. I tried with a 2-piece maze and that didn't work because too much charcoal was being burned. 3-part maze was perfect for me.
 
lencav said:
seems counter-intuitive to have both intakes closed...how is the fire getting air? it needs some, right?
Click to expand...

Even with covers these intakes don't seal 100%. Something that has to change.
 
get a bunch of wood chunks going with the guru on and close up the exhaust and see where smoke it leaking. You must have an unseen air leak going on. the smoke with pressure from the guru should point them out
 
Definitely had more lit charcoal than 10. I'm taking notes!!. I will also add another leg to the maze. Thanks again for the replies and tips.
 
The seal / sealing of the smoker issue ... I have been working with Kevin to get this done right. He just did not realize that the Guru unit works on pressure and that the seal was critical. I use nomex gasket material around the guru adapter to fix the seal and aluminum just as pictured on this thread to seal the second air input and it's working great. I also made sure the nomex door gasket had no small voids where air can escape/enter and I've added clamp toggle latches to the doors to make an even better seal. He has been putting 2 x slam latches on the door. I change that to one slam latch and 2 toggle clamps. That way I can shut the door with my elboe while holding things and then come back when my hands are free to hit the toggle clamps. it is working perfectly.
 
TO: pjtexas1 and others . Note on your avatar , your Abe's smoker ... has 2 slam latches on the top door... .my mod is to move one of them to the center ...so you can close or open it with one hand ..then I add clamp/toggle latches to the corners to really make a good seal ... we are testing this now for future model changes.
 
SmokinGuitarPlayer said:
TO: pjtexas1 and others . Note on your avatar , your Abe's smoker ... has 2 slam latches on the top door... .my mod is to move one of them to the center ...so you can close or open it with one hand ..then I add clamp/toggle latches to the corners to really make a good seal ... we are testing this now for future model changes.
Click to expand...

That's a great idea. I think Indybbq got his with 2 clamp latches. Hopefully he will let us know how they worked out. Mine had a small leak in the upper corner of the door but it sealed itself after a few cooks. It will leak a tiny bit every now and then but a spray of Pam fixes it. My target temp is 300 and it locks in at 306-309. With 1 intake uncovered it will hold at 325, 2 uncovered 360. Intake covers of some kind are a necessity.
 
Mine does have the two clamp latches. Kevin found they hold the door closed tighter as SmokinGuitarPlayer pointed out. I was having some leakage on the door but once I added some gasket that Kevin had given me to the door (originally just had it on the body of the smoker) it sealed it up completely and now runs airtight.

I did a short chicken cook yesterday with no water in the pan and it did run hot but I was just using it for a couple hours. I think using the water pan and using less charcoal as previously mentioned helps. I haven't played with a maze yet but plan to soon.


http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/member.php?u=9202
 
here's pics of my mod to the Abe's Smoker door / latch system .. .One Slam Latch in the center for easy "elboe" slamming .. .NOTE I have now done this to the charcoal box and that seems to help also...

IMG_1823_zps69a767be.jpg


IMG_1825_zps544584b0.jpg
 
I'm glad that I rediscovered this thread. I am definitely going to have to make some modifications to my 60" smoker. Hopefully I can get it to draw properly, sealed tight etc. Haven't been able to rely on Kevin to provide support or provide me with items still missing from my order after 2+ month and numerous failed promises.
 
Baptized in Smoke said:
I'm glad that I rediscovered this thread. I am definitely going to have to make some modifications to my 60" smoker. Hopefully I can get it to draw properly, sealed tight etc. Haven't been able to rely on Kevin to provide support or provide me with items still missing from my order after 2+ month and numerous failed promises.
Click to expand...

Let us know what you need help with. We have your back even if Kevin doesn't.
 
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