Smokenator

I have one for a 22.5 Daisy wheel Weber and it's great. The one thing I did different was put an 8" loaf pan on the foot grate (water pan) and filled the smokenator full with charcoal/wood. I could leave it unattended for 4-5 hours and get about 7-7.5 hours on one load of charcoal that way.

I just about bought one myself but ended finding a deal I couldn't pass up on a WSM 22. I was concerned about it not holding enough fuel for long brisket cooks and such but I have a 22 OTS. You'll be able to hold more fuel with that big ol' 26 3/4". If you get one please let us know how you like it!

Bob,
I made one of these myself for my 22.5 Weber. I haven't used it extensively so I can't really comment on how well it works over the long haul. It does really save on fuel however, I cooked a 10 pound Pork Picnic for 7 hours on about 1 1/2 chimney of Royal Oak briqs, it turned out OK but not as good as my offset does. The one issue I have with it is you have to open the lid every hour to refill the water pan, and/or add more fuel. To me that is contrary to what I have learned about low and slow.

Can the Smokenator make a kettle cook like a smoker? Yes it can. Can a kettle with the Smokenator cook like a smoker? Not exactly. Why? Because it is not indirect enough.

I've got one on my 22 1/2" Platinum and I like it. I've done some good 'que on it but it won't replace my other toys. It's good for someone who doesn't want to or can't get a dedicated smoker.

I've thought about this with my kettle, but then I tried using firebricks and was so happy with that that I stopped looking for other ways to do this. Firebricks are cool because you can determine how much coal you need. If you need more you can just slide the firebricks over a little bit more and you can stack the coal all the way up to the cook grate height. I've gotten 13+ hour burns without ever lifting the lid.

Plus, it's like 5 bucks.

Honestly I feel it's just another gadget you can do without. I had one and practically gave it away. The water pan was tiny, and I think you can bbq just as well or better without it.

I've done a lot of bbq on the kettle indirect, but really prefer my wsm for bbq. However, since you have the big kettle, you can more effectively cook indirectly, and get more on as well. Just learn how to bury your wood chunks in the unlit charcoal (Minion method) and don't add any, except MAYBE for butt/brisket cooks when you need to add more charcoal. You'll have lot cleaner smoke that way. One thing about the MM and the kettle is to make sure the lid fits well so you don't get unwanted draft. Occasionally I'll check mine with a tape measure for out of round and tweak a bit. I'd suggest shooting for 250-275 when cooking low-n-slow on the kettle.

I like the smokenator a lot. Here is a link from the smokenator site. I did ribs with my smokenator and rotisserie together. When i have time to mess around I use the smokenator but when I don't want to tend the grill I use my grill dome.
http://smokenatorforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sview&action=display&thread=150

http://smokenatorforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sview&action=display&thread=123
This is another guys post. I used his idea and works great:
http://pages.suddenlink.net/multimedia/BBQ/index.html

Mister Bob said:

Thanks for the tip, I'll give firebricks a try first. I like the idea of being able slide them over to add more charcoal for longer cooks. Do you leave gaps between the bricks for airflow, or just keep everything tight? Foil to keep them clean or just lay them in and fire it up?

Click to expand...

I've used foil up to this point, but when I was peeling the nasty foil off last time the thought occurred to me "Why do I care if this gets dirty?" I couldn't come up with a good answer so I'll probably stop foiling the bricks.

I don't leave gaps just because I kinda like where they sit on one side of the kettle when they are pushed together all the way.