Switching To Charcoal Pan For Longer Burn

Hopefully this post will help those with drafty smokers. Some of you may read and say duh! But, here is my story.

I have never used a charcoal basket. My experience has been with simple fireplace and charcoal grates. Also, I have used grill woks for charcoal. I can only control drafts through the smoker to an extent...so I decided
to focus on airflow through my charcoal container. The result, I went from a 2 hour burn to a 6 ~ 7 hour burn around 275 F. If I use a larger pan, I should get a longer burn.

Picture time...
Here is my verticle smoker:



This is a shot from the inside looking at the drafts through the front access and bottom air intake door. I have tried putting aluminum foil around the edges. That works some, but its a waste of foil.



Here is what I have used thus far...a Franklin fireplace grate. I bought it becuase the grate spacing is just right for charcoal.



Here is my $5 fireplace poker from Lowes for stirring the coals and ridding of ash.



Now, here is a simple $5 charcoal pan from Academy. I mounted 4 stainless steel bolts with washers for legs. I also drilled holes in the bottom for air intake. I didn't put holes in the side. I did not want to imitate a grill wok or charcoal basket. My smoker gets enough airflow...don't need to add anymore to the charcoal.





I can get 5 lbs of charcoal in the pan mixed with wood chips.



On a tangent, I wrapped a grate with foil as a deflector then put my cooking grate on the higher level.





Here is a shot through the front access door. I didn't use a charcoal chimney. I simply wadded a portion of paper sack and placed it in the top center of the pile for my starter. Although, I am not abandoning my
charcoal chimney.



So, I will use the pan for smoking, and the fireplace grate for grilling. I hope someone finds this post of value. Thank you for reading.

HeSmellsLikeSmoke said:

Looks like another good way to control the intake air flow. I suspect that you will have trouble going hot and fast though.

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I can run it stable at 300 F. Have not tried full throttle.

Palm Leaf Pit Masters said:

i have a bullet style smoker like that, that has a [FONT=&quot]char[/FONT][FONT=&quot]coal pan that i modified with air holes and su[/FONT][FONT=&quot]ch, but it burns terribly slow and never builds heat, almost like its not getting enough air? it will smolder at about 180degrees and smoke like a train but wont get get. im sitting here studying your pi[/FONT][FONT=&quot]cs trying to see any differen[/FONT][FONT=&quot]ces in what i [/FONT][FONT=&quot]can do. any suggestions?[/FONT]

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From my understanding, the weber bullet is pretty air tight minus the vents. My situation I tried compensating for the draftiness by reducing the airflow around the charcoal...the only other place I could do so. My goal was to get a longer burn at a steady temperature. If I was to stack an equivalent pile of coal on a grate and place it in my smoker, it would rise drastically to near 600 F. Just trial and error on my part.

In your scenario...have you tried dumping in a pile of lit coals then closing down the vents to bring down the temp? Not sure how well that would work. Some of the mods I have seen in addition to drilling the holes is placing a grate in the pan to bring the coals a bit up from the bottom of the pan...trying to increase the airflow I think.