Lone Star Grillz Vertical Insulated Cabinet Smoker-For the new Owner

darkoozy said:
I am going to season tomorrow morning. Do you guys have pointers on

1. How much charcoal?
2. Run with or without water?
3. Smoke wood or not?
4. How long?

I already read up on the whole oiling part and recommended temps, but they rest is all not that clear.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

When I seasoned mine I used about 5-8lbs of KBB. Run it without water and be sure to spray cooking spray in the water pan. I didn't use any wood, just charcoal. I ran my temps anywhere between 230-250 and let it run at these temps untill the charcoal burned up, was about 5-7 hrs.
 
Here is a cork in the water filling hole. Now, this is exciting.



 
dpuryear, I also sold my ABS Pit Boss Rotisserie for this smoker. I hope you can get a good price for yours. Great smoker, just eats a lot of charcoal/wood per smoke. This is much more efficient.
 
darkoozy said:
I typically only smoke briskets and butts overnight. I cant speak for this smoker yet (just got delivery) All my experience has been on 22" WSM. Having said that, the only meat that I "baste" is ribs.

I never do anything to the brisket or butts. Just smoke them until the bark/temperature look good, then wrap them. Brisket in butcher paper and butts in foil. Then continue the cook. The water, for me, is a preference to control temperature and cooking environment, thats all.

I time my cooks so I wrap after a good nights sleep, most cuts that I cook low and slow dont need touching for atleast 12-14 hours anyway. I typically cook 16lb to 18lb briskets. Ribs are cooked during waking hours and need attention.

This is one of the reasons I focused on a "set it and forget it" type smoker. I love bbq, but dont have the patience to babysit a stick burner. Everyone has different style and methods to achieve the end result.

Good luck in your quest for a smoker, took me several months of research and reading to find something with the right features for me...
Click to expand...

I second everything darkoozy said. :-D
 
mutts&butts said:
When I seasoned mine I used about 5-8lbs of KBB. Run it without water and be sure to spray cooking spray in the water pan. I didn't use any wood, just charcoal. I ran my temps anywhere between 230-250 and let it run at these temps untill the charcoal burned up, was about 5-7 hrs.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the tips...will be hanging with the smoker soon :)
 
Second cook. Smoking a Boston Butt and a brisket flat.
The 25 CFM Pit Bull fan is Soooo! much better. Really moves a lot more air.
 
Guru Question

I've been smoking a long time but am a newbie to the BBQ Guru, having only used it 3 times.

I notice that early in the cook the Guru pit temp is significantly higher than the Tel Tru temp - 20 to 25 degrees on the Lone Star Grillz. After everything equilibrates, they are within a few degrees of each other - this takes a couple of hours.

Of course the Guru locks on if the pit temp is within 5 degrees of your setting. I guess they don't want you diddling with it too much. If you set it at 235, it will show 235 if the actual pit temp is between 230 and 240.

I'm not sure why the temps are far apart at first. Do you guys experience the same thing and do you have an explanation?
 
darkoozy said:
I am going to season tomorrow morning. Do you guys have pointers on

1. How much charcoal?
2. Run with or without water?
3. Smoke wood or not?
4. How long?

I already read up on the whole oiling part and recommended temps, but they rest is all not that clear.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Never done a LSG smoker, but typically when you're seasoning is the time you want a really dirty fire. The more smoke and grease the better. When I seasoned my second WSM I used like 20 chunks of smoke wood (I normally cook with 4-6) and I put some slabs of bacon and some cheap chicken thighs in there with the water bowl out so I'd get grease dripping straight into the fire. I don't think you can do that on a LSG, but spraying oil and using smoke wood will help gunk it up quick. Putting some bacon in there will make it smell delicious too. Just burn the bacon to a crisp, it's there to drip grease, not to eat.
 
jrben1 said:
I've been smoking a long time but am a newbie to the BBQ Guru, having only used it 3 times.

I notice that early in the cook the Guru pit temp is significantly higher than the Tel Tru temp - 20 to 25 degrees on the Lone Star Grillz. After everything equilibrates, they are within a few degrees of each other - this takes a couple of hours.

Of course the Guru locks on if the pit temp is within 5 degrees of your setting. I guess they don't want you diddling with it too much. If you set it at 235, it will show 235 if the actual pit temp is between 230 and 240.

I'm not sure why the temps are far apart at first. Do you guys experience the same thing and do you have an explanation?
Click to expand...

The guru reads temps faster than the tel tru. I am seasoning my pit now and both the guru and the tel tru read 245F. It took the tel tru about 30 min to catch up, but they are pretty much reading the same temp. Also it depends where you place your guru probe. I placed my guru probe on the same level as the tel tru probe and close to each other. It shouldn't take hours. It's been my experience with the guru as being pretty accurate when it comes to reading temps, I use a maverick to tell the temps as well. The maverick is always 5F higher than the guru.

Also, placing the guru probe within close proximity to food will influence it's reading as heat circulation can be influenced by crowding and food temps...
 
jrben1 said:
Second cook. Smoking a Boston Butt and a brisket flat.
The 25 CFM Pit Bull fan is Soooo! much better. Really moves a lot more air.
Click to expand...

Need some pr0n...I am stuck seasoning and rain coming late tonight :(

Ya I am using the the 25cfm fan, and it's crazy fast (i am used to 10cfm on my wsm). It stoked the fire to 225 in an hour. I had to close vents a little to keep temps down. I managed to bring temps back down to 225 from 245, it's holding at 225 for the last hour. The guru is amazing, and this smoker is awesome. I can't wait to cook a meat orgy in it :becky:
 
Last edited:
I have an 11.75 lb butt in mine right now and have a 7.5 brisket flat ready for about 9:30 PM. I have 4 rack of ribs for early in the AM tomorrow.

Do you guys pull off the membrane on the bottom or do you just let them go with the membrane on?
 
Membrane off, ribs rubbed, and sitting in then fridge to rest.

Light rain and windy outside right now. But the smoker is sitting at 225! Ribs will go on about 8:30 AM.
 
My cook today wasn't the best. My temp ran up until I added water. Any tips running dry to get 235 to 250. I was getting 280 with a stoker and valve almost closed, and exhaust 1/4th open.
 
ggee6688 said:
My cook today wasn't the best. My temp ran up until I added water. Any tips running dry to get 235 to 250. I was getting 280 with a stoker and valve almost closed, and exhaust 1/4th open.
Click to expand...

I would say try not to stack too much charcoal so it reduces down the amount of lit coals at one time. Then ramp up your temps slowly. Start at 190, then when it gets there go to 210. Follow that process till you get to 235. Hope that works for you.
 
Only 8 Hours

Second cook yesterday with a Boston Butt and a brisket flat. I started with a 20 lb. bag of KBB (which included one lighted chimney) plus hickory chunks.

The Guru was set at 235 degrees and the Tel Tru steady at 232 degrees. Ambient temp was 72 degrees. I was using about 1 gallon of water per hour.

About 8 hours out I started losing temp and the Guru fan was running constantly. I had to add more charcoal. This was surprising and a little disappointing. I expected it to run longer on 20 lbs. of charcoal. Fortunately, it is easy to add charcoal in this cooker.

I wonder if it would run longer without the Guru?

Mike, how much charcoal do you use for your overnight cooks?

How much charcoal do you guys use for Boston Butts?

I have ordered a pair of T-plates from a local welder. Maybe this will help. The firebox is 5 1/4 inches deep so we are using 5 inch flat iron.
 
ggee6688 said:
My cook today wasn't the best. My temp ran up until I added water. Any tips running dry to get 235 to 250. I was getting 280 with a stoker and valve almost closed, and exhaust 1/4th open.
Click to expand...

When I was seasoning the pit dry I was able to run most of the time down at 225. I used the fuse method for charcoal, and barely lit a dozen briquettes. I let the guru stoke the temps up. The temps over shot to 245 until I adjusted the guru to 1/3 opening and the stack to 1/3 as well. It took some patience as it was so windy the pit viper was drafting in more air than I wanted. You can do it just takes fine tuning and patience. Once the vents were right the guru held 225 with no problems.
 
I never light a whole chimney. I find that amount of lit coals produces a very large fire that will consume a lot of neighboring fuel/coals. Try lighting half that, at the cost of slower pit temps, and see how well you come to temp with the gurus help. It helped me stay closer to my target of 225 and burn less fuel.
 
I did a fuse pattern but was filled up to thru tops of the fire bricks. I'l have to check it out. I think the high fuel usage is the water. Just Ave to keep playing around with it.
 
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