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I need your advice

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Big Griz

Is lookin for wood to cook with.
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OK….I am new to the forum (this is my first post)and could use your advice. I have a horizontal grill with an offset smoker box (I think you guys call them stick burners) that I tried using this past weekend to do some smoking and found a couple of issues.

Most importantly, the door for the fire box is mounted upside down so that the air intake is at the top of the box rather than the bottom. I was smoking a couple of 5 lb bologna chubs because I wanted to start slow while I get the hang of things. I decided to try smoking it by placing all of the charcoal at one end of the grill and the bologna at the other and using the vent on the fire box to go control the air intake since it is in line with the intake on the side of the grill. The temp was coming up nicely so I decided to start closing the vent to regulate the temp before it got to hot (something I learned from you guys) when I found my second problem. Since the fire box is only bolted on to the grill and not welded on, it didn’t seal well and even with the vent closed on the fire box, it was drawing enough air through the gaps that I had real problems with keeping the temp right.

I said all of that to ask this. I am not a welder so even though I can use a grinder to remove the door brackets, I would have to pay someone to weld them back on so that the door is right. I would also either have to pay someone to weld the firebox onto the grill or purchase some bolts and fender washers to suck up firmly enough against the grill body to restrict air. While I enjoy grilling with what I have, I am wondering it would be better to invest the money I would spend fixing my rig and spend that making a new UDS to smoke on. I have read the UDS thread and think I could do it, but wanted to get your thoughts. (sorry this is so long!)
 
I am not an offset smoker genius but one thing you can do to seal the fire box to the smoke chamber is use the high temperature silicon to prevent any leaking from there.
 
You used too much wood, cut back on the wood and don't worry so much about the air. They are hard to work with. One of the easiest cookers in the world is a wsm. If you cut back on the air in your set up you will end up with off tasting food. It has to be a small clean fire
 
Do you know the brand of your smoker? Brinkman? Char-griller?
 
Sounds like a P.O.S. homemade job to me. Not all stickburners are "hard to work with" as grant said above. However, the cheap ones are. I've seen folks spend twice what one is worth trying to "fix" these things, some with some success, others just wasted money, time, effort, hope.

A good/inexpensive smoker would be a WSM (aka. Weber Smokey Mountain). I love my stickburner, but it's a GOOD one.
 
I just took it for granted he was using a cheaper one, and they are hard but not impossible. I wouldn't put money into it
 
You will get more useful feedback if you post what brand it is. There is plenty of info online about modifying cheap offset smokers, and most of the mods are inexpensive.

As for the firebox door, I've never seen one mounted "upside down" before. The manufacturer should fix it if it's a defect. If not or if it's homemade, just keep the existing air intake closed and put a couple of cheap ball valves on the bottom of the door. Don't put a lot of money into it.
 
As a cheap offset owner myself, I would advise the UDS route or the WSM if you got the money. My UDS got built for about 75bucks and that counts the new grills and the very used Weber lid, but it did include a ton of my free labor.

Since then the offset has remained a very good grill but I have yet to smoke anything else on it. The UDS will pay for itself within a summer if you used to use charcoal to fuel your offset and you want to smoke stuff weekly(or three times per week in my case)
 
It's the older model of this Char-Griller:

http://www.chargriller.com/index.ph...&category_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2


The firebox they sell now is completely different than the one mine come with, but I got mine about 15-20 years ago.

I have just about decided that rather than spend much money on it, I am going to just build a UDS and keep this for grilling. It still does good at that. I wish I could go out and buy a new smoker, but with 2 kids in college, thats not going to happen for a couple more years.
 
Did you check to see if you could unbolt the firebox? If it is not welded on, it has to be attached some how. Even if you have to cut the bolts off, you can get new one and bolt the firebox into the correct position. Sounds like you need to turn the box 180 degrees to get it into the correct position. When you put the firebox back on is when you should put the high temp silicon to seal the gap if there is still one.
 
Big Griz said:
It's the older model of this Char-Griller:

http://www.chargriller.com/index.ph...&category_id=1&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2


The firebox they sell now is completely different than the one mine come with, but I got mine about 15-20 years ago.

I have just about decided that rather than spend much money on it, I am going to just build a UDS and keep this for grilling. It still does good at that. I wish I could go out and buy a new smoker, but with 2 kids in college, thats not going to happen for a couple more years.
Click to expand...
Those make good grills and lousy smokers unless you're name is BigMista and you are cooking on a small porch in California with no firebox.:wink:
 
Pyle's BBQ said:
Did you check to see if you could unbolt the firebox? If it is not welded on, it has to be attached some how. Even if you have to cut the bolts off, you can get new one and bolt the firebox into the correct position. Sounds like you need to turn the box 180 degrees to get it into the correct position. When you put the firebox back on is when you should put the high temp silicon to seal the gap if there is still one.
Click to expand...

I wondered about that, but the vent hole between the box and he grill match up correctly. If I unbolt it and turn the whole thing over, they won't. In theory the vent between the box and grill would be at the top of the firebox and the intake would be at the bottom right?

smokesec3.jpg


The way it is now, both the intake and the vent between the grill and the box are the top. I think I would have to grind of the hinge brackets that hold the door on, turn it upside down and then weld them back on. That way the intake would be at the bottom so the airflow would go across the coals/wood.

Rather than paying someone to do all that welding for me, I may drill 2 or 3 holes across the bottom and use the same type ball valve set up as a UDS and see how that works. I am going to build a UDS as well, so then I'll have two smokers to add to my signature when I create one. lol
 
The chargriller offset has a slide out drawer / ash pan. Does yours have this ?

Technically there isn't a real problem with air intake over the charcoal albeit is not as common. It's the same configuration as a fireplace. google Hearth Botom Grate

The air does get heated and creates smoke.

Placing the charcoal in the food chamber would make it draw air from the gaps in there
Try placing the charcoal as designed in the fire box and your control issues will be less, the food chamber will be exhausting smoke and not drawing in air. The gaps from the bolt issues can be corrected with foil as a gasket. Do some small cooks and learn what your pit likes to do. Note I'm betting it will not like 225 but that's not the magic number.... Find what it likes and let her run at that temp. Then adjust your cook times for what temps your rig can manage. It's not rocket science it's BBQ
 
Run with that UDS! Sure, keep the cheapo and play with it if you want. You'll learn alot tryin to make it run right. I just wouldn't spend too much money doin it.l.
 
um. i hate to talk cryptically, but with a reasonable fire, without mods, have you noticed what temp it purrs at?
 
Pitmaster T said:
um. i hate to talk cryptically, but with a reasonable fire, without mods, have you noticed what temp it purrs at?
Click to expand...

:oops: To be honest, it's been awhile since I added the firebox and tried it. I do remember that even with a good fire going, the food chamber would not heat up above about 180. My MIL/FIL got this for me about 15-20 years ago, but I have been getting interested again in actually trying to get it working right since I ran across this forum. I did check with both of my brothers-in-law since they got the same thing and both of their's has the door to the fire box on the other side with the intake at the bottom and neither of them has any trouble getting up to temp and working.

Sorry to be such a newbie , but I have to admit it's even fun just tinkering with it to try andd get it to work right.
 
Hook_Line_and_Sinker said:
The chargriller offset has a slide out drawer / ash pan. Does yours have this ?

Technically there isn't a real problem with air intake over the charcoal albeit is not as common. It's the same configuration as a fireplace. google Hearth Botom Grate

The air does get heated and creates smoke.

Placing the charcoal in the food chamber would make it draw air from the gaps in there
Try placing the charcoal as designed in the fire box and your control issues will be less, the food chamber will be exhausting smoke and not drawing in air. The gaps from the bolt issues can be corrected with foil as a gasket. Do some small cooks and learn what your pit likes to do. Note I'm betting it will not like 225 but that's not the magic number.... Find what it likes and let her run at that temp. Then adjust your cook times for what temps your rig can manage. It's not rocket science it's BBQ
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great advice! This site is awesome for someone like myself who is trying to get into smoking meats and had no previous knowledge about how!

Yoiu are right about the newer model offsets having the slide out drawer. Unfortunately mine is old enough that it only has a swinging door and an intake that pivots back and forth.
 
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