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Stickburner question...just curious.

CUTigerQ

CUTigerQ

is one Smokin' Farker
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Im wondering, with a stick burner, if you are using just wood to cook with, wont that make a LOT of smoke? Like thick white smoke? And wont this make the food too smokey? I know on my UDS, the smoke gets a little heavy when the fire hits my wood chunks...not a lot, but you can tell a difference.

I know nothing about this so please excuse my ignorance. I DO want a stickburner, though, and figured I need to learn as much as I can as soon as I can.
 
No, as long as you have a clean burning fire, you will still have sweet blue. Plenty of airflow, preheat your wood, and leave your exhaust open all the way are the keys to successful stickburning.
 
You want a small clean burning fire, which produces very little smoke. You don't want to load the thing up with wood and then control the temps downward by choking it off, that would give you the thick smoke. You want the wood fire to get all the air IT wants so it burns clean, and add a little more fuel as needed. You can even pre-heat the wood on top of the firebox to get it near combustion prior to adding it too.:wink:
 
a cleanburning fire is one that burns evenly. everything in the firebox has reached combustion temps and is burning "cleanly". There is no heavy white smoke, just a sweet blue drifting out the exhaust. I'll try and find a video and link it so you can see exactly how its supposed to be.
 
Clean burning means like a campfire basically. A wood fire is a chemical reaction caused when the wood is heated to a high enough temperature that it begins to break down into smaller particles, primarily gasses, and a small amount of solids. If there is enough oxygen present as the gas escapes in this heat, it will ignite causing the flame, otherwise the gases are released in the air unburned (thick smoke). So a clean burning fire is one where the majority of the gasses produced from this chemical reaction are burned up in the heat as opposed to being released into the air, and over your food.
 
bigabyte said:
Clean burning means like a campfire basically. A wood fire is a chemical reaction caused when the wood is heated to a high enough temperature that it begins to break down into smaller particles, primarily gasses, and a small amount of solids. If there is enough oxygen present as the gas escapes in this heat, it will ignite causing the flame, otherwise the gases are released in the air unburned (thick smoke). So a clean burning fire is one where the majority of the gasses produced from this chemical reaction are burned up in the heat as opposed to being released into the air, and over your food.
Click to expand...

Now that made sense to me...:wink:
 
So the key (just to make sure) is air really. You want your fire to get all the air it wants to burn. The trick is, building the proper sized clean burning fire that puts your cooker at the temp you want to cook at.:wink: That's why you hear "small clean burning fire" a lot. A small fire burning real well will heat a pit up pretty good on most units.
 
All per above is tremendous insight and advice;
fire management in a stickburner is a learned skill that takes time and patience for some- I know only from experience.
Also keep in mind each pit can be quite different so you will eventually figure out what is best for yours.
 
yeah.... Chris summed it up pretty well. just adding enough wood to keep it going is key, you really learn alot about fire management and air w/stick burners

In my stick burner, I only see blue smoke for a couple of min. after I add wood.......most of the time I dont see any smoke
 
Westexbbq said:
All per above is tremendous insight and advice;
fire management in a stickburner is a learned skill that takes time and patience for some- I know only from experience.
Also keep in mind each pit can be quite different so you will eventually figure out what is best for yours.
Click to expand...

Good advice. I prefer burning sticks. It's a form of therapy, smoke therapy is good for me.
 
Agree with above, the Roadmap is your friend. Actually, it's the farkin' bible. I'd be hard pressed to find a single question that isn't answered there. Sure, it takes work to read through and understand, and re-read it, and experiment. But it's well worth it.
 
I spend all day yesterday with the Bandera smoking spares and two fatties (one regular...one all natural for the wife) and burned both lump coal and mesquite. I had read about pre-heating on the forum and did that with some success. More often than not I would add a log and open the lid of the smoke box as well as the side door to let in as much oxygen as needed until the thick white smoke had dissipated. I also realized that you can't leave the pit for more than an hour at most as I had to continually feed it small amounts or the fire would get too hot...or too cold... Good thing I love playing with fire!
 
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