Problems with Pitmaker vaults and safes

[jmoney7269]

Lump charcoal has alot of fines. If you used jut the lump your wasting about 20% of the bag. I know I would rather pour in a whole 10 lb bag of lump throw about 20 lit briquettes in the charcoal and let it rip. Any good cooker can adapt to how a pit cooks, but a pit owner should not have to adapt to how a pit cooks IMO, especially one one your controlling temps with air not fuel like stick burners.

[grantw]

Posts like this show the power of weber! I can run my smokey joe @ 250 for 5 hrs with no gadgets or mods. I was wanting a pitmaker pit bad until I got a shipping quote, a backwoods shipping quote was way less. Now I'm really thinking neither. When I buy a weber it works I know exactly what it will do and when. Customer service is also number one with them. I love how pitmaker pits look but I work dam hard for my money it had better come out of the box and work.

[grantw]

Has anyone tried the coffee can minion method on these vaults?

[Kenny Rogers]

Originally Posted by grantw

Has anyone tried the coffee can minion method on these vaults?

Haven't needed to... Preheating the chamber and putting the charcoal in around the edges works just fine for my vault. There really is no problem. Notice this thread was started by someone that was making suggestions on how to improve the vault, not stating that he has a problem with his vault.
I agree the weber is a great cooker, bit it doesn't have the capacity and flexibility of the vault.
I love mine. The water pan can be used to help stabalize the temps and to add moisture to your product, just as the water pan in a WSM.

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[QTEX]

It really is just air in and out to control the temps, agreeing with JD. I built a basket for my offset and now run intake open about 15% and exhaust 20% to cook at 300. To slow it down i adjust those two very slightly. I fill the basket and just light a bit closer to the air inlets then let the temp come up slow, that preheats the cooker too. Cooks up to ten hours on one load no superchargers and no turbochargers lol.

[jmoney7269]

Originally Posted by Kenny Rogers

Haven't needed to... Preheating the chamber and putting the charcoal in around the edges works just fine for my vault. There really is no problem. Notice this thread was started by someone that was making suggestions on how to improve the vault, not stating that he has a problem with his vault.
I agree the weber is a great cooker, bit it doesn't have the capacity and flexibility of the vault.
I love mine. The water pan can be used to help stabalize the temps and to add moisture to your product, just as the water pan in a WSM.

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You are correct, I never had a problem with mine when I had it Becaise it was made how I wanted it. Don't likE using briquettes Becaise they have cedar, lumber scraps, borax and god knows what else in them, sorry I'm a lump kinda guy. I read alot on stuff before I buy it, and most of the time know how to operate it before I even get it. It's a shame that people had to suffer a $3k+ pocketbook wallop to find out their pit can't hold temps without Doing a bunch of stuff to it.

[Kenny Rogers]

Originally Posted by jmoney7269

You are correct, I never had a problem with mine when I had it Becaise it was made how I wanted it. Don't likE using briquettes Becaise they have cedar, lumber scraps, borax and god knows what else in them, sorry I'm a lump kinda guy. I read alot on stuff before I buy it, and most of the time know how to operate it before I even get it. It's a shame that people had to suffer a $3k+ pocketbook wallop to find out their pit can't hold temps without Doing a bunch of stuff to it.

I don't know what you're talking avout, my vault hold its temp just fine, without any customization.

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[jmoney7269]

Yes, ok, so your able to load the charcoal basket up, throw in some lit charcoal, few chunks of wood, chunk the brisket on @225 for a l&s and come back tomorrow morning and know its still gonna be @225 with no fear of loss of fire or a huge temp spike from overfueling. With a daisy chain method, how many hrs do you get out of the cooker with water In it? I know water almost doubles the fuel consumption.

[stephan]

I have to agree with Kenny Rogers. I dont have any issues with my safe. I also had a stickburner for years [ A Klose ] and that was a great smoker but you were flirting with disaster if you tried to leave it unattended. I have gone out shopping run errands with out a problem. The longest I have been away from the safe is 6-8 hours. for me it pretty much runs like a WSM

[grantw]

They look so well built and the capacity is why I wanted it, to buy it I'd have to sell my 08 trx 450. And I would be extra pissed If that pit needed mods

[SDAR]

Jmoney, I like your idea of a ball valve on the intake instead of the slides. The slide on my vault has a very loose fit and it's pretty difficult to fine tune running a dry pan. It will go through a rack of fuel in about 6 hours with water and is difficult to keep below about 300 because of all the inlet air and draft on top if running dry. I wrap the slide in foil and use a guru sometimes. Valve is really good idea.

[Kenny Rogers]

Originally Posted by jmoney7269

Yes, ok, so your able to load the charcoal basket up, throw in some lit charcoal, few chunks of wood, chunk the brisket on @225 for a l&s and come back tomorrow morning and know its still gonna be @225 with no fear of loss of fire or a huge temp spike from overfueling. With a daisy chain method, how many hrs do you get out of the cooker with water In it? I know water almost doubles the fuel consumption.

I have cooked on many pieces of equipment, the MOST economical is my BGE, I love it! With the stoker on my BGE I can get a load of lump charcoal to cruise at 225 for about 48 hours! That's amazing! HOWEVER... the cooking capacity of the BGE is extremely limited!
The PM vault is insulated (like the bge) with 2" rigid insulation, so it doesn't slide down the walls with time and travel.
After I preheat my cooking chamber, I can load up my basket (around the edges in a U shape) with briquettes and some chunks of wood, light the start of the coals, and it WILL cruise at 225 - 250 for many hours, unattended.
The water will help it maintain a stable temperature, as I said, just like a WSM, only on a larger scale. Yes, it does take energy to heat water... if you do it while you're preheating your chamber, it will last you a long time.
For example: In Stevensville, MT earlier this year I preheated the cooking chamber and preheated the water in the water pan for a friend that was going to use my vault for a charity cook. I didn't put any charcoal in the basket, figuring he had his own. When I went to bed, the pit was cruising at 275... when I woke up 7 hours later, and went out, I discovered he did not use the pit... after sitting all night the pit was STILL at 225!! The ambient temperatures were around 35 degrees, there was even some frost on the windshield. There was NO fuel in the pit!
Is the vault customizable? Yes! Does it NEED customization to make it work? NO! You can add a guru, and get many more smoking hours out of your fuel, it's true. So if you wanna run the vault like a BGE, it IS possilbe.
I do not run lump in my vault, I DO run lump in my BGE. Why? Because I find it effects the flavor of my food in the BGE (because it's so small) but NOT the food in my vault.
There are MANY major competitions that have been won with the PM vault, and this unit has been proven a winner time and time again. I'm happy with mine... sorry you weren't happy with yours. I have a question... what unit ARE you happy with? if any....

[---k---]

If you ever want to sell it, let me know. I got a buddy with serious lust issues and Pitmaker. A reasonably priced used one might push him over the edge.

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[jmoney7269]

Kenny Rogers, I hope you have been following. Again I sold my vault to a friend almost 2 years ago Because of my inability to transport it In comps. I was never at any point unsatisfied with my vault, I actually loved it. I don't think there is a better pit out there. This thread was not created to dog their product at all whatsoever, but to actually talk about the different confIgurations that work the best on them.
Also that 275-225 overnight cool down shows how insulated those things really are.

[Hook'n Bull]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyPigBbq

I have 2500 reasons why I want to love my safe, but in truth and out of earshot of my wife I curse everytime I use it. I broke down and bought a weed burner in hopes I could preheat the smoker and use less wood getting it up to temp. This was somewhat successful. Next smoke I am going to go all natural and leave my new Cyber Q in the closet and see what happens. I am planning on making a new charcoal basket because 3-4 hours at best is no good. Its going to start getting cold in Chicago and the last thing I want to do is have to sit on top of my smoker while freezing my butt off.

I have a Safe. It has a slide door for air intake. I use a Guru every time I cook and can control my temp at 230° with no water in the pan. I do have a diffuser plate in the firebox below the water pan. Try this Whiskey...check your slide door, it needs to be really tight. If it is loose take a ball peen hammer and lightly hammer the door "track" inside the firebox against the slide door to "pinch" it down to a really snug fit. You almost need to tap mine with something to adjust it from outside. A really snug fit here will greatly improve your ability to control temp. Jmoney is correct on closing down on the exhaust while running the Guru. I close my down to about 20%. With a full load of lump and wood (about 50/50) I can get temp up to and maintain 230° for 14 hours without adding anything. And yes it produces the thin blue smoke from clean combustion. Good luck.