Baffle in Old Country Brazos ?

Lynn Dollar

Lynn Dollar

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Has anyone cut all or part of it out ?

Its very restrictive. Leaves maybe 2" or 3" of space under the baffle for air to flow.
 
Well, no one reading this has tried or thought about cutting out the baffle.

So, take a new angle ......... how important is air flow in this size of offset smoker ?

If you read Aaron Franklin's book or dig into old interviews with John Lewis, they both talk a lot about air flow. Air flow = convection. Convection = meats cook faster and ya get better bark and smoke retention.

But they're working with 14 foot long propane tank smokers.
 
Not sure how many here own that particular cooker- or know exactly what you are talking about if they don't own it. It was designed that way- I'd guess there was a decent reason it was included. If you feeling adventurous, you can always take an angle grinder to it and slice away. Would not be my first choice but /shrug.

I guess the question that needs to be asked is: Does the pit draw and flow well with it in place? If it's breathing well, why not leave it alone? If it does not breathe well, what do you have to lose by removing some /all?
 
Ohh no, if I can't find anyone who has cut the baffle out, I'm not gonna be the guinea pig. I was looking for someone whose done that.



But if you look at other backyard offset smokers, there's not many with a baffle. In fact, Old Country is about the only one that directs heat downward, that I can think of. There might be others.



Yoder and Horizon have sort've a halfass baffle. And they use a " convection plate " to move the heat around, end to end.



LSG uses a baffle, but it directs heat upward and makes it a top down cooker.


I believe the Jambo backyard, does the same.


And if you search the archives of this site, you find discussions like this one from 2015


http://bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=213947


Where the solution to balancing temps end-to-end, is to open the FB door and use air flow to move the heat from the FB end to the stack end. Which would also create more convection.



But there's problems with that, one is having to constantly adjust the FB door opening as the fire ebbs and flows...... and bottom burning of meats.


And with the FB door closed, its a real balancing act to keep the smoke clean.
 
I'm sort back to where I was: Are you happy with the draw? If you think it can be better, what is that based on? If it's because different builders use different designs, that's not a great reason. If everyone uses the same design except you, then maybe you have some reason for doubt.

All I can advise is to hang loose. Lot of people here have a lot of knowledge on offsets. I don't own one, never ran one (did rub up against a new Shirley in a semi- suggestive way one time- owner still looks at me funny).

disclaimer - All I "know" about offsets is based off the internet -and you know what a cesspool of bad info that can be.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
Ohh no, if I can't find anyone who has cut the baffle out, I'm not gonna be the guinea pig. I was looking for someone whose done that.



But if you look at other backyard offset smokers, there's not many with a baffle. In fact, Old Country is about the only one that directs heat downward, that I can think of. There might be others.



Yoder and Horizon have sort've a halfass baffle. And they use a " convection plate " to move the heat around, end to end.



LSG uses a baffle, but it directs heat upward and makes it a top down cooker.


I believe the Jambo backyard, does the same.


And if you search the archives of this site, you find discussions like this one from 2015


http://bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=213947


Where the solution to balancing temps end-to-end, is to open the FB door and use air flow to move the heat from the FB end to the stack end. Which would also create more convection.



But there's problems with that, one is having to constantly adjust the FB door opening as the fire ebbs and flows...... and bottom burning of meats.


And with the FB door closed, its a real balancing act to keep the smoke clean.
Click to expand...
I had a Tejas offset that had a baffle directing the heat downward. Cooked great and ran clean. Regret selling it.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 
My old Texas Smoke Master had that same baffle. Temps were even from side to side. Never had draft issues or bark issues.
3a548a752bf587a67d976bda65916b07.jpg


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mcyork28 said:
I had a Tejas offset that had a baffle directing the heat downward. Cooked great and ran clean. Regret selling it.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

How long was your cook chamber ?

Where did your stack exit the cook chamber ?

How large was your stack ?

If you include the convectiion plate on Yoder and Horizon to the baffle, then they have very large baffles. But the stack exits at the top of the cook chamber. They are meant to be a bottom up smoker. The heat runs under the plate and then rises out of the smoker.

Brazos exits at grate level. Seems to me, if ya gonna exit at grate level, then it needs to be a top down smoker like LSG or Jambo. And I think this is part of the reason its so hard to get even temps end-to-end. And tuning plates just screw it up even more.
 
I just looked at the LSG 24 X 48 and it has a " heat deflector " , which is a baffle. And comes with tuning plates .

So much for my theory.
 
Lynn Dollar said:
How long was your cook chamber ?

Where did your stack exit the cook chamber ?

How large was your stack ?

If you include the convectiion plate on Yoder and Horizon to the baffle, then they have very large baffles. But the stack exits at the top of the cook chamber. They are meant to be a bottom up smoker. The heat runs under the plate and then rises out of the smoker.

Brazos exits at grate level. Seems to me, if ya gonna exit at grate level, then it needs to be a top down smoker like LSG or Jambo. And I think this is part of the reason its so hard to get even temps end-to-end. And tuning plates just screw it up even more.
Click to expand...

With a mass production traditional flow offset you're not going to get even temps from left to right. No need to fight it ; just recognize that the firebox end is going to be hotter, the middle will be normal, and the exhaust stack side will be a bit cooler. Use this to your advantage when rotating meat, or use the hot end to cook chicken while you're doing your lower/slower BBQ meats on the middle and exhaust stack side.
 
R

SmoothBoarBBQ said:
With a mass production traditional flow offset you're not going to get even temps from left to right. No need to fight it ; just recognize that the firebox end is going to be hotter, the middle will be normal, and the exhaust stack side will be a bit cooler. Use this to your advantage when rotating meat, or use the hot end to cook chicken while you're doing your lower/slower BBQ meats on the middle and exhaust stack side.
Click to expand...


Well, I've already been there. I've had this smoker for two years. Not a newby with it. And I'm thinking more about improving convection than how much of the grate I can use. I never load it up.

But I leave the FB door about 2" open and throw the heat to the stack end and put my meats on stack side of the center of the grate.

Air flow makes a huge diff in where the heat builds. And it will change constantly i.e. read that thread from 2015 I linked above. The OP saw the temps move from end to end for apparently no reason.

If the cook chamber was another 6" to a foot longer it would help and if the FB was another 6" longer, that would help also.
 
I have a Moberg, my buddy had a Brazos. We cooked together all the time on both pits. The Brazos never drafted worth a crap, we normally had to use a small fan to increase airflow. Also it basically cooked from below, much like a cabinet (due to the worthless baffle).

He was pretty happy with the Brazos (it's a steal for the price, especially with the 20% discount from an Academy employee client of mine, haha!)

But anyway, once he had brisket from my Moberg (in which we cooked exactly the same manner as a previous brisket in his Brazos), he promptly cut out his baffle and extended his stack. Much better airflow than previous. And it cooked more from the top rather than the bottom. Win.

Don't worry about temps side to side, it's really too short to get that. Just fatty end towards the fire and you'll be ok.
 
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