I recently watched a couple videos by Yoder owners who both had something to say about the flow characteristics of their offset smokers.
Video 1:
This gentleman already had a Yoder YS640, and then bought a Kingman with a square firebox and a competition cart, and after many cooks and "learning his cooker" he has decided he needs to use a house fan to keep the Kingman flowing when there is no wind outside. With the comp cart he is able to move the unit around easily to take advantage of the prevailing winds, but on still days he needs a fan to stoke the fire and keep things moving.
Anybody else using a fan to keep their cookers flowing? He calls this a “pro tip,” but it seems more like a crutch to compensate for poor flow. Hopefully it never rains when he's using his electric fan.
The fan appears at about 7 minutes in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWRL0xTbrBE
When he opens the firebox it looks like there's a good amount of back pressure because smoke comes pouring out of it. I also noticed when he opens the cooker there is a surprising lack of smoke inside it. That square firebox might not flow as good as the round one, or it might be mounted higher than usual.
I’ve seen his earlier videos from when he first got the Kingman, and he was working that smoker for the entire brisket cook, but now he transfers the meat to his YS640 to finish it off, which is surely much easier than fiddling with fans and moving the cooker around to catch some wind.
Video 2:
This owner has invested some serious money on his smokers, and provides an interesting commentary because he has had the privilege of cooking on 4 separate pro-grade smokers. The video focuses on his 30” Horizon Marshal smoker, but he also has a 24” Yoder Durango, a Yoder Frontiersman, and an LSG vertical offset. That’s a lot of steel.
In comparing his 4 smokers he contrasts how the Yoders and the LSG have “extraordinary” build quality, but then admits the Horizon is “one of my favorite smokers,” and “it seems to draw pretty well.” On the contrary, he says the Yoders have their fireboxes mounted higher up, and they have awful backdrafting issues, which result in a face full of smoke when you open the door.
Commentary starts around 5:30:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlhAozEREVA
In the video, he says the following:
This is one of 4 smokers that I have. This is a Horizon (30").
I've got a Durango 24" underneath that tarp over there. It's a Yoder Durango 24". I have a Yoder Frontiersman as well, and a Lone Star Grillz vertical offset. And this is, as far as construction is concerned, the most crude of the smokers. The welds on the Yoders and Lone Star Grillz are extraordinary. Not that this is bad, but it's just not quite as refined. These guys are a little slap shot dealing with and everything. It took quite a bit longer to get the cooker than promised. It was poorly packaged for shipping when they sent it freight. It arrived badly damaged so it had to go back to the manufacturer for a lot of repairs. When it showed up again it was in great shape.
But, all that aside, this is probably the best cooking smoker I have. The firebox is set a little bit lower on this than on the Yoders. The Yoders backdraft awfully, and whenever you open the door you just get a face full of smoke. And they cook well, but this one's just a lot nicer to use.
There have been assumptions made regarding flow issues only affecting Yoder's "smaller offsets," mainly because a lot of us first-time buyers are getting the smaller units, but here's a guy who only uses the larger Yoder offsets and he points out the same flow issues with his after using other smokers that actually flow well.
Horizon 30" Marshal: