UKS testing questions...

[Smokin Turkey]

OK.. AS you may know, I am still working on perfecting my creation for production. I already know that the thing will smoke on a chimney load for 16-18 hours at 225. I also know it will grill for around 4-6 hours.

This weekend I ran without the water pan and tested as an oven. Ran it wide open for 30 min when it hit 425*F. I shut one valve and it went right to 350 and held it for 6 hours before tapering to 300 over the next 3 hours. When I shut it down for the show tear down, it still had a few coals.

How does this compare to other Smoker/Grill/Oven deals? I know the BGE is a tough act to follow (I want one when I can get some $) but it's the only S/G/O I know of. I have never heard much about it's cook time capabilities.

Am I far off? I know the price of a new Egg runs about 2x the price I am working to get to for my little monster.

[Professor Salt]

If you're shooting for BGE-like functionality, I think it needs to sustain 600F without throttling down. Ceramics are great for pizza bakers, and my ceramic lets me bake in that temp range. (different brand, but same idea). In fact, every ceramic makes a great grill / smoker / oven, not just the BGE. So you do have other competitors to think about.

Can you do another test with the vents wide open and see what your max temp & burn times are?

From what I've seen of your beast, the low ceiling height from the grate to the lid is a plus for pizza. Maybe not so great for a tall piece of meat like chuck roll, though. What's that height dimension?

[Smokin Turkey]

Just over 7" in the center. I plan to stretch the prototype. I have sold a few standard ones and the customers have yet to get back to me. I planned to stretch it to beable to hold more racks or larger pieces.

[Professor Salt]

Just over 7" in the center. I plan to stretch the prototype. I have sold a few standard ones and the customers have yet to get back to me. I planned to stretch it to beable to hold more racks or larger pieces.

Good move.

[kitch]

I'm thinkin' you should have made an "orion" knockoff

[Smokin Turkey]

I did check that thing out when i saw it listed online. The problems I see with that are:

Huge amounts of coals to cook
Not much smoke penetration
It's not near as cool looking as a beer keg.

The UKS is a set it and forget it cooker. In the 13 hour butt smoke, I did nothing but put it on at 44*F internal temp and take it off at 193*F. I used a full chimney load of coals and 4-5 lump hickory.

I guess I am not so much trying to compete with something like the BGE, but trying to see how it compares. I would say from what I read here that the BGE is one of the best innovations in BBQ made commercially. My smoker does well grilling and smoking. I thought I'd try my hand with the oven.

I don't think it will work as well in "oven mode" when the weather turns colder.

Thanks again for advice and suggestions.

[Dr_KY]

I still need to see pictures of how this is set up before anything else.

[Smokin Turkey]

I still need to see pictures of how this is set up before anything else.

Here you see the first image fully setup.
Second on the right you see fully open all the way to the fire basket.
bottom left you see with coal basket full, water pan 1/2 full and in, grate ontop.
bottom right, you see the first pron a 7.5 lb butt after around 13 hours. As you can see, i originally had problems with the stove silicone. I have since found a way to keep the silicone bonded and clean looking.


This is the smoker setup.
The grill setup is valve wide open, water pan out, and top off.
The oven setup is the valve in various positions, water pan out, top on.

http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp199/hccllc2008/KegSmokerCollage.jpg

[Professor Salt]

Good that you improved the silicone bead, but is it even necessary to use silicone at all? I can live with a little air / smoke leakage personally. Improved gasket or not, I'd rather not have silicone at grate level touching my food when the cooker's filled up to the edge. Perhaps there are other ways to create an interference fit with the lid?

So with that in mind, how does the lid engage the bottom? I'm assuming that you're attaching (bonding? welding?) a flange around the inside diameter of the lid, and that slides into the ID of the keg? A photo of the underside of the lid would be nice.

[Smokin Turkey]

Around where I separated the keg (cut the top off) I welded a band of 1/8" Stainless. The top of the keg (aka the lid) slips in the band. Think pipe coupling. I could only weld in short 1.5 inch tags to prevent warping. I used 1200*F outdoor furnace silicone to prevent dripping runs down the pretty stainless keg. (I had runs on the test burns I did prior to Pron cooks) The first cook pictured had too much silicone and I trimmed it to just the welded seam. The silicone never comes into contact with the pron.

I used silicone because it stays flexible, does not off gas, and is used in other foodservice applications.

I will get some more pics later this week. I just came down with the flue so I'm going to bed.

Thanks

[Professor Salt]

Thanks for the clarification. That lid fab sounds good.