Redesigned Lone Star Grillz 20" Offset Smokers - Review Videos

sthamm · Jun 24, 2018

Springram said:
"Fixed it by enlarging the air intake" ..... how in the world did you do that? :-D
Perhaps you are just opening the intake all the way?

My LSG vertical offset drafts like crazy. This is the first I have heard of an intake issue with any of the lSG smokers.

Literally, I cut the intake and replaced the intake door with a wider one. Now I have no issues cooking with the firebox door closed and all vents open maintaining temp with a small fire. Before doing this, I had to cook with the firebox door open. I don't doubt your vertical offset drafts properly. Mine is a horizontal offset and a small one at 24x36. I have to burn a very small fire to maintain low enough temps...problem is, the smaller fire is harder to maintain with a small coal base. Before the fix, as soon as I closed the firebox door (all vents wide open), the fire would smolder. And yes...I used well aged wood (2 years aged post oak split to even smaller than coke sized diameter and about 6" long) and prewarmed splits by actually placing them inside the firebox off to the side of the fire.

marvda1 · Jun 24, 2018

sthamm said:
Mind snapping a pic or elaborating on said adapter? I'd like to be able to do the same with mine.

Don't remember if my value is 1 or 1.25 in.

Springram · Jun 24, 2018

sthamm said:
Literally, I cut the intake and replaced the intake door with a wider one. Now I have no issues cooking with the firebox door closed and all vents open maintaining temp with a small fire. Before doing this, I had to cook with the firebox door open. I don't doubt your vertical offset drafts properly. Mine is a horizontal offset and a small one at 24x36. I have to burn a very small fire to maintain low enough temps...problem is, the smaller fire is harder to maintain with a small coal base. Before the fix, as soon as I closed the firebox door (all vents wide open), the fire would smolder. And yes...I used well aged wood (2 years aged post oak split to even smaller than coke sized diameter and about 6" long) and prewarmed splits by actually placing them inside the firebox off to the side of the fire.

Thanks for the reply. I would make sure to notify Chris at LSG that he as been been selling a poorly designed smoker all these years. Who would have known? Actually, I am of the opinion that it is more operator error involved and a lack of good fire management on your part. My insulated firebox requires small fires. just took a little practice....... Maybe BillN out in Arizona can chime in with his cooks using his 24 X 36.

kingjman · Jun 24, 2018

Plenty of things made with great engineering have room for improvement. Nothing wrong with making a wider window of adjustment. More precise control for moving more air. Think of all the mods available for motors on just about everything that are about moving more air.

kingjman · Jun 24, 2018

marvda1 said:
Don't remember if my value is 1 or 1.25 in.

How about cutting that hose short, stuffing into a used milk or water jug and setting on rack...seal so it don't stink when done, toss when full.

Or a bucket with foil, but I think someone already suggested that.

kenrobin · Jun 24, 2018

kingjman said:
I see replacement grease buckets for pellet poopers a lot of places.

You should be able to hang one off the ball valve handle.

Or even a small cattle bucket from a farm supply store. TSC or FleetFarm.

If you're broke from the lsg purchase...make one from a large soup can and a hanger?

That's exactly what I'm thinking of doing for mine. I think Traeger makes one that should be easy to find at a hardware store like Orchard.

AKMIMNAK · Jun 24, 2018

sthamm said:
Were you having issues with the logs smoldering with the firebox door closed? Just curious. I own a 24x36 horizontal offset from LSG and have had issues with it. Fixed it by enlarging the air intake.

I had my door cracked several times when adding new logs. Didn't know if it was just the learning curve or if I'll always need to do that.

AKMIMNAK · Jun 24, 2018

NYC ‘Que;4018634 said:
Where does the grease go when you’re cooking on the griddle?

I'm not sure

There is no obvious trap for it. I imagine if you're cooking something really greasy, the grease will run off the edges and work its way down to the firebox eventually. However, when I do smashburgers, I make super thin patties and get my Grill Grates so hot that most there's not a ton of grease runoff. It's sort of burning in place. So I don't think it'll be a problem for me. I'll certainly never cook something like bacon on the griddle, though.

sthamm · Jun 24, 2018

Springram said:
Thanks for the reply. I would make sure to notify Chris at LSG that he as been been selling a poorly designed smoker all these years. Who would have known? Actually, I am of the opinion that it is more operator error involved and a lack of good fire management on your part. My insulated firebox requires small fires. just took a little practice....... Maybe BillN out in Arizona can chime in with his cooks using his 24 X 36.

You’re entitled to your opinion although it comes off as condescending since you know nothing about me and don’t own this particular smoker. Given a good draft, a small fire can be maintained with a proportionately small coal base. Without it, the operator will need to find another solution (eg cook with firebox door open, use smaller splits, lengthen smoke stack, elevate stack end of smoker, etc).

AKMIMNAK · Jun 24, 2018

A small bucket or gallon jug won't solve the problem for anyone who is using water in the smoker, or cleaning out with water after the smoke. I used at least 8 gallons of water cleaning her last night, and I don't want all that greasy water spraying on my storage rack. For now, I filled up a five gallon bucket twice and tossed the water in the woods. But it was a pain fitting the bucket under the ball valve even empty, and obviously even less fun getting it back out once the bucket had 4 gallons or so of water in it.

AKMIMNAK · Jun 24, 2018

sthamm · Jun 24, 2018

AKMIMNAK said:
I had my door cracked several times when adding new logs. Didn't know if it was just the learning curve or if I'll always need to do that.

Can’t speak to your particular model, but with my 24x36 I tried everything in my arsenal (very small splits, preheated splits inside the firebox, using over seasoned wood, floor fan blowing into the firebox, adjusting leveling of the smoker, running it without tuning plates to minimize resistance). I know a lot of people (Franklin most notably) say to cook with the firebox door open, but I was annoyed that I had to do it as a requirement and not just an option. With my intake now larger, cooks are much less of a headache and more enjoyable.

AKMIMNAK · Jun 24, 2018

Guys, the "Arrival & Walkaround" video I just posted to the updated list above is from Kenyatta Robinson, a guy in SoCal who just took receipt of his new 20x42 LSG this weekend. He's got several accessories that I did not order, and his video was really interesting - if you think my delivery was scary, you should watch his

With another 20x42 user posting vids, we'll all benefit from better variety.

AKMIMNAK · Jun 24, 2018

sthamm said:
Can’t speak to your particular model, but with my 24x36 I tried everything in my arsenal (very small splits, preheated splits inside the firebox, using over seasoned wood, floor fan blowing into the firebox, adjusting leveling of the smoker, running it without tuning plates to minimize resistance). I know a lot of people (Franklin most notably) say to cook with the firebox door open, but I was annoyed that I had to do it as a requirement and not just an option. With my intake now larger, cooks are much less of a headache and more enjoyable.

Yes, it is annoying because it means more babysitting, and because it is already discoloring the paint around the door opening. But I don't have the skillz to mod mine like you did so I'll have to tinker with it and see if this is a longterm prob or if these 20" models will run better once I figure it out.

pjtexas1 · Jun 24, 2018

You guys need to contact Chris. He'll be glad to help. I don't own one but i have spoken to him a couple times and know his reputation. I'd be very surprised to find that he designed these to be run with the door cracked.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

txsmkmstr · Jun 24, 2018

Relative to the the grease drain ideas I bought a 45 degree bend (technical term "street ell") and installed on the drain nipple. This allowed the ball valve to slightly outside the frame of the smoker and easier to get to the handle. I've tried buckets, pails and other containers for the grease but seems like they were always a stinky mess to deal with or too far away from the drain outlet - plus the dogs seemed to get their head up in there - yuck!!!

My solution was to use some elastic cord and a plastic bag (ziplock sandwich or quart size) making a colostomy bag set up attaching the bag directly to the ball valve itself. Once the cook was done I use a twisty tie to seal it all up and toss in the garbage. One wipe of the drain outlet with a paper towel and all is good.

I've quit using water in my smokers a long time ago. It just adds to the preheat time and makes a hellava mess to clean up and dispose. The extent I clean is an occasional scraping with a wide putty knife to get the chunks off - no hosing of the interior ever.

Springram · Jun 24, 2018

sthamm said:
You’re entitled to your opinion although it comes off as condescending since you know nothing about me and don’t own this particular smoker. Given a good draft, a small fire can be maintained with a proportionately small coal base. Without it, the operator will need to find another solution (eg cook with firebox door open, use smaller splits, lengthen smoke stack, elevate stack end of smoker, etc).

There is an 'ol saying......... "there's always one" You are it.

marvda1 · Jun 24, 2018

kingjman said:
How about cutting that hose short, stuffing into a used milk or water jug and setting on rack...seal so it don't stink when done, toss when full.

Or a bucket with foil, but I think someone already suggested that.

the hose is mostly for when I clean out the pit so the water does not run on my patio.

txsmkmstr · Jun 24, 2018

sthamm said:
Can’t speak to your particular model, but with my 24x36 I tried everything in my arsenal (very small splits, preheated splits inside the firebox, using over seasoned wood, floor fan blowing into the firebox, adjusting leveling of the smoker, running it without tuning plates to minimize resistance). I know a lot of people (Franklin most notably) say to cook with the firebox door open, but I was annoyed that I had to do it as a requirement and not just an option. With my intake now larger, cooks are much less of a headache and more enjoyable.

My LSG pit with insulated firebox could benefit from a larger intake but ONLY during warm up and initial burn of the first log pile. If I close the door and lock it too soon my fire will try to smolder and pre-heat times are lengthened. Now, I make the sure the gas assist has done it's work and close the door but do not latch it shut. Once a decent coal base is formed I can start locking the door. From there I can run the intake pretty much where I want to maintaining my desired fire characteristics. I can truly see the plus in an extra 2" (wild-ass guess) on the overall width side to side.

Note: I do consider my experience to be part of learning a new pit and not an indictment of the product overall.

Westx · Jun 24, 2018

For those talking about the intake size, if you look at the pits coming out now he did change the size and style of the intake. Curious as to why he did that.

Redesigned Lone Star Grillz 20" Offset Smokers - Review Videos

Full Fledged Farker

Full Fledged Farker

Attachments

is Blowin Smoke!

Full Fledged Farker

Full Fledged Farker

Knows what a fatty is.

is one Smokin' Farker

is one Smokin' Farker

Full Fledged Farker

is one Smokin' Farker

is one Smokin' Farker

Full Fledged Farker

is one Smokin' Farker

is one Smokin' Farker

somebody shut me the fark up.

is one Smokin' Farker

is Blowin Smoke!

Full Fledged Farker

is one Smokin' Farker

is Blowin Smoke!

Similar threads