[bonz50]

Originally Posted by el luchador

That's right. I was cooking on the Pecos, which IMO is the BEST side offset smoker under $500. It is not 1/4" thick but it is well made.

I understand your position but I am loathe to blame the cooker as there are many other variables - moisture content of the wood, skill of the cook, etc. and my position is probably supported since Im sure there are thousands of happy pecos users who have no problems at all with their cooker.



very valid question - it is and it isn't.
with roaring lump I still had to go out there and add a chimney every hour or so. the heat output is linear- I mapped it and can post it if requested. so I didn't have to sit there and baby sit the cooker for several minutes. which means one hour was one hour.

with the offset, it was really every 30 minutes to 45 minutes and several times inbetween trying to keep it from getting too cold or too hot. it also took up to 10 minutes everytime I added a log to bring the temp into compliance

so from an effort perspective - if an oven is a 1/10 in effort and a stick burner is 10/10 in effort, burning embers would be a 4/10.

hope this helps

sounds like maybe some others may be on to something that maybe the cooker itself may be the source of the consistency problem. I had similar issues with my WSM when i first got it, took about a year of learning the cooker before I could just add fuel and forget about it.