I desperately need offset fire management help. Very frustrated.

My .02 is that your biggest culprit is probably those small splits of cherry. I will just confirm a few things though...


- The wood is burning, yes? Not smoldering


- You have added more and more wood, and even charcoal, and it does not get hotter? what does it do?? does the large fire smolder and smoke?


- I assume you have your fire up on a grate, and off the bottom of the firebox?



- how are you running your intake and exhaust? Both wide open?


- what does your coal bed look like?


My theory is this - dry cherry burns fast. small dry cherry burns faster. Fast enough that you aren't maintaining enough coal bed, and that's really where the heat comes from, not small burning splits. You need the coals. I would suggest this. Take the cherry out of the equation. Dump a chimney worth of lump in it and see what happens.

93_confirmed said:

I just went out and partially disassembled the Joe. The only two things that could be noteworthy are the firebox is rustimng both inside and out to the point where it's peeling/flaking and there was about a 1/4 of muck lining the very bottom of the cook chamber. I cleaned it all out. Also checked exhaust again and it's clean and no debris. Could the rust be thining the firebox metal enough that I'm losing heat?

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Did you check EVERYTHING?

I’d clean it inside and out, top to bottom, and perform a visual inspection. I’d check for damage or anything out of the ordinary. Is air leaking somewhere? Did it rust through anywhere? Also, try a different thermometer to make sure that isn’t an issue or check the existing one (ice water, boiling water if it has that range) adjusted for altitude.

Try a load of charcoal to rule out the wood.

Only things I can think of.:noidea:

extend your stack will cause more draw and more heat into chamber

I cook on a Joe but not originally reverse. I reversed mine with plates and other method as I posted some time past. I burn mostly oak but occasionally pecan and cherry as well. I agree that small sticks will not do the trick. You have to build a coal bead (to start) and pile on the wood (initially) to build a wood ember base that will catch the added wood on fire quickly. I have taken to placing a PC fan on a box level with the fire box door (open) and having it blow on it for most of the cook. Got to keep adding wood to the Joe to make it perform hot. The last cook (yesterday) consumed most of $15 worth of oak at 1:50 a split to do an 8# brisket. Conclusion: your problem is how you feed your fire IMHO.

I had a Highland, and for me, it just sometimes seemed like it didn't want to draft, so I had to crack the firebox door to get it up to temp and stop the heavy white smoke.

Shagdog said:

My .02 is that your biggest culprit is probably those small splits of cherry. I will just confirm a few things though...


- The wood is burning, yes? Not smoldering


- You have added more and more wood, and even charcoal, and it does not get hotter? what does it do?? does the large fire smolder and smoke?


- I assume you have your fire up on a grate, and off the bottom of the firebox?



- how are you running your intake and exhaust? Both wide open?


- what does your coal bed look like?


My theory is this - dry cherry burns fast. small dry cherry burns faster. Fast enough that you aren't maintaining enough coal bed, and that's really where the heat comes from, not small burning splits. You need the coals. I would suggest this. Take the cherry out of the equation. Dump a chimney worth of lump in it and see what happens.

Click to expand...

This is where I am at. It’s all about the coal bed. If you have any pics of your fire from the last cook post em up, will be much easier to diagnose than guessing without pics.

ronbrad62 said:

I had a Highland, and for me, it just sometimes seemed like it didn't want to draft, so I had to crack the firebox door to get it up to temp and stop the heavy white smoke.

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Crack the door? I cook with the stack and door wide open with forced air on the fire box.

Start with the basics. Try a chimney of charcoal with no wood. Leave the exhaust and intake wide open. If it gets up to temp, throw on a piece of wood. You will likely need to add a split every 30 minutes to keep a bed of hot coals.

In my experience, I would have trouble keeping the temp up if the cooker wasnt ready for the meat. In other words...take at least an hour to get the temp where you want it and make sure it stays there before you put your food on.

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It's the wood. You could make life a lot easier and get a Shirley if you have the finances. I did and have never been happier and I too had a left side firebox OKJ/NewBraunfels. Just bite the bullet and do it.

I haven’t read this thread buddy, but I can tell you this. I bought a used Jambo and I have to feed my fire every 45 minutes....not an hour like i read elsewhere. I have to burn small sticks of wood to keep the temp swings 25 degrees or less. ......it really doesn’t matter if temp swings, or anything else. It will get done when it gets done and if you burn good wood the flavor will be wonderful.....just my 2 cents......good luck!!

Your wood may be "overseasoned",too dry.I had a stash of wood that I was running my Shirley on and fed wood spits to it like a hungry teenager.I bought a new load of " fresher" wood and the first time I ran that,same as I been running it,that baby SPIKED.I use about half as much of this new wood to maintain same temps as I did with the older dried out wood.It is all Hickory,Oak and pecan.

Just my .02, Wind and higher humidity to the wood could be the culprits. Try an inexpensive Welder's Blanket over it.


Good Luck!

It's cursed. That's all I got.

If you've got cold winds coming into the firebox that's going to draft cold wind straight into the cook chamber. I had this issue with my Yoder Cheyenne because the drafting was so poor that the only way to keep a fire burning was to keep the firebox door all the way open. I noticed on cold and windy days that my temps would always be in the 200-225 range, so I would rotate the cooker 90° to stop the wind from blowing directly into the firebox. This fixed the issue immediately and I'll bet this is what's giving you problems.

Good luck moving forward.

93_confirmed said:

I thought so too but I turned the smoker in such a way that the firebox was facing the side of the house and not taking wind directly. This didn't help at all unfortunately.

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Wow, that's surprising, but I'm glad that you're being very proactive in trying to figure out the issue. I saw that you already cleaned everything and ensured that your exhaust stack was nice and free of debris. If all of that is the case then the culprit has to be your wood and coal bed. Just for ****s and giggles pick up a bag of kiln-dried wood from Academy Sports or Walmart...grab hickory if you can. Split those down to a soda-can size, and then run your fire like normal and see if that has any change.

I usually start my fire with 4 or 5 small splits which I've cut down to very thin, and I'll use propane and a torch to light it. You can just as easily burn off some charcoal in a chimney. I open everything up when I'm starting the fire so that I don't get a draft of nasty smoke into the smoke chamber. So the smoke chamber door, exhaust, and firebox door are wide open until all the wood has burned mostly down to coals. From here I will close the smoke chamber door, and start with adding 2 or 3 small splits every 30 minutes or so. As long as I've got a solid coal bed I'm usually up to about 250° in less than 30 minutes.

Good luck moving forward and if you're still having problems pull out your phone and record a few minutes of video. Record the firebox, the smoke chamber, and the exhaust stack. This way we can all see how it's drafting and maybe try and narrow things down. Cheers buddy!

Note : I'm down in North Carolina where it doesn't get too cold, but I sold my buddy my Johnson Smokers offset and he lives just outside of Milwaukee. He had issues cooking in the winter and ended up using an old welding blanket on top of the smoke chamber to help keep it warm. He said after adding the blanket that he has no issues cooking in sub-zero temps and everything works just fine. That might be an option for you if you're experiencing some seriously cold temps.

No grate, no basket, nothing will not do it. The fire needs airflow from below at least the grate is necessary. Your pictures in the first few posts show a pan under the logs. This cuts off air also. The picture also shows your burning logs. What you have there for a fire will not produce the heat you are looking for. I really don't know how you get the logs to catch at all with nothing but that for embers. But, if it all worked before with all the above than you must have sprung a leak in the cook chamber. Have you checked the belly of the cook chamber? Is your smoke stack sealed? Is your lid sealed?