johnlewis469
Well-known member
This thread came up on a Google search of our pit building company, “Austin Smoke Works vs other guys out there”. Haven’t been on this forum in quite a while, but gonna add my opinion. There is a bunch of copy cat pit builders out there now, mostly replicating Franklin and Lewis pit builds. There is something that comes with serving masses of guests and cooking for that day in and day out over a long period of time that leads someone to start building the perfect tool that produces the exact results you want with minimal room for error. That’s how I came upon the eventual pit design we for Austin Smoke Works, and what we use every day for our successful restaurant, with a large staff of cooks that rotate in an out constantly. That’s the life of operating a restaurant, constantly training new pit cooks, that come and go, and these pits are designed to make that process more idiot proof. So first thing to think about, is your pit builder operating a successful restaurant with tried and true results? Do they understand completely all the nuances that go into the design, which crear a consistent product 7 days a week? You’ll get that with an Austin Smoke Works pit.
Last thing I’d like to say about any offset pit you are looking at, is fire one up before you buy it. When you open the fire box door, no smoke should come towards you, even wide open with an active fire burning full logs. It should be sucked into the cook chamber and out through the smokestack. I’ve spent years of trial and error with long pit builds perfecting this, and we have a winner with the pit design I’ve settled on. It due to rolled smoke stacks of a perfectly sized diameter, rolled reducers from the steel 90degree elbow, that are perfectly sized for the cook chamber. Many have copied the outside look of my pits, but used off the shelf pipe and fittings. The one thing they haven’t gotten right yet, is the connection between the fire box( underneath all that insulation and outer square steel shell). It’s the most important part of the functionality of these pits, and also the hardest/most time consuming portion of the build. But it makes the world of difference.
Anyways, test out pits before you buy, open that firebox door, if smoke ( any bit) comes back towards you, I’d say it’s not a perfectly designed pit. So whoever you’re looking at a big purchase from, I’d try that test first, it’s my first thing to check the box on!
Last thing I’d like to say about any offset pit you are looking at, is fire one up before you buy it. When you open the fire box door, no smoke should come towards you, even wide open with an active fire burning full logs. It should be sucked into the cook chamber and out through the smokestack. I’ve spent years of trial and error with long pit builds perfecting this, and we have a winner with the pit design I’ve settled on. It due to rolled smoke stacks of a perfectly sized diameter, rolled reducers from the steel 90degree elbow, that are perfectly sized for the cook chamber. Many have copied the outside look of my pits, but used off the shelf pipe and fittings. The one thing they haven’t gotten right yet, is the connection between the fire box( underneath all that insulation and outer square steel shell). It’s the most important part of the functionality of these pits, and also the hardest/most time consuming portion of the build. But it makes the world of difference.
Anyways, test out pits before you buy, open that firebox door, if smoke ( any bit) comes back towards you, I’d say it’s not a perfectly designed pit. So whoever you’re looking at a big purchase from, I’d try that test first, it’s my first thing to check the box on!
