Auber Instruments ??

[ButtBurner]

Originally Posted by willbird

You did not have to seal the top to the body at all ?? I do have a smaller 12v fan from digikey, I was gonna mod a trash pickup saved ECB for the heck of it, but I may just try that digikey fan.

Some folks report drastic improvements in natural draft setups from making an expanded metal fire basket, they seem to feel that heat conducted right to the metal fire bowl makes the fire run away somewhat.

Bill

No I did not seal the top to the body. It needs airflow to work. If the top was sealed then the fire would go out. I did that so the coals would not get smothered in their own ashes.

I do have a grate that I put in the pan that I forgot to mention. Also, there is a hole in the center of the bottom section and I sealed that with the metal tape that comes with the Auber.

[ButtBurner]

Originally Posted by SmokeFan

K80,

I've never seen the yellowish smoke you mentioned.

One thing that does happen, is that when I open the lid during a cook, if it's going to be for more than a few seconds, I unplug the temp probe. Otherwise, the Auber pumps in way too much 20 cfm air, stoking the fire too much until I close the lid. I've learned to work around it, but it's one instance where a 6.5 cfm fan might be better. That's just conjecture on my part though.

It does work ok though, especially for all night stuff, where there's no messing with it, which is why I bought it anyway.

I'd be interested in hearing how the smaller fan works in the XL though. If I have to replace this one, and the smaller one does a good job too, I might go that route.

I just let my fan run when I open it, unless its going to be open for a while for some reason. then I will just unplug the fan from the Auber, unplugging the probe would work too

[willbird]

Originally Posted by ButtBurner

No I did not seal the top to the body. It needs airflow to work. If the top was sealed then the fire would go out. I did that so the coals would not get smothered in their own ashes.

I do have a grate that I put in the pan that I forgot to mention. Also, there is a hole in the center of the bottom section and I sealed that with the metal tape that comes with the Auber.

OK I was thinking of how people mod them by putting a weber daisy wheel on the lid, then seal the lid to the body with the rope type stove gasket for better control of both intake and exhaust.

http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/smoker_mods.htm

if I am going to have the lid open long I unplug the fan from the auber, one of these days I will get fancy and make a control panel with a toggle switch for the fan :-).

[ButtBurner]

Originally Posted by willbird

OK I was thinking of how people mod them by putting a weber daisy wheel on the lid, then seal the lid to the body with the rope type stove gasket for better control of both intake and exhaust.

http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/smoker_mods.htm

if I am going to have the lid open long I unplug the fan from the auber, one of these days I will get fancy and make a control panel with a toggle switch for the fan :-).

I have 2 of these smokers. One at my house, one at my cabin

On my first one, I did try sealing and putting a daisy wheel on top. I found out that I did not need it so I did not do it on the second one

[kwas68]

I have the Auber with the smaller fan for my UDS and haven't had too much trouble. Once or twice I've had to open the other intakes to get the temps to 325 in cold weather. I even have the fan feeding the UDS through 3' of hose. I like mounting my fan under my work table out of the elements. Mounting it direct would only make it better from an airflow perspective.

Like somebody else mentioned previously, I've had a problem with the barrel connectors. They are located close together on the box so it is hard to get a good grip on them to disconnect. It is much easier to pull the cord, which breaks it because they seem to be of lesser quality. I'm more diligent about pulling on the connector body now.