Restoring A Gravity Feed Smoker

onemanlan said:

That paint job is freaking fire, bud! What an amazing resto job you've done. Glad you could bring a bit of grill history back into the fold & breath new life into it. Looks like an ammo tin of sorts.

do you have any guru temp traces of cooks? Does she hold temp well?

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Since I didn't go with the camo theme I was stuck with a bunch of camo colors. The name Backyard Bombers reminded me of the military. I had four cans of army green as that was going to be my base coat for camo. I had the exact same thought of an ammo tin when thinking what I could do with the colors. My intentions were to go and grab a dark yellow spray paint for the lettering but I already had 7 cans or camo colors at the house. So I went with the desert sand color.

I removed the water pan (no water in it) when I started the Mac and Cheese. I added the pan back in the smoker and I think temps maybe ran more even from top to bottom with the pan in place. This weekend I'll start with the water pan in the smoker from the start to keep temps even.

I'm a lump charcoal kind of guy. I'm pretty foreign when it comes to using briquettes. I picked up a couple bags of "Embers" briquettes from Home Depot. I wasn't impressed. I couldn't believe the ash and how fast it builds up. I'm hoping Kingsford burns a little longer and has less ash.

This next cook hopefully I'll have the cook a little more dialed in and setup for even cooking temps. Being my first cook and with chicken, I was constantly opening up the door and checking temps. I'm thinking or hoping the temp will hold rock steady. Especially with the Guru.

Yesterday was my first real chance to do "traditional bbq" on the smoker. I took what I learned from my first cook with chicken and applied it towards this cook. This time I started with the drip pan in place. This was a game changer. No fluctuating temps. The smoker was rock solid.

We invited my cousins over but they were unsure of a time when talking to them the day before. So I fire up the smoker before heading out to church. I receive a text from my cousin during church and asks how 11:45am works? Ribs weren't going to work as I only had a half hour between the end of church and them stopping over. Papa Murphy's and the pizza oven to the rescue! So the ribs sat idle in the fridge. I kept the smoker up and running. I didn't want to put the ribs on smoker while my cousins family was over. So I wasn't able to put them on until a little after 2:30. So they almost became an afterthought. I did get a few pics of the cook.





Not much for a plated picture as I did some damage on the pizza I had earlier.



I was really happy with the smoke profile results. I can see how it has a similar smoke profile as an offset but the ease of an oven. I think I'm really going to like this smoker.

Chester said:

You did one hell of a job with that restoration. I really like the cooking abilities of my gravity smoker.

For fuel, lately I have been using Kingsford Professional completion briqs. I am really please with them. They are lighter than their normal briquettes, I think I burn through them a little faster, but they leave very little ash. I got a decent supply on these from Costco

Another briq I like is Jealous devil. I believe you can order them through Tractor Supply. They are a larger heavy briquette. Probably the best overall that I have used, although close with the pro Kingsford above, which I have an easier time picking up. (Have at the store instead of having to order.

I have yet to try B&B in my Gravity yet. I have a bag to use, just haven’t got to it yet. The local Rural King seems to be stockng these, so that might be a good one of it works.

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I appreciate the tips on the charcoal. That's super helpful. I bought a couple bags of Embers from Home Depot. I'm not very impressed. I believe it's rebadged Royal Oak if I'm not mistaking. It burns okay but the amount of ash it produces is crazy. I don't have much of a firebox and that ash builds up quickly. I'm going to give Kingsford Professional a try on your recommendation. Less ash will help. Even if it burns slightly quicker.