250 gal reverse flow smoker temp management

[FlightRN]

Hey guys, Looking for some wisdom/help. I built a 250 gal RF smoker about a year ago and love cooking on it. I recently invested in a 6 probe digital thermometer system and have placed probes at all four grates. I am noticing 10-20 degree difference front to back, working with level, I can get it down to 5 degrees. The top grates are usually 30 degrees and some times up to 60 degrees hotter than bottom. Any tricks to narrow that gap? I frequently do 30-40 racks of ribs for our church and have mostly tried to average the temps. Now that I have some more experience and want to get better, I'm looking for your collective wisdom....or is it just fine and I need to quit being so picky....lol

 

[sudsandswine]

When you say front to back, do you mean trailer tongue end to firebox end?

 

[FrkYrPrk]

Great looking cooker! :clap2:

Before you started simultaneously measuring multiple rack temps, did it perform well? If so, I'd be inclined to leave it alone... It's a stick burner after all :wink:

 

[FlightRN]

When you say front to back, do you mean trailer tongue end to firebox end?

Yes, That seems to be my most constant temp

 

[FlightRN]

Great looking cooker! :clap2:

Before you started simultaneously measuring multiple rack temps, did it perform well? If so, I'd be inclined to leave it alone... It's a stick burner after all :wink:

It definitely has performed well. I just am trying to dial in and maybe get ready for competition. I have several guys wanting to join me in local and I'm not confident I'm ready.....

 

[sackedbysapp]

Top usually runs hotter.

 

[FrkYrPrk]

It definitely has performed well. I just am trying to dial in and maybe get ready for competition. I have several guys wanting to join me in local and I'm not confident I'm ready.....

Great news that it's cooking well, congrats on the build!
Now you want to tune to raise your confidence level for competition. Got it.
I'm not the guy to directly help tune airflow, I haven't built or even run a reverse flow.

I'm subscribing to the thread op2:

 

[sjb67]

To close the temps are you running nose up or nose down?

 

[FlightRN]

To close the temps are you running nose up or nose down?

Generally it seems nose down for front to back temps. Haven't really found something that stabilizes top to bottom temps.

 

[FlightRN]

I guess I'm trying to figure out if 30-50 degrees is a normal variation for top to bottom on my smoker or what i can do to even it out?

 

[CptKaos]

Top is going to be hotter, don’t try to fight it just use it to your advantage

 

[ebijack]

Nice build!
Top will typically run hotter. Heat rises.
No big deal. Just move proteins around as required for even cooking.
You most likely will only have to move some of the proteins once thruout a cook.
If you use gauges for even cooking. It could drive you nuts. You can use them for hot spots to watch. While you learn your smoker.
Everytime you load the cooker, depending on how/where you load the proteins. Will change the airflow/hotpsots. Use your eye's and when required an instant read thermo.

Example, most of these came off around the same time. Move the ribs around, and put the 16+ racks from the warmer in to finish.
Not having all come off at the exact same time is a plus. Once you fill 2,3 or 4 hotel pans with proteins. They need to go get ready to serve. Comeback and check the rest. Works out good.

 

[TuscaloosaQ]

Very nice build personally I would say you nailed it and it is running as should.... heat rises not going to stop that tilting the trailer might help mitigate the temps a little but I’d walk off tall knowing you did a great job!!!!!

 

[Kmm]

Sounds likely you are getting it pretty well dialed in front to back. The added probes will help you figure out the internal airflow nuances based on multiple variables. A few years back I did a lot of work with multiple thermocouples trying to fabricate a cooker design with “perfectly balanced” internal temps. The results simply confirmed there are so many variables involved, it was not possible to simply “build/fabricate” them away. The testing did give me a good baseline on what to expect based on different ambient conditions, firebox settings, cc loading, etc......Basically just a head start learning what otherwise might have take many months of cooking to figure out.