Assassin 28....picked it up yesterday!

[Biged92]

BigEd92, for some reason the message system wont let me send a message here at work at this moment. Just wanted to let you know I am trying to get one back to you on ordering the 28. Glad you decided on it after seeing what I did.

I received your message. Thank you very much. I spoke with Robin about getting a quote on a 28. She was really nice, and had the quote over to us the same day. Looks like we have all of our funding together, so we'll hopefully be placing an order tomorrow morning. I will keep you posted as to how everything goes.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[Biged92]

What a fun cook, hopefully some of this pron looks great. It tasted amazing, especially the ribs and money muscle. So far so good on the meat, finally getting some solid black seasoning inside.

So I have a questions regarding your overnight cook. How much wood did you put in the ash pan for smoke, and how long did it last? And with the overnight cook did you have to get up and add any wood?

One of the issues (if you even want to call it that) with gravity fed smokers is that you have to keep adding wood every hour or two for as long as you want smoke added to your food. I generally like 4 to 5 hours of smoke for the big meats, and was wondering if you cook along the same lines.

I have heard of guys mixing wood with the coals, but for me I wouldn't want to mix in too much wood, as I would probably wrap the food half way through, and would be a waste of wood and smoke.

Sorry for babbling. It's getting late, and am exciting about ordering the new Assassin.

 

[pbarber]

Assassin28

I too have an Assassin28 and I use lump charcoal. When I do a overnight cook, I put a small chunk of hickory in for every few pieces of lump and it has worked for me. At first I was concerned about creating a bridge that would stop the lump from falling as needed but I haven't had any problems so far. I'm also careful about the size of the lump and break down any large pieces prior to using.

I've read about using a pipe filled with the very small pieces of smoking wood inserted in the chute, then the charcoal is added around the pipe. Finally the pipe is removed and a self feeding system is created. As of yet, I have not tried it but it sounds like it sounds work.

If you wrap your food, you can learn how much smoke wood to add while filling the chute so that it will not be wasted.

I love my smoker, it is by far the best thing I've bought in many years.

 

[mep]

If the pieces of lump charcoal are no bigger than 6" long there would be absolutely no reason to worry about the charcoal bridging. The charcoal chute opens from 6" to 8" to prevent bridging.

 

[Ron_L]

Great looking food!

What temp did you use to cook the ribs and chicken?

 

[Biged92]

Well we did it. Ordered the new Assassin28 today over the phone, and should see it in 3 to 4 weeks. I think this is going to be the longest month of my life.

 

[Ron_L]

Congrats!

 

[PekingPorker]

Fantastic pRon! I did a full practice run Labor Day on the 28 myself. We got about 3 inches of rain and the Assassin held up like a champ. We were soaked, but the food was good.

After the smoker was running for about 10 hours, I was getting about 15-20 degree heat variance from the bottom rack to the top. Bottom was running 265, Racks 2 and 3 running steady at 250, and top rack about 245.

I think when I was opening the door water was dripping onto the top rack (because the angle of my driveway), which was cooling the top rack a bit.

 

[rdsmokes]

Great looking smoker!! You are gonna love it!! Let see some smoke!!!

 

[dobdabomb]

So I have a questions regarding your overnight cook. How much wood did you put in the ash pan for smoke, and how long did it last? And with the overnight cook did you have to get up and add any wood?

One of the issues (if you even want to call it that) with gravity fed smokers is that you have to keep adding wood every hour or two for as long as you want smoke added to your food. I generally like 4 to 5 hours of smoke for the big meats, and was wondering if you cook along the same lines.

I have heard of guys mixing wood with the coals, but for me I wouldn't want to mix in too much wood, as I would probably wrap the food half way through, and would be a waste of wood and smoke.

Sorry for babbling. It's getting late, and am exciting about ordering the new Assassin.

For the longer cooks I have had so far, I normally have used 3-4 chucks of peach and maybe 1-2 chunks of pecan. It will last for a couple hours at least from what ive seen opening it. I do two wood dumps for the 10 hour for my butts, the first 3-4 hours it got the smoke I wanted obviously after you see the cross sections of the money muscle and the ribs on both cooks in pictures I have posted.

 

[dobdabomb]

Great looking food!

What temp did you use to cook the ribs and chicken?

The temp I had it at was 275.

Normally I have always cooked my chicken at that, ribs pretty much the same but I havent with the butt till I got the assassin and my brisket is normally at 300ish. My butt's internally have hit the 195-200 I normally pull but man my two butt cooks were not good inside, I expect it being the pieces of meat since they were frozen for 4-5 months and all were the same. The money muscle and outer were great as well as the tubes but the bulk middle was just rough of pulling. I have no clue, I am going to do the new swift brand butts I got this past month on sale and see if it was the meat cause both internally were good on temp...weird. I am trying to do everything at 275 since I will be using this in competition, just wanted to dial it all in before I start entering. My plan is next year to bump it up to 5-7 more competitions.

 

[dobdabomb]

Well we did it. Ordered the new Assassin28 today over the phone, and should see it in 3 to 4 weeks. I think this is going to be the longest month of my life.

Awesome Ed! Glad you decided to go that route and glad I could help out another take the jump. You will really enjoy it, after 3 big cooks its looking great inside...getting some good seasoning. Let me know how it goes and look forward to hearing and seeing it on here. Looks like their business is going strong, as I told you Jeff and Robin were great as you know over the phone.

 

[dobdabomb]

Trying to decide if I am going to do a brisket or some butts for friends for football this weekend as this will be one of the few gameday weekends I am not at the game. Will throw on some more ribs and maybe throw a round to practice some comp chicken. Will fire up the new 26.75 weber while I am at it, excited.

 

[tjack]

Do you think that the Assassin would have any problems running at 325 to 350? I like the "hot and fast method" cooking butts and briskey's. I have had pretty good success with that. I'm not a competition cook so this is a method that has made BBQ'ing fun.

 

[dobdabomb]

Do you think that the Assassin would have any problems running at 325 to 350? I like the "hot and fast method" cooking butts and briskey's. I have had pretty good success with that. I'm not a competition cook so this is a method that has made BBQ'ing fun.

I know we have talked about it somewhere in this thread. It has no problem at running at that temp. I had it up that high to season it for 6 hours, ive done it once since on a cook to see as well. Handles it easily with the guru anchored down. My norm is 275 right now and it handles it all well getting up to temp fairly well, to hit 325-350 takes about 30-40 minutes determined by your method of lighting the fire.

 

[dobdabomb]

Thinking about a packer brisket when I get back from Atlanta on Sunday night for Monday's holiday. Will post pictures of whatever goes on. Hope all are enjoying their new assassin's of late, ive seen a lot of new owners I helped throughout a lot of Q&A's. Pretty excited to see the crop of them loving them as much as I do.

 

[K-Barbecue]

Thanks for all the great info. Been thinking of a gravity smoker too.

 

[dobdabomb]

Anytime, its been fun talking to everyone about it. I will try and get another video up this weekend when I smoke a packer and some other stuff possibly.

 

[Dbchaplin]

Sorry to dig up this old thread but I was wondering what kind of cleaning, if any, is required in the inside of the cooker. I understand the seasoning process but was wondering if scrubbing down the inside is necessary after cooks? What about like the grease catcher? Also what are your long term impressions since its been 14-15 months since the last posts?

I just ordered mine last week and am looking forward to its delivery the end of the month. I am returning from a 6 month deployment just a few days before it arrives. These forums sold me on the Assassin for sure! After eating at the deployed dinning facility for over 6 months, I am ready for home cooked BBQ for sure!!

 

[sfrancis353]

Clean up isn't too bad. You clean the grease off the racks. There will be a few lips under the bottom rack too (and also on the door) that will need the grease to be wiped down. These lips ensure that everything is moving to the grease catch at the bottom. The bottom on the Assassin feeds into a spout that collects grease in a standard either half or full pan underneath the smoker. Line the catch to the spout with aluminum foil. It took me about 20-30 minutes to clean everything.