I had the time and decided to experiment
This is with the DEB not the pint.
Outside temps in the 20's. Wind chill in the teens.
[FONT="]This is my experiment/results with my Down East Beast. Testing/learning “how even” the cooker is from top to bottom etc.
Your results may very.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]First I ran my DEB with the interior exh at the factory setting, the top exh at 50% open.
No water pan, no trays. Just cooking grates and 2 temp probes. One probe, center of the grate near the top of the cook chamber. The other probe, centered near the bottom of the cook chamber. I wrote down temp readings typically every 15 mins on average. After stabilizing the smoker temps. At 1 hr, the
upper probe was 9* higher than the lower probe. With the factory settings.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Next, I opened the interior exh to full open. The top exh still at 50% open. Once stable, the top was 4* higher than the lower probe. Next I opened the top exh to full open. Less than 15 minutes later and for the next hour the temps were
dead even top and bottom. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Next test was with food and a aluminum full hotel drip pan under the food. A 3 hr cook. After getting to the set temp and stable I added the drip pan and meat. 2 lg chickens. They filled one grate. I almost went with separate grates for each bird. Both almost did not fit on one grate. This test was with the interior exh at wide open and the exterior exh at wide open. Where I had dead even temps in earlier testing.[/FONT]
[FONT="] At 30 minutes into the cook, the Lower probe was 24* higher! So I closed the top exh to 50%. I expected slowing down the air flow would more equalize interior temps. This ended up raising the lower probe temp to a differential of 60* higher than the upper probe within 15 minutes. I reopened the top exh to full open but the temp difference of 60* never changed during the rest of the cook. At this time I do not know if the temp differential would have stayed at 24* or not with the top exh at wide open. The temp difference not dropping could be due to being an insulated cooker and cook time left involved. The rear chicken cooked a bit faster than the front chicken. Not by much.
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[FONT="] Before reaching my required internal temp. A difference of internal temp of 10* between the 2 birds. Similar sized birds. The birds showed no signs of more heat on the bottom vs the top of the birds. As the temp probes showed the cooker at. They turned out great as usual.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Next test was with the interior exh at the factory setting, the top exh at 50%. This was a shorter cook 1.5hrs required. Smoking a full hotel pan full of nuts. Once the cooker was stable, during the whole cook the lower probe temp ran 20* higher than the upper probe temp. Similar cook temp as above.
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[FONT="]I would think/expect that heat coming from the coal box area is heating the chambers separation plate and is having the effect of higher temps in the lower part of cook chamber from that heat. The 2 different test show quite a temp difference when the interior and top exh are at factory suggested settings. Verses wide open. I had much better flow with both at wide open. A lot less restriction.
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[FONT="] Recovery temp is
very fast with either exh setting.[/FONT]
[FONT="]I myself do not believe having a heat sink either water or fire bricks would change the results all that much to end up with even heat from top to bottom. Which everything I have read states is typically the case. Just my theory/experience. A heat sink in a cooker is for maintaining a stable temp. And being that the heat sink is above the coals, it will continue to hold the heat created from below.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]Take from my experiment what you will. I just know I haven’t completely figured out all nuances of this DEB as of yet. All my other smokers/cookers took a lot of time to dial in what I wanted/expected. And I plan on doing the same with the DEB. So far, it is
a great smoker. And all the different foods I have smoked so far have came out excellent. [/FONT]
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