soot: reverse flow vs standard offset

[pjtexas1]

don't know if this has been discussed before but i was just thinking that i never had any soot to clean out of my old standard offset but noticed after a year that my RF has a small amount of soot under the baffle plate. on the standard does the soot go straight onto the meat or to the bottom of the cooker or out of the stack and the RF traps the soot before the bend where the smoke/heat turn and come across the racks? to be fair my old offset was not even a third the size of my RF. what do you guys think?

edit: yes, i was running a clean fire in both cookers. thought i would say that before someone questioned my fire tending skills.:mmph:

 

[cfspence]

This has always been a knock on reverse flow. They don't draw as "fast" as a conventional offset thus the tendency for stale smoke. This is probable why you find the soot under the plate. This would be true even with a clean burning fire.

 

[Joe Black]

Paul, I've never had an RF, but with my standard offset stick burner I never have any soot. I always have a hot clean fire and TBS and never any off taste on the meat.

IMO, from a physics standpoint, I would say it's probably the increased distance the smoke has to travel before it is allowed to exit. I call it physics, you may call it BS. It still sounds good to me.

 

[pjtexas1]

I don't have any odd tastes. Quite the opposite, it burns almost too clean.

 

[BBQ Freak]

I cleaned mine out the other day and it was about 3/4" of fine dust , I think the cooker draw pulls the ash and sparks from the wood in the fire box and creates it . or you talking about tar like soot ?

 

[Fwismoker]

The only reason soot could develop on the plate is that it's the first surface the smoke hits... nothing you could do about it.

Regular cleaning, and start with the FB door open until a hot fire is established would help.

 

[pjtexas1]

I cleaned mine out the other day and it was about 3/4" of fine dust , I think the cooker draw pulls the ash and sparks from the wood in the fire box and creates it . or you talking about tar like soot ?

Sounds exactly like what mine does. Mystery solved.

 

[pjtexas1]

The only reason soot could develop on the plate is that it's the first surface the smoke hits... nothing you could do about it.

Regular cleaning, and start with the FB door open until a hot fire is established would help.

That is what I was most concerned about...on a standard flow the first surface after the fb is the cook chamber.

I start with a weed burner and the fb door open. There isn't much in there but I don't cook on it every weekend. It's not enough to worry about cleaning.

 

[BBQ Freak]

I have a Brinkmann half moon fire box tool and I duck tape it to a 2" X 2" X 10" to make it longer so I can scrape it to my fire box . :wink:

 

[Fwismoker]

That is what I was most concerned about...on a standard flow the first surface after the fb is the cook chamber.

I start with a weed burner and the fb door open. There isn't much in there but I don't cook on it every weekend. It's not enough to worry about cleaning.

Yea Paul it's probably six of one or half dozen of the other... either airflow will pull soot off a RF plate or will become dislodged off the roof of a traditional offsets CC. All is negligible imo.