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Stoker on Bandera
- Thread starter JeffW
- Start date
smokinbadger
Full Fledged Farker
You can probably fabricate something, but I see two problems:
1. Fitting a round air inlet pipe to the door which has seven narrow inlets. You may even want to consider cutting an additional inlet for the stoker blower and sealing up the 'dera inlets.
2. Possibly a bigger issue is that you will probably need to seal the smokebox door to minimize air leaks and loss of closed loop control from the Stoker. If you can get all of the interfaces, including the air inlets, tight, then the Stoker should work fine for you.
One low-tech solution you could consider is a charcoal basket. I used one on my Bandera and was able to get relatively stable temps for 4-6 hours at a time.
Good luck!
1. Fitting a round air inlet pipe to the door which has seven narrow inlets. You may even want to consider cutting an additional inlet for the stoker blower and sealing up the 'dera inlets.
2. Possibly a bigger issue is that you will probably need to seal the smokebox door to minimize air leaks and loss of closed loop control from the Stoker. If you can get all of the interfaces, including the air inlets, tight, then the Stoker should work fine for you.
One low-tech solution you could consider is a charcoal basket. I used one on my Bandera and was able to get relatively stable temps for 4-6 hours at a time.
Good luck!
Jeff and I have already exchanged PM's. You don't attach the fan to the door, you drill a hole in the front of the firebox, lower right corner.
I used Guru's universal inducer sleeve and using a step bit drilled a hole just undersized to accept the flange. I opened it with a file so that i was sure i didn't drill the hole too big. The hole should be sized so that the flange is force-fit up to the lip on the inducer
I held it in place with a bead of hi-temp silicon on the front
and on the inside i used a butterfly drywall anchor to increase the airflow
As can be seen from the picture, i use foil to get a better seal at the door.
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Transformer BBQ
is one Smokin' Farker
Does this blow ash all over the place?
Has not been a problem (famous last words). When the fan is running full-tilt to get up to temp, 10-CFM is not a lot of air moving and when at temp, it's only blowing short duration 2-second "pufffs" of air about every 6-seconds.
Transformer BBQ
is one Smokin' Farker
just wondering... I know the 25cfm is enough to at times blow ash into the cooking chamber in my lang, even with the reverse flow...
If you know someone that can cut and weild steel, you may want to look at replacing the side door of the Bandera with a solid sheet that has a hole cut for the blower and the bolts holes for the flat adator. (http://www.rocksbarbque.com/Adpaters.html) I'm contemplating doing this once winter sets in and my weilding friend has a free weekend.
Two things to think about before you do this -
1) In certain conditions the 10-CFM fan on the Guru is not suffficent to get to or keep the temp up with no additional air-flow. I have on occasion found it necessary to slightly open the vents and bleed-in some additional air.
2) Cooking without the Guru would be tuff without the vents. The foil also helps create a seal along the edges of the door. If you kept the old door you could of course rehang it when you were going Guru-free.
Divemaster
somebody shut me the fark up.
Good point... Was looking at some additional mods for the old Brinkman and was going to replace the door to seal it off... now I'm working on a way to hang the replacement... I never fail to learn something new here :wink:
Muzzlebrake
Babbling Farker
OK read this post yesterday and have had this idea stuck in head since..............
I am going to do some major mods to the Bandera this coming winter and really like the idea of a Stoker/Guru unit but was wondering where to hook it up. Really like the idea of a new custom door
but,
I always wondered about this being a problem just seems to me like it would be even at 10 CFM. Most of the ash isn't the stuff that you see, its the small dusty stuff that I would be worried about.
Anyway that brings me to my question.........what if you mounted one of these units on the exhaust side and sucked the air out. Would the air being drawn in the door flow over the fuel more gently stirring up less ash? Think it would work?
I am going to do some major mods to the Bandera this coming winter and really like the idea of a Stoker/Guru unit but was wondering where to hook it up. Really like the idea of a new custom door
but,
I always wondered about this being a problem just seems to me like it would be even at 10 CFM. Most of the ash isn't the stuff that you see, its the small dusty stuff that I would be worried about.
Anyway that brings me to my question.........what if you mounted one of these units on the exhaust side and sucked the air out. Would the air being drawn in the door flow over the fuel more gently stirring up less ash? Think it would work?
I don't think it would work as you invisioned. The general concensus is that you do not want to limit or choke-off the exaust too much and cause back-pressure. Controling air going in is much more effective. I don't think you would want a smoke chamber full of smoke with the exaust blocked.
They also sell a 25cfm blower if this is a problem. :-D
If the fan wasn't running all of the time you are probably right. In the past I've used a large case fan from a old computer to increase my draw. In those cases it did help, but it ran continuously and I have no idea how much air it was moving. It was also prior to my sealing the door good, and the amount of smoke leaking out decreased somewhat.
Probably useless, anecdotal info for this thread though.
Correct - If used continuosly pulling instead of pushing would have I'm guessing a similar effect on combustion rate (I'm not sure if there would be any effect of pulling a low partial vacuum on the cooking chamber and the way the smoke may interact with the food???) The Guru and Stoker work by limiting air flow and thereby controling the combustion rate and when operating optimally are not blowing continuosly, but only when needed to support combustion at the set temperature.
ibait2fish
Full Fledged Farker
I have a Guru on my SKD. 10 cfm. Works pretty well, some observations.
It can be a problem getting over about 260-270 without opening the vents.
Extending the stack (exhaust) on the cook chamber helps, but the opening is an odd
size..I used two methods..sleeving the opening w/ 3" stovepipe, and holding it in
place with 2 setscrews(adjustable), and using a 4' to 3" reducer, and
4" stovepipe above that...it works.
I don't have an ash problem, and am still going to get the larger fan to help deal
with the winter temps around these parts.
I mounted the fan on the lower hinged side of the door, but had to grind the inside
adapter plate to allow the firebox door to close fully. The pictues of the drywall
anchor would solve this problem.
Another place to mount the adapter is under and to the rear (toward the firebox
door) or the rear shelf bracket.
I have a lot of thermal mass (firebrick) in both the firebox and cook chamber.
The cooker holds 230-240 nicely at -5 F with no wind. In the summer 260-275
is about all it will do without opening the vents.....then a little above 300F.
I would be concerned about screwing up the draft through the cook chamber by
mounting the fan on the exhaust side, and reversing the fan to suck the air.
I know people that have tried this on woodstoves as an experiment, and it
doesn't work. The flow through the stack diminishes, and , if indoors, you
end up with a roomfull of smoke.
Hope this helps.
*Note--temps quoted are with the factory beanie stack.
It can be a problem getting over about 260-270 without opening the vents.
Extending the stack (exhaust) on the cook chamber helps, but the opening is an odd
size..I used two methods..sleeving the opening w/ 3" stovepipe, and holding it in
place with 2 setscrews(adjustable), and using a 4' to 3" reducer, and
4" stovepipe above that...it works.
I don't have an ash problem, and am still going to get the larger fan to help deal
with the winter temps around these parts.
I mounted the fan on the lower hinged side of the door, but had to grind the inside
adapter plate to allow the firebox door to close fully. The pictues of the drywall
anchor would solve this problem.
Another place to mount the adapter is under and to the rear (toward the firebox
door) or the rear shelf bracket.
I have a lot of thermal mass (firebrick) in both the firebox and cook chamber.
The cooker holds 230-240 nicely at -5 F with no wind. In the summer 260-275
is about all it will do without opening the vents.....then a little above 300F.
I would be concerned about screwing up the draft through the cook chamber by
mounting the fan on the exhaust side, and reversing the fan to suck the air.
I know people that have tried this on woodstoves as an experiment, and it
doesn't work. The flow through the stack diminishes, and , if indoors, you
end up with a roomfull of smoke.
Hope this helps.
*Note--temps quoted are with the factory beanie stack.
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Muzzlebrake
Babbling Farker
hmmmmmm
Norcoredneck
somebody shut me the fark up.
I run my redneck Guru on my drum. Without it I run one cap off and throttle valve. When I use Guru I open valve and let Guru ramp up to temp. I then throttle valve back to where it takes the fan cycling to control temp. Seems to works best for me.
Muzzlebrake
Babbling Farker
redneck guru?
