The Nuke - Drum Smoker - Help with intake/exhaust

[heynow14]

Hi guys -
Fairly new to this awesome forum and from what I read, there are many of you who have experience with vertical drum smokers. I've recently completed a 55-gal drum smoker and I've run it through a couple of heat cycles. Yes, I did clean out most of the radioactive waste before I fired it up. :twisted:

Once the lid goes on, it's clearly starving the fire. I'm just not certain if I need more O2 inlet volume or if I need more exhaust for spent gas to escape or perhaps both. See pics attached. I want to be sure that I only cut the holes I need so any help is greatly appreciated!!

Thx,
Nick

 

[Rafael]

I would definitely say you need more intake, with all those 90's you have in the pipes, air is going to be tough to get through.

 

[Zin]

Looks like you need more intake, how high is the charcoal basket off the bottom of the drum?

 

[pjtexas1]

+1 on too many bends on your intakes. Try taking out 1 90 per intake and that will make a big difference.

 

[aks801]

Here's what I'd do: eliminate one riser, and just mount the valve where the hole is on the UDS (i.e. way down low). One the other riser, take out the second 90-deg bend as others suggested, and mount the valve in-line so it points straight up.

You do both of those, and it'll draw air just fine. Exhaust holes look great, by the way.

 

[Dadeo719]

^^^^What everything they said. Although it looks totally awesome with the intakes like that it will never get enough air. IF those are a keeper then maybe create another intake that you can use and then use the vertical intakes as a fine tune temp adjustments?

 

[heynow14]

Thanks for the quick replies! The fire basket is directly on the bottom of the drum with a 2" high gap for ash collection. The inlets are about 3" high so they're right at the fire base. I'm thinking that perhaps I should make two additional larger inlets - maybe 1.5" pipe without any elbows - at the back and then leave both open or maybe cap one and use the side inlets as fine tuners as Dadeo719 suggests.