When we first started cooking BBQ competitively, we decided to purchase a Lang 84 deluxe. We quickly found out that we would have to stay up all night to add that one log an hour to keep the cooker up to temperature. Staying up all night grew old very quickly. After a few months of research, we decided to purchase a Spicewine Large Cooker, because in our humble opinion it is the best made upright cooker on the market. If you have ever seen one, you would quickly realize that the craftsmenship is second to none.
It was very simple to learn the Spicewine. Using the water pan, we were able to get upwards of 6 hour burns at 225*. This was a big deal to us. Could you imagine 6 hours sleep when we were getting none.
We chose Spicewine because of the craftsmenship, support and Jay is a handsome devil, but I felt that we could get more burn time somehow. I read some threads about the BBQ Guru, but could never find any info on one being used with a Spicewine. Earlier this year we happened to cook at BBQ on the Farm in Yardley, Pa and our site was right next to the BBQ Guru folks. When I had some time I asked Shotgun Fred to come next door and have a look at the Spicewine. Fred said it should work if I could find a way to mount the Guru and make the cooker's firebox airtight.
After thinking about it, I decided to make a plate that would fit in place of one of the air inlets on the firebox door. I put a 1 3/8" hole in the middle to mount the Guru. For the other air inlet I make a blank plate to fit over it to make the firebox airtight.
We Purchased a Guru Competitor and gave it a first test. We found out that the coals were getting very very hot. We were running with the water pan dry because the steam from the water pan will cause the Guru to have errors in the temperature readings. As the temperature climbed we figured there must be another source of air beside the Guru that is fueling the coals. We figured that the only other source of air could be the chimnies. We closed each chinmey to about one third open and magically the heat died back with the Guru holding the temp to 225*. At first we thought there would be alot of acrid charcoal smoke in the cooker, but we were surprised to find very little smoke. We simply added strategically placed wood chunks for smoke. We wound up with a 12 hour burn before needing to add charcoal. At our last competition, Harpoon in Vermont, we used 30 lbs of charcoal to complete our cook. We arranged our charcoal in quasi Minion fashion and we were off to the races. I will post a drawing of the aluminum plates I made so you can try it too.
It was very simple to learn the Spicewine. Using the water pan, we were able to get upwards of 6 hour burns at 225*. This was a big deal to us. Could you imagine 6 hours sleep when we were getting none.
We chose Spicewine because of the craftsmenship, support and Jay is a handsome devil, but I felt that we could get more burn time somehow. I read some threads about the BBQ Guru, but could never find any info on one being used with a Spicewine. Earlier this year we happened to cook at BBQ on the Farm in Yardley, Pa and our site was right next to the BBQ Guru folks. When I had some time I asked Shotgun Fred to come next door and have a look at the Spicewine. Fred said it should work if I could find a way to mount the Guru and make the cooker's firebox airtight.
After thinking about it, I decided to make a plate that would fit in place of one of the air inlets on the firebox door. I put a 1 3/8" hole in the middle to mount the Guru. For the other air inlet I make a blank plate to fit over it to make the firebox airtight.
We Purchased a Guru Competitor and gave it a first test. We found out that the coals were getting very very hot. We were running with the water pan dry because the steam from the water pan will cause the Guru to have errors in the temperature readings. As the temperature climbed we figured there must be another source of air beside the Guru that is fueling the coals. We figured that the only other source of air could be the chimnies. We closed each chinmey to about one third open and magically the heat died back with the Guru holding the temp to 225*. At first we thought there would be alot of acrid charcoal smoke in the cooker, but we were surprised to find very little smoke. We simply added strategically placed wood chunks for smoke. We wound up with a 12 hour burn before needing to add charcoal. At our last competition, Harpoon in Vermont, we used 30 lbs of charcoal to complete our cook. We arranged our charcoal in quasi Minion fashion and we were off to the races. I will post a drawing of the aluminum plates I made so you can try it too.
:biggrin:
