Any help and/or advice for a newbie??????

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watterboy

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 5, 2012
9
11
Entiat Washington
Hi all,

My name is Chris and I'm form Washington state. I've been smoking for a few years on a gourmet electric smoker and got pretty decent at it. I just purchased a new smoker form Home Depot last weekend. It is a Brinkmann Smoke'N Pit Pit master charcoal and wood smoker & grill with the offset firebox. Going from electric and one constant temp. to a charcoal and wood combination I couldn't figure out how to get my temp up and then maintain it. I feel like I went through a lot of charcoal and wood. I used 3 chimney stacks of charcoal and a lot of cherry wood in about 5.5 hours. I was smoking a 4 lb pork loin. It seemed no matter what I did though I just couldn't get much hotter than about 155 degrees.

So I guess my 1st question to everybody is, did I use to much charcoal? Is there a trick to making it last longer and burn hotter? What is a good charcoal to wood ratio? Any tips or advice would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you all in advance.........Chris
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Watterboy,afternoon.... Welcome and glad you stopped in to the greatest forum there is on smoking meats etc....  I'm not familiar with your type of smoker but I did a quick check on what others have said....   Click on the link below and tons of info is there for your perusal....

I hope you find the folks here friendly and help full...  I did when I joined.... Real people willing to help you in any area you may wander.... from chicken, beef, pork, beer, gardening, bread making.... we have about every kind of help you could imagine.... sit back and enjoy your long smokey ride.... Dave

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/search.php?search=Brinkmann+Smoke'N+Pit+Pit
 
Welcome aboard, Chris.

Assuming your unit is assembled correctly, I would guess you might be using a stock thermometer in the lid to measure your pit temperature.  If so, be aware that these therms are notoriously inaccurate.  The stock therm on my CGSP will read 165 when the actual temp in the pit is about 240-250.  Try a wired probe therm about an inch above the grate and see what temp reading you get.

Good luck and good smoking.
 
Hope you enjoy SMF it is a great site.
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 to SMF Chris . You have come to the right place for smoking info. This site is loaded with great info just use the search bar at top of page to find what you are looking for. If you can't locate the answer just ask folks here are willing to share there knowledge. I suggest you take  the 5 day e-course on smoking its chuck full of great info, and may give ya a bit of help. Smoking  5-Day e-Course  
 
Venture makes a good point.  Those stock therms are garbage.  I've seen mine off by 90 degrees before.  I only leave it there for entertainment reasons.  I picked up a few decent wired probes for $9 at Sears.  They're worth every penny.

In addition, while I'm not familiar with that particular model, I'm going to guess that as a lower end offset charcoal smoker, there are some design deficiencies and that there are plenty of mod ideas to improve how it works floating around this forum.  I've got the Chargriller Smokin' Pro, and that's definitely the case with that smoker.  This is a beast of a thread dedicated specifically to the Chargriller Smokin' Pro, so you won't be able to use all the ideas exactly, but I'm guessing there's plenty of inspiration to be had here.

 http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/58778/char-griller-smokin-pro-with-firebox-mods
 
Venture makes a good point.  Those stock therms are garbage.  I've seen mine off by 90 degrees before.  I only leave it there for entertainment reasons.  I picked up a few decent wired probes for $9 at Sears.  They're worth every penny.

In addition, while I'm not familiar with that particular model, I'm going to guess that as a lower end offset charcoal smoker, there are some design deficiencies and that there are plenty of mod ideas to improve how it works floating around this forum.  I've got the Chargriller Smokin' Pro, and that's definitely the case with that smoker.  This is a beast of a thread dedicated specifically to the Chargriller Smokin' Pro, so you won't be able to use all the ideas exactly, but I'm guessing there's plenty of inspiration to be had here.

 http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/58778/char-griller-smokin-pro-with-firebox-mods
pretty much the same type construction . do the basket mod ,the stack mod and seal up all the holes and gaps . should be a good start .
 
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