Brinkmann Vertical Smoker

[culpepersmoke]

My brother just got a Brinkman Vertical Charcoal smoker. He claims he can't get much more then 160 degrees of heat out of it with the vents wide open. He claims with the vents wide open he just goes through charcoal? I've never used anything like this one. I have a Brinkman gasser and an offset. Seems to me with a vertical charcoal model keeping the tempeture down would be more of the problem? We live a ways apart so I haven't been able to see exactly what he's doing or not doing I thought maybe someone out there might have some tips for him.

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Thanks all,

Gordon

 

[lugnutz]

tell him to check the therm if he hasn't .... mine said water boils at 150 LOL  go figure

 

[culpepersmoke]

tell him to check the therm if he hasn't .... mine said water boils at 150 LOL  go figure

Excellent point. I forgot to ask him if he was trusting the thermometer on the door (When things don't make sense question the obvious

).

 

[mballi3011]

Just for giggles you never trust the factory thermo-meters. Heck mine was almost 150° off when I got it. Heck I think it saying the smoker is almost at 185° now and it hasn't been on for almost a year now.

 

[sumosmoke]

What kind of charcoal is he using? Has he tried using hardwood lump charcoal in lieu of briquettes? I started out with a vertical Brinkmann smoker and had great success using the hardwood lump product.

Also, how much charcoal has he loaded into his pan? Is the fire getting burnt out by the build up of ash? With those uprights, it's necessary to give the bottom a good shake every couple hours (with gloves on, of course) to sift the ash into the bottom pan and allow the remaining coals to burn more efficiently.

 

[myklos]

I got a Brinkman Vertical Charcoal smoker and with a modification to the charcoal pan I get about 2 1/2 hours of 250-275 degrees from my fire. Here is what I did.

I drilled 20 3/8" holes in the bottom of the charcoal pan. I drilled 1/4" holes in each corner of the pan and used 1/4" bolts, nuts and washers to make feet. I don't use the rails. I put the charcoal pan  directly on the bottom of the smoker to get more space in there.

I load the charcoal pan with lump charcoal and bury a couple of chunks of dry hickory in the pan with it. I then light up a chimney of lump charcoal and put it on top of the charcoal in the pan. I have to do this outside the smoker and then pick up the pan (with vice grips and gloves) and set it in the bottom of the smoker.

Doing it this way I am getting about 2 1/2 hours of 250-275 degrees after an initial spike above 300. Once it settles down (about 5-10 minutes) I put the meat in. At about 2 1/2 hours the temp starts to drop to 200 or so. To cook longer I have to add charcoal. I get about another hour for each additional chimney full of charcoal I add.

I hope this helps.

Mike

 

[flash]

tell him to check the therm if he hasn't .... mine said water boils at 150 LOL  go figure

Really, I always wonders why my old ECB gave me perfect smokes at 180º. Turned out it was off by 65º