I recently bought a Char Broil vertical charcoal smoker. It is exactly like the brinkmann 2 door el cheapo. I absolutely love it. I smoked a fatty on it last night and it was awesome. I have been trying to find mod ideas to make it better and so far the only things I have done is get a grill top wok for a coal pan and put an oven thermometer inside.
After about a half hour the thermometers synced right up and stayed within a few degrees of each other. This was a shocker to me because normally the included door thermometer sucks. I don't think I am going to do any other mods to it other than a door seal. I am wondering what is the best way to seal the doors? With RTV, or oven door gasket, or even rope seals from a pellet stove? I am hoping to increase my time to be away so I can do other things.
My last thought for the night is, does anyone use 2 pans for coal to smoke? I don't like to put too much coal and wood in because I don't want it to shoot up in temp. I am able to get about an hour and a half out of the pan I put in. What I was thinking of doing was buying a second wok for coals and swapping trays every hour 15 minutes. So at an hour I would setup a new coal pan with the minion method and at 1 hr 15 mins dumping the hot coals in to the new pan and putting it in the smoker. My concern is the 5 minutes of heavy smoke as it starts to burn the next layer of coal and chips. Is this something I should be concerned about? It isn't super smoky just a bit but being a newbie I am not real sure if I should call it thick white or just heavier blue than normal.does anyone else use a 2 pan system like this or should I just dump fresh coal on the hot?
After about a half hour the thermometers synced right up and stayed within a few degrees of each other. This was a shocker to me because normally the included door thermometer sucks. I don't think I am going to do any other mods to it other than a door seal. I am wondering what is the best way to seal the doors? With RTV, or oven door gasket, or even rope seals from a pellet stove? I am hoping to increase my time to be away so I can do other things.
My last thought for the night is, does anyone use 2 pans for coal to smoke? I don't like to put too much coal and wood in because I don't want it to shoot up in temp. I am able to get about an hour and a half out of the pan I put in. What I was thinking of doing was buying a second wok for coals and swapping trays every hour 15 minutes. So at an hour I would setup a new coal pan with the minion method and at 1 hr 15 mins dumping the hot coals in to the new pan and putting it in the smoker. My concern is the 5 minutes of heavy smoke as it starts to burn the next layer of coal and chips. Is this something I should be concerned about? It isn't super smoky just a bit but being a newbie I am not real sure if I should call it thick white or just heavier blue than normal.does anyone else use a 2 pan system like this or should I just dump fresh coal on the hot?