Hello. I received an off-set smoker as a gift and I've used it 3 times.
The first time I just opened it a lot, moved things around a lot and basically used it like a bar b que because I was constantly building the fire/ charcoal back up to build the heat back up. That time I smoked some beef ribs and they were done in about 3 1/2 hr. They weren't too bad, better than they were when I've bar b qued them in the past.
I figuered out there was 60-80 degree temp variance inside the smoking chamber. SOOOO... I modified the smoker to make it a reverse flow:
First I had some pieces welded on the sided so that the smoking chamber could be sealed with Nomex insulating tape. That worked real well. I put some JB Weld around/in some of the joints that were pouring out smoke.
I put a piece of 11 gage steel in the chamber to make the smoke/heat flow to the opposite side of the charcoal chamber. I guessed on the size of the opening on the end.
Then I put some flexible vent pipe from the smoke stack to the other side (side closest to the fire chamber) so that the exhaust would be drawn from that side.
I put 4 oven thermometers inside the chamber and checked the temps. The temps all evened out to within 20 degrees of each other.
So then I tried smoking some beef ribs again. My first mistake was to put bar b que sauce on them first then I smoked them and didn't open up the chamber, just kept it at what I thought was a good temp 225- on the visible one.
It all burned terribly
Next time I did the same thing but kept the temp lower, around 200- after 7 hrs it still wasn't done and was just drying out. I think If I continued like that they would just become like beef jerky.
So Now I'm trying to smoke the ribs at 225 degrees again but not putting bar b que sauce on them and we'll see.
The first time I just opened it a lot, moved things around a lot and basically used it like a bar b que because I was constantly building the fire/ charcoal back up to build the heat back up. That time I smoked some beef ribs and they were done in about 3 1/2 hr. They weren't too bad, better than they were when I've bar b qued them in the past.
I figuered out there was 60-80 degree temp variance inside the smoking chamber. SOOOO... I modified the smoker to make it a reverse flow:
First I had some pieces welded on the sided so that the smoking chamber could be sealed with Nomex insulating tape. That worked real well. I put some JB Weld around/in some of the joints that were pouring out smoke.
I put a piece of 11 gage steel in the chamber to make the smoke/heat flow to the opposite side of the charcoal chamber. I guessed on the size of the opening on the end.
Then I put some flexible vent pipe from the smoke stack to the other side (side closest to the fire chamber) so that the exhaust would be drawn from that side.
I put 4 oven thermometers inside the chamber and checked the temps. The temps all evened out to within 20 degrees of each other.
So then I tried smoking some beef ribs again. My first mistake was to put bar b que sauce on them first then I smoked them and didn't open up the chamber, just kept it at what I thought was a good temp 225- on the visible one.
It all burned terribly
Next time I did the same thing but kept the temp lower, around 200- after 7 hrs it still wasn't done and was just drying out. I think If I continued like that they would just become like beef jerky.
So Now I'm trying to smoke the ribs at 225 degrees again but not putting bar b que sauce on them and we'll see.
