New ECB owner with a couple of questions.

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steellord

Newbie
Original poster
May 25, 2014
14
15
Roseville, MI.
I have an ECB I won at a bowling fundraiser and just got it put together. I know what mods need to be done to make it work reasonably well. I have a couple questions about it though.

It looks like the water pan sits just under the lower grate on  a set of stepped brackets, is this the way it should be or should I add some long bolts above the water pan to separate these?

I also read a post here where an ECB user put a foil pan of water on the lower grate and filled the ECB water pan with sand and covered it with foil??? Is there a reason he did this?

I also want to add a better temp gauge to this unit and have seen them mounted on the side and also on the dome lid. Is there an

optimum place to mount this? I also plan on getting a dual probe thermometer but that may be awhile due to money constraints. The wife has a single probe I can use to monitor meat temps until then. I'm hoping to get the sealing rope, temp gauge, and some Weber replacement dampers this week.

Here is a pic of my ECB and the Smoky Joe grill I had that I plan to use as my fire bowl.


Thanks in advance for any help.
Chuck
 
I started with one of these and never bothered to mod it.

Never threw it out either and just don't have the heart.

I would not put in another therm in the lid.  Wait until you can get the digital wired probe and figger a good way to get it in there.

And yes?  Based on my memory?  The water pan sat right below the lower cooking grate.

Unless cooking a lot of meat I just used the top grate.  Getting two grates of meat out of these small uprights can be a pain.

Good luck and good smoking.
 
Hey Chuck, Welcome! The main reason to foil the pan with either sand or some other heat sink is to just give the ECB more even heat and prevent temp swings that you tend to get with the water in the water pan. 

I have been using my ECB for years and it still works great. The mods were easy to do and fun to try, if you like tinkering. I just had a nice bowl of smoked bean soup. I cooked it on the ECB and then froze it in single serving so I can enjoy it when I want. 

Can't beat the ECB for the $.
 
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