New to Smoking, hoping you can keep me on track

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smoknnitnylion

Newbie
Original poster
Oct 9, 2010
3
10
Virginia Beach, Va
Hey everytone, just got a char-giller smokin pro w/ SFB from my family as a house warming gift and I'm excited to get into the act of smoking.  I tried a few ribs a week ago and have some more in the smoker right now.  I'm hoping to get the hang of this thing so I can smoke a good turkey for thanksgiving.  I've already got the grill rack flipped for a baffle and the smokestack extension in place.  My biggest concern is that I can watch all of my delicious smoke and heat coming right out of the main chamber where the top and bottom come together.  It seems to be keeping my temps down and hard to keep them going.  Have people figured out a good way to create a good seal on this model thats relatively cheap and easy.  Thanks everyone, hope to learn a lot here.
 
Welcome to the forums, and congrats on the house warming gift, and the house to warm! LOL!!!!

I personally haven't had experience with the chargriller myself, but thin strips of metal can be pop-riveted to the edges of the lid to help close some of the air gaps. Household range oven door gasket material is another great option...found in well-stocked hardware stores, or could be ordered from an appliance retailer.

If you haven't noticed this problem yet, you most likely will: ash build-up on charcoal briquettes. This will happen if the gap between the wires of the charcoal grate is not wide enough to allow ash fall-out. It will fool you into thinking something else is the problem... you add more hot briquettes and the temp comes up, but then, drops again. Eventually, your fire box is full of "hot" briquettes and you can't keep temps up. The fire is starving for air because the ashes are in the way. Just so you know, as it took me some trouble-shooting and getting tips from others here to correct that same issue with my SNP.

Main thing is, always try to have fun learning the craft of smoking...the food gets better every time you start a fresh fire to toss another piece of meat over. You'll be well rewarded with great eats for your efforts!

Eric
 
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First off Welcome Penn State Guy to SMF. You can buy some heat rope and glue it down on the bottom half of your smoker and that should fix the leaking. Now you'll like it here for there are alot of really good folks here that would just love to help you with just about anything to do with smoking. Now there are alot of proven recipes for some amazing things here too. So if you need sign up for the E-Course it's free and it will give you the basics of smoking and some good methods to use also. So the next big thing for you to do is go out and get you something to smoke and if you happen to have any questions just post it here and we will be happy to answer them for you.

Welcome To Your New Addiction    
 
Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks, great recipes and knowledge. Looking forward to your first qview.
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Welcome to SMF - looking forward to seeing some qview from you soon. Hopefully Eric's answer helps with your problem  
 
Welcome to the forum. Like Mballi said, get some wood stove gasket rope. If you have Westlake Ace in your area, you can get it there. I am thinking the last I bought was about 90 cents a foot. They also sell a high temp silicone adhesive that is FDA registered and good for 500 degrees.

Makes a big difference when you can keep the heat in the smoker.

Good luck on your next smoke and post some Qview.
 
WELCOME!!!

What advice was given above will work great, may want to do a search on your smoker for mods, may find something that will help also.

PENN STATE?, OK I'll play nice, because  we can.
 
 

Welcome to SMF, Glad to have you with us.
 


This is the place to learn, lots of good info and helpful friendly Members.
 


For those of you new to Smoking, be sure to check out Jeff's 5 Day Smoking Basics eCourse.

Click Here it's "FREE" ... 5 Day eCourseE
 
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