Paver bricks in Char-griller Pro smoker

[jmposing]

Hello all.

I've owned a Char-griller Pro smoker with the firebox for a couple years now. Have turned out some great BBQ but have always had a tougher time of keeping it at a constant temp. A few weeks ago I was browsing our local Menards and saw some 1 1/2 X 8 x 4 inch paver stones and thought about using them in the smoker to provide thermal mass. They were easy to trim and fit beautifully. I had always used the charcoal pan turned upside down as a way to spread the heat more evenly along the smoker box . Before I needed to fill the gap between the smoker box and the pan with foil. Now with the bricks installed the pan fits the cutout perfectly. I have my chimney extension setup as a cross flow so the neat and smoke travels under the pan and then up and over the meat to exit. We used this setup every day over the recent holiday weekend and it works great. Holds the heat for hours. Before whenever we opened the lid the temp would dsrop like a rock and take quite a while to recover. Now it's hardly noticable. The pavers were on sale for the amazing price of 20 cents a stone so I bought 100. But now I see they are back up to 50 cents. Please excuse my filthy grill in the pictures. I took it apart to clean it and replace the top stone that was cut short. What do you guys think?

Happy smoking,

     John Posing

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• jmposing
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• jmposing
• Jul 8, 2013

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• jmposing
• Jul 8, 2013

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• jmposing
• Jul 8, 2013

 

[fwismoker]

That's a very cool concept and shows alot of ingenuity!   

 

[sqwib]

Pavers should not be used in a firebox, just be careful.

 

[ballagh]

I just built a commercial fridge smoker and used a 1" granite slab on the bottom. It holds the heat very very well. Two hours after I shut it down it still sits at 225 degrees.

Sent from my Sony Xperia Z

 

[fwismoker]

I've used pavers in my kettle to partition off the coals with no ill effects....  cough cough cough!

 

[sqwib]

Pavers can explode, extremely rare but nonetheless can.

A little pop while managing the fire and a hot piece of rock in the eye is not fun.

I have seen granite pop and crack in a few pieces as well as pavers.

I have never witnessed an explosion YET!

It has to do with moisture within the stone.

It's safer to use fire brick or some other refractory material.

 

[cliffcarter]

Pavers can explode, extremely rare but nonetheless can.

A little pop while managing the fire and a hot piece of rock in the eye is not fun.

I have seen granite pop and crack in a few pieces as well as pavers.

I have never witnessed an explosion YET!

It has to do with moisture within the stone.

It's safer to use fire brick or some other refractory material.

I agree with Sqwib on the fire brick, eventually those pavers will crack and degrade because of the heat in the cook chamber.

 

[fwismoker]

Maybe in a perfect world fire bricks are best but he's not going to have explosions in his cooking chamber (not exposed to extreme temps) and they'll last for years and years...jmo.     Regardless it's a really nice mod.

 

[sqwib]

Maybe in a perfect world fire bricks are best but he's not going to have explosions in his cooking chamber (not exposed to extreme temps) and they'll last for years and years...jmo.     Regardless it's a really nice mod.

I stand corrected, I thought he lined his firebox, That's what I get for skimming posts.

Smoke chamber should be fine, only the first few by the firebox inlet could be an issue, sorry about the confusion.

Yes definitely a nice mod.

 

[jmposing]

Even if they do crack or degrade I have a bunch of spares. They were on sale for 20 cents a stone so I bought 100 but only used 24. I think I'm covered for at least a couple years. It takes a little longer to initially come up to temp but then it's rock steady for hours.

 

[pitbulmom]

 Forgive me for maybe asking a silly question, but....

I love the idea of the Pavers/ Firebrick , but is there a chance that maybe Lava Rock could be used in the larger chamber instead?? Reason I ask, we have aGravel/Rock/Landscape supply and I can get Lava Rock super cheap. ( I got a Garbage Bag 1/2 full for $2)  I got the LR for my E-ECB so I have some extra right now, and what I have used really helps that ECB keep the heat more stable.

Just wondering 

 

[jmposing]

If you can find a way of keeping it in place I think it should work.

 

[Smoking77532]

I know this is an oldrr mod but just flipped the grate in my smokebox and was about 60*F off from left to right. Did this help with heat distributing and is this still working today?