Brinkmann Smoke N Pit low temps, too much charcoal

[nickm62388]

With charcoal basket am I putting that on bottom rack in firebox or the top grate in the firebox next to the opening to the cooking chamber ?

 

[nickm62388]

I am selling this POS Smoke N Pit.....After reading and trying to do every mod that everyone has said it still keeps no heat, takes forever to get heat up. Selling this on craigslist and buying a Weber Smokey Mountain like I should have done in first place. This smoker is cheaply made, and mechanically just a bad concept the way it was built. I have to save up another $150 for the smokey mountain, but for the mods and aggravation this piece of junk caused me I dont care.

 

[sparkie1952]

I have a similar Royal Oak horizontal smoker. I had a Brinkmann before that. I wore the Brinlman out and gave it away to a friend that repaired it (new bottom on firebox) and still uses it. My Royal Oak is a much more substantial smoker/grill. Much heavier metal and all of the grates are porcilian coated. I just gave it to my son-in-law this past wekend. It is still on my dexk however. I am getting old and I recently bough a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker. It's the bomb. The charcoal smokers use a lot of fuel and require a lot of attention. The MES has a remote control that displays cooker and meat temps and I add only about a half a cup of wood chips every 45 mins for the first few hours or so. I made two turkeys and have done a boston butt and a few "fatties" so far but it is really nice. The basic models are not very expensive at all. I found mine on EBay.

Oh yea I  tried all of the baffles, baskets, gaskets and did a dance around the damn thing (after enough whiskey)but wound up in a more or less stock configuration with a few bricks making an adjustable wall between the firebox and the smoker box. Some of these guys selling $30 baffles just baffle me.

Sparkie

 

[sparkie1952]

Here are my first two turkeys from the MES.

Sparkie

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• sparkie1952
• Mar 23, 2015

 

[cman55]

 
I am selling this POS Smoke N Pit.....After reading and trying to do every mod that everyone has said it still keeps no heat, takes forever to get heat up. Selling this on craigslist and buying a Weber Smokey Mountain like I should have done in first place. This smoker is cheaply made, and mechanically just a bad concept the way it was built. I have to save up another $150 for the smokey mountain, but for the mods and aggravation this piece of junk caused me I dont care.

You might want to contact the manufacturer and let them know exactly what you think of their product. You might get something out of it if you layout exactly what your experience was. Make sure you get to customer service and talk to a boss as I'm sure they have a phone #. Follow up with an email too.

Companies just might comp you for the bs you've had to put up with. Might amount to something small, but you'll walk away with something. 

JMHO..

 

[sparkie1952]

 
You might want to contact the manufacturer and let them know exactly what you think of their product. You might get something out of it if you layout exactly what your experience was. Make sure you get to customer service and talk to a boss as I'm sure they have a phone #. Follow up with an email too.

Companies just might comp you for the bs you've had to put up with. Might amount to something small, but you'll walk away with something. 

JMHO..

Try to find some fluent in Mandarin Chinese before you call!

Sparkie

 

[sparkie1952]

 
Try to find someone fluent in Mandarin Chinese before you call!

Sparkie

 

[cman55]

I had thought Brinkmann would have had an American based presence and they do..

 

[h3]Mail[/h3] The Brinkmann Corporation Attn: Customer Service 4215 McEwen Road Dallas, TX 75244

[h3]Phone[/h3][h4](800) 468-5252[/h4] Local: (972) 716-4262

They're based out of Texas so you may need to get someone that's fluent in Texan..  

 

[nickm62388]

YA so just called brinkmann corporate and that was a useless call. They didn't do anything as I expected, and not sure why I even bothered calling. I told them they would probably go on with their day after giving them a complaint and telling them how awful their product was

 

[cman55]

YA so just called brinkmann corporate and that was a useless call. They didn't do anything as I expected, and not sure why I even bothered calling. I told them they would probably go on with their day after giving them a complaint and telling them how awful their product was

then I would piss on their product every chance I got everywhere I saw any reference to it. In public, if you see someone looking at it in a big box store, talk them out of the purchase. Other than that, go on and get the WSM. 

If Brinkmann was a legitmate manufacturer, they would have offered to address your complaint. Evidently, they're in it for the cash. I'll make sure to share your experience anytime I read anyone even thinking about buying any smoker with a brinkmann badge on it. 

If you can't beat them, fk them every chance you get.

 

[timberjet]

If only Weber would make a stick burner. Wouldn't that be something? You can't go wrong with the WSM man, or you could build one of these for a hundred bucks or less.

my uds.jpg

• timberjet
• Nov 16, 2013

Best smoker for the money in the way of charcoal bar none.

 

[nickm62388]

So I changed my mind before I try to return it. I'm
Determined to make this hunk of junk work. I just built and made a charcoal basket for the firebox. Now first question why can't I put charcoal on top grate inside firebox? To close to opening into cooking chamber? And also I'm going to try to put some kind of material between temp gauge and barrel and same with chimney barrel so the leaks are sealed(stick something in middle and then screw the stuff down so it's sealed, because all the fire resistant caulk I use peeled and fell off. I bought a piece of metal tube from home depot for chimney extender but the pos fell apart and came undone so gotta try to find something different for chimney extender. As for the leaks on entire barrel Lid, I see people put oven liner rope around the edge of entire barrel so it's sealed when closed. I'm determined to get this pos smoker to work and maintain heat. I'm not doing any brick plates or tiles in cooking chamber. I'm going to try to find some kind of sheet to put over entrance of firebox vent facing down towards opposite end to distribute heat evenly.

 

[cman55]

I admire your grit. I would start with buying the gasket material used around Large BGE's. Use weather strip glue around the cooking chamber opening (follow the directions) and not the door. The temp in the smoking chamber should never get so high as to melt the glue so you should be good to go. You may have to cut the gasket felt in half the long way to get it to fit good around the opening. If you're gonna use that charcoal basket, it will be too high to use in tandem with your firebox grate. Solution, just don't use it when you want to grill in your firebox. I got 3in elbow joint aluminum from Ace Hardware to extend the chimney to the grate at the far end. Please keep in mind all of these suggestions worked on my OKJ so they should work on your offset stickburner too.

If you're planning to use a heat baffle plate, you can get one form http://www.horizonbbqsmokers.com and cut to size with an angle grinder if its too big. You definitely would want to get one as they do even out the temps from the hot end of the offset to the far end. 

 

[nickm62388]

I will never be cooking in my firebox. How exactly did get your chimney elbow to stay up, did you just jam it up from the inside til it got stuck up in the chimney?

 

[sparkie1952]

I will never be cooking in my firebox. How exactly did get your chimney elbow to stay up, did you just jam it up from the inside til it got stuck up in the chimney?

Ok, two things

1.. The smoke stack on the brinkman just goes straight up from the cooking chamber. On the Oklahoma Joe and on my Royal Oak (both the same I think) the smoke stack comes out the side of the cooking chamber and then turns up to vertical. I will try to find pictures of mine. Ok the picture does not show the latches installed.

2.  Get some latches and latch the cooking chamber lid down. I found this to work well without any gaskets at all. I took the gasket off to do this mod.

Sparkie

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• sparkie1952
• Mar 26, 2015

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• sparkie1952
• Mar 26, 2015

 

[nickm62388]

Ya I think a latch wouldn't matter it's hard to explain, but the gap between cooking chamber and bottom the gap is offset I guess they don't sit right on top of each other it's more of offset lids I will try to take a picture of how to explain it

 

[cman55]

Yeah, Sparkie is right. My stack comes out the side just like in the picture he showed. You could always try getting it to stay by using friction. That is, buy the sleeve just a bit larger than the diameter of your smoke stack. Since they're aluminum, you should be able to crunch one end of your aluminum sleeve and simply screw it into the stack from under the cooking dome of course. There's no force on the sleeve so once its in, it stays unless you take it out for some reason. 

BTW, I have grilled on my firebox and it produce some wonderful Delmonicos. I didn't use the charcoal box but simply filled with the right amount of briquettes to get the job done. I just don't grill very often but when I do, I use my propane. Just quicker and easier clean up. 

 

[gary s]

Nice Job  

 

 

Gary

 

[sparkie1952]

 
Yeah, Sparkie is right. My stack comes out the side just like in the picture he showed. You could always try getting it to stay by using friction. That is, buy the sleeve just a bit larger than the diameter of your smoke stack. Since they're aluminum, you should be able to crunch one end of your aluminum sleeve and simply screw it into the stack from under the cooking dome of course. There's no force on the sleeve so once its in, it stays unless you take it out for some reason. 

BTW, I have grilled on my firebox and it produce some wonderful Delmonicos. I didn't use the charcoal box but simply filled with the right amount of briquettes to get the job done. I just don't grill very often but when I do, I use my propane. Just quicker and easier clean up. 

I forgot to mention that I took the elbow that I had off and threw it away. It made no significant difference. I use a couple of digital thermometers to monitor the ends of the smoke chamber. I also take the basket out when grilling but I also have a 14 inch weber that sits on the table if I I'm just doing steaks. The little weber also comes in handy for getting some replacement coals ready for basket. When using your basket put some unlit coals and wood chunks on the bottom and put your hot coals on top not many or it will get away from you (it's called the "Minion Method"). That's where the little weber or any small cheap table top grill comes in handy. And don't forget the fireplace shovel for handling hot coals. And you can see my little garden rake in the picture. It's great for snatching hot grills off the smoker or just sliding them around and stirring coals too.

Yea I know, like the guy that sells the high dollar baffles sez...I'm full of it!!!

Sparkie

 

[mountainman5741]

I have two Brinkman box smokers and am having terrible trouble keeping my temp. up one holds a barley 200 and the other holds around 200 on  temp gauge.  I have tried to adjust the dampers to raise the temp and I am UN-ABLE to raise the Temp. I tried adding more charcoal even added large chucks of smoking wood DRY!!! Can you give me any cures to this problem.  I feel that the both doors dont seal and the heat is coming out of the doors but I may be wrong.  Can anyone provide a CURE!! Thanks