# ECB charcoal to propane conversion



## glgoodwin (Dec 14, 2009)

I saw a post the other day that I thought was great. The post was asking about using a propane cooker as the heat source for an ECB. I did an experiment and here are the results.


Here is my El cheapo... Old faithful


The only mods are the holes in the firepan...



This is my brinkman propane cooker. I aminly just use it for turkeys and a fish fry at the end of each summer.



Here they are combined, notice how the smoker legs and the cooker legs line up perfectly. It is like they weren't meant to be together!



Inside the ECB Propane smoker...



Here it is with the firepan in place the the burner lit. After experimenting on some CSR's saturday I discovered placing the wood chips around the edge will produce a nice somke without igniting the wood.



The rugulator that came with the propane cook allowes me to control the temp. I can make the flame small enough to produce little to no heat, incase i would like to cold smoke, and can increase the flames size enough the heat the ole ECB to close to 400* not that I would need to.  On saturday I kept it 240 for 6 hours straight.  the temp outside was about 35* and windy at times.  even in the wind the temp only seemed to vary by 5-7*  

Thanks to the individual that first posted on this subject. I am super excited to have a propane smoker. This thing works great. I love wood and charcoal smokes too, and the coolest part is that the ECB can be taken right back of the the gas cooker base and used with charcoal.

I am having to smoke a couple briskets for christmas lunch, thansk to this device I will ikely get some sleep and not have to stay up all night cooking the brisket.

LEt me know any feed back you all have...

Thanks,
Gavin


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## tn_bbq (Dec 14, 2009)

Cool.

Father in law bought me a Masterbilt one and I never could get the temperature under control (only tried twice) so I punted.


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## mr mac (Dec 14, 2009)

Pretty cool!  With it sitting there like that it reminds me of my Brinkmann All-In-One.


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## glgoodwin (Dec 15, 2009)

My only question now is should i add lava rocks to the fire box.  I figure I could throw the wood chips on the lava rocks. Or is that just unneccesary?


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## michchef (Dec 15, 2009)

Great Idea! 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






I have a turkey fryer that I've never used and a Char-Grill water smoker that I picked out of the trash so I think I'll give this a try.


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## oneshot (Dec 15, 2009)

I don't see any advantage...If it ain't broke don't fix it.....


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## autoferret (Dec 15, 2009)

Thats how i got my Char-grill water smoker too.  i think the ran into a few times just a bit out of round but it works and it was free.  going to try this mod myself!


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## glgoodwin (Dec 15, 2009)

This worked great with the ECB because both halves are made by brinkman. I really hope you all's char-grill water smoker works too. I am sure you can force it 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





. Please post some pics here if you get'em together. 

I am still really excited about this. It was such a simple mod yet SO AMAZING. I am just excited to have a propane smoker to use on the longer smokers.


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## fire it up (Dec 16, 2009)

Gavin, you unbelievably clever man!
Looks like I'll see about turning my electric ECB into propane.
I have a turkey fryer I don't use so i have the base and the ecb body is used to hold my preburnt chunks of wood and butted up against my sNp firebox door to keep it fully shut.
Thanks!


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## glgoodwin (Apr 1, 2010)

Fire it up - did this ever work for your electric ECB?


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## rev (May 6, 2010)

I may try converting mine this weekend!  I have a full tank and an old turkey fryer think I can probably manage to use with it.

I hope there's enough LP to last for the 8+ hours on the boston butt I plan on doing.


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## glgoodwin (May 6, 2010)

I think youll enjoy the outcome.  With my rig I smoked a brisket for 18hrs at 225* and had fuel to spare.  It works great.  What I ended up doing is filling my fire pan with Lava rocks, and placing the firepan directly over the flame(my fire pan has been drilled full of holes.)  the lava rocks get hot enough to make the wood smoke without actally burning the wood.  WORKS PERFECTLY.  I am am truely thrilled with how convienent this conversion has been on the longer smokes.  I still use charcoal most of the time but if I am doing somthing that is going to take 8 or more hours I bust out the Propane!!!


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## fire it up (May 6, 2010)

Completely missed the update on this thread and such.

Yes I converted it into a propane smoker and I gotta tell you...I LOVE IT!
I use my little propane smoker now whenever I'm in a hurry or it's windy or chance of rain.
Smoking at 300-325 if I feel like it is wonderful AND 10 minutes after firing it up you are ready to throw the meat on.

Have been meaning to get some good pics for it and post but thanks for the post and tips Gavin, nothing less than completely awesome 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Pork butts take 12-15 hours?!?!?!  Shoooooot....not anymore!
Can smoke me a butt to temp in 5-6 hours and it is just as good as any slow smoked piece of goodness!


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## rbranstner (May 6, 2010)

I use the same burner in my smoke shack and it works great. One suggestion keep an eye on your burner especially if you are turning the flame way down and it is windy out. Would hate to see you fill the smoker with all that propane and hurt the meat or worse yet have a spark or something and blow the place up. Just something I keep an eye on with mine.


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## glgoodwin (May 6, 2010)

I was doing an over night brisket smoke with the flame pretty low and and I feel asleep.  When I woke up the flame had been out long enough for my brisket to go from a temp of 165 all the way back down to 137.  I was like NNNNOOOOO!!!  but I cranked her back up and set the smoker temp to like 350 and got the temp in the brisket back up...

So I hear ya on watching the flame!

I can express how much I love my ECB.  Its a great little charcoal smoker with the fire pan mod.  Its a great Propane smoker with the burner.  With the burner I can get the range of temps from almost nothing to as high as I want!!!  Really I wouldn't trade it for a high dollar smoker.


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## bbqfoodie (May 6, 2010)

I have a Masterbuilt 7 in 1 and have never used the propane thus far.

Couple of questions...I take it you aren't using a waterpan anymore....are you using a drip tray to catch drippings at least?


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## glgoodwin (May 6, 2010)

I DO still use the water pan.  Infact the smoker itself isn't setup any differnetly than it would normally be.  the whole smoker is just setting atop a Gas cooker.  Instead of charcoal in the fire pan I use lava rocks, of course as you can see from above pics there are many holes driled into the fire pan.


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## bbqfoodie (May 6, 2010)

Doesn't the water pan regulate the temp to 225 degrees....how do you manage to get it to 300 or 350 with the water pan in?

Gonna try this setup soon.


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## glgoodwin (May 6, 2010)

There is plenty of room for heat to pass right by the water pan and heat the smoker.  The water itself will boil at a lower temp(212*) but the steam and hot air will heat the smoker as hot as you regulate the temp to.  Now the water pan and hot water will help the smoker recover temp after it has been opend.  But the size of flame at the gas cooker determines temp, the water pan itself has very little to do with temp.


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## guvna (May 7, 2010)

word!


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## timberjet (May 8, 2010)

I did something similar with my ECB. I put the legs on the outside, then I Cut the legs short on my turkey fryer to fit just up inside the smoker and out of the wind. The stock thermometer was gone when I got it so I cut A piece out of the side of A large coffee can and patched the hole from the inside, screwing self tappers from the outside to hold it in place. I then drilled vent holes in the crown of the lid as the temp would just keep on climbing without them. I have tried the stock fire pan which is drilled just like yours and the chips I have burn up too fast. So yesterday I smoked some chickens using A juice can and chunks of apple with the opening foiled and poked with hot water in the water pan. I could not get the temp any lower than 250 so I tried messing with the door and ended up adding some cold water to the water pan A few times. Worked pretty good but I am kind of trying to get it to be A no brainer situation so I will keep messing with this unit until I get it working right. I think I need A small grate just above but not on the burner to set the smoking can on, as my chunks burned up pretty quick. I am using 2-3 inch apple chunks. Any suggestions for A better fire box set up? Sorry I don't have A digital camera yet so no pics. I really don't want to use the original fire pan as the clearance to the water pan is nill. I tried it this way and must have had A vacuum in the pan because it produced no smoke. I guess I could cut another inch off of the legs on the burner but then it would be exposed to the wind blowing it out. I love that I can pick the whole unit up off the burner to adjust, check, mop, add wood or whatever.


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## thebeav (Jul 13, 2010)

Very nice!

Exactly what I wanted to do thanks for sharing.

I cant wait to get some of these chores done so that I can give it a go.


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