Abe's 48" insulated cabinet smoker seasoning, first cook and thoughts

TailGateJoecom said:

In addition to moisture, the water is a big heat sink. Replace the water with sand, that should give the heat sink benefit back to you. IT will also cut down the risk of grease fires with dripping fat hitting the hot bare plate of the water pan.

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I may try sand or fire bricks. I have been using a disposable pan over the empty water pan to minimize the mess/cleanup. It still got a little hot and I could hear the drippings sizzle. Water also gave me cooler temps on the bottom 2 racks so that could be used if I needed to cook foods at different temps. Without water the racks are just a couple degrees apart except the top rack where the heat comes in. Still so much to try and play with.:-D

For those who have this smoker I just ordered a cover from CoverUs.com. I should have it in a couple of weeks and I will let you know what I think and how it fits. I had them make it 33w x 27d x 54h to clear the side handles, latches, exhaust and wheels. I am not really sure how durable triple laminated vinyl is but for the price it was worth a try. I did read somewhere that it is fire resistant. I paid $49 for the cover, $6 for grommets and draw string, shipping should be $12-$15 depending on weight. I had just about given up because all the quotes were coming back in the $300-$400 range. I don't need something that expensive since it will be kept on my back porch under a roof.

Looks great! Nice smoke ring.

Flobee1kenobi said:

fully sealed the intake ports to make it permanently guru powered, made an additional 4 racks, and threw on some monster truck wheels. I got 14 hours on this weekends cook and still had coals left to do another ribs session. Might have to throw a heat diverter in there, it goes through the water!

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You know we need details on how you sealed up the intakes. Pictures too. Those wheels look really good! How much charcoal did you use in the 14 hour cook? Weekend before last I used 6lbs in 9 hours with a full pan of water running at about 275-300. I use a lot less without water.

Baptized in Smoke said:

How did the maze work?

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Sorry I missed this. Maze worked well at keeping temps down without water. It ran around 300° and without the maze it was 325°- 350°. I'll be trying again with a tighter maze this weekend.

Indybbq said:

What are you using to make the maze? Would love some pics.

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I am using 6" aluminum flashing cut in half. I was going to load a picture last night but my phone was acting stupid. I like the flashing because it doesn't rust and I have been using it for a while in another smoker with no issues other than it getting a little soft over time. What I have right now is some that I was using in a very small cabinet smoker and I just have them pieced together until I can figure out what works best and then make them properly (sharp bends not this crappy stuff in my pictures). I will post results of my cook this weekend with a 3rd piece of maze. This burned for 9 hours. I am working on the intakes to limit airflow. I have an idea that I am fabricating that may help.

pjtexas1 said:

For those who have this smoker I just ordered a cover from CoverUs.com. I should have it in a couple of weeks and I will let you know what I think and how it fits. I had them make it 33w x 27d x 54h to clear the side handles, latches, exhaust and wheels. I am not really sure how durable triple laminated vinyl is but for the price it was worth a try. I did read somewhere that it is fire resistant. I paid $49 for the cover, $6 for grommets and draw string, shipping should be $12-$15 depending on weight. I had just about given up because all the quotes were coming back in the $300-$400 range. I don't need something that expensive since it will be kept on my back porch under a roof.

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The cover came yesterday. Really nice and thick material. It came to $70 total. You might want to go 1" shorter if you have the stock casters. I will be getting bigger casters eventually.

I added a 3rd piece to the maze and it worked very well. I stacked charcoal 2 high in the maze with several chunks of pecan. Started with 1 full chimney of unlit Stubb's and 20 lit. It took about 45 minutes to come up to 300 but I was trying not to over-shoot 300 so I started with very little lit. No water. Capped off both intakes at 250 (thanks to Chris at LSG for posting this recommendation) and the exhaust 1/3 open. I had been waiting too long to cap off the instakes and the temps rose too quickly. This worked good enough that I will probably make some better looking maze pieces rather than the ones I have pieced together right now.
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I made some intake covers to help limit airflow. Right now they are just made out of a disposable aluminum pan I cut up. It locked in at 307 and stayed for hours without any adjustment. I believe that an ATC would be a waste of money on this smoker. I put a chicken breast on the top rack after the brisket was removed and ran the smoker at 350 for 1.5 hours by removing one of the intake covers. After removing the chicken and putting the intake cap back on it took an hour to come back down to 300. I ran 10 hours on 5.5lbs of Stubb's. Probably could have run a little longer if I had not cranked up the heat to 350. If you like to cook at 225 I bet this would run a couple hours longer but would require water to keep the temps down or maybe a better way to seal off the intakes. I have not seen anyone else post burn times so I thought I would let you guys know what works for me.
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