Charcoal basket in large offset smoker

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Billsharp34

Is lookin for wood to cook with.
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I was wondering if anyone has tried a charcoal basket in there large offset. Would like to try. Would be nice for days that I don't want to tend to a fire all day. My questions are how well does it work. How much charcoal do you need to get it going. How long does it last. Is it worth the doing.
 
It has been done- with varying degrees of "success" Do a fast search (bottom of the page) - put in "charcoal in an offset" and the results will pop up for hits on the Brethren site. A more general Google search will give you more than enough info to decide if it's worth it or not. I don't have an offset- I have a direct heat vertical (non insulated 3/16" steel 2x2x4tall) I built it to BE a charcoal cooker...and it's not. I could not (sealed doors and all) make it work efficiently. Getting 4 hours (300deg) out of a 18.5lb of KBB would not feed the bulldog. Now I'm running all splits on a KBB coal bed. I have to feed it every 30 to 40 minutes- but I love it. If you have something to make a basket out of - do it. Do a dry run with a single bag and take notes. It may work out for you. Good luck.
 
My brother in law has a Klose offset. We have used a charcoal basket on it. It will work, but is a charcoal hog and it was hard to get it over 225 degrees with any consistency.
 
My main use for a charcoal basket is to get a cleaner and longer burning wood fire in my offset! Much less fire tending too
 
My friend tried it once. Took a whole bag of lump to get to temp and another bag to keep it there for another hour or 2. Expensive.
 
Thats about what mine took. a large bag every two hours... so I did not get that sleep in the night like I thought I would... Sold it and got a insulated cabinet.. battle box.

pjtexas1 said:
My friend tried it once. Took a whole bag of lump to get to temp and another bag to keep it there for another hour or 2. Expensive.
Click to expand...
 
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They're called "stick burners" for a reason. Charcoal is not a bad idea to help get your fire started and to help establish a good coal base, however. After that, use wood.

There are many superb insulated cabinet smokers out there that use mainly charcoal and allow you to not have to "tend " the fire that much. They produce great bbq.
 
I agree with Springram, start with charcoal in the basket to establish a good coal bed, then use wood. My offset is not that big, OkJoe Highland, but keeping temp with only charcoal was difficult. I tried the minion method, and didn't like the flavors produced by the unlit coals catching fire. When I switched to wood during the cook, things changed.
 
My LSG stick came with a charcoal basket and I can honestly say have not used it. I have plenty of mesquite lump coal that I only paid $11.99 for 40 pounds still can't bring myself to trying it out... Maybe one day.
 
I agree with with you all that it's a stick burner and that's what you use for a reason I'm just the type of person that's likes to tinker with things and always trying something new. It was my thoughts that it would work for the most part but it's is going to cost $$$$$$$$$ you to do so. I always have been a big fan of real bbq is made with real burning wood.
 
I live in New York and my supply of wood is limited and so is my storage space. I had a charcoal box made and it works well. It holds 25 pounds of charcoal and my offset will run at 250F for about 4 1/2 hours
 

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Mine has a large Fire basket bag of coals and 4 sticks last abt an hour or an hour and a half depending on ambient temps. My offset is moderately large lol Firebasket likely could hold 6 to 8 large bags of coal
 

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BillN said:
My LSG stick came with a charcoal basket and I can honestly say have not used it. I have plenty of mesquite lump coal that I only paid $11.99 for 40 pounds still can't bring myself to trying it out... Maybe one day.
Click to expand...

I got a basket for mine as well. I typically just use along with the warming oven. I bought a CyberQ while they were on sale this week and Im going to do some experimenting using the basket, CyberQ, and warming oven as a mini smoker. Ive already done a few small cooks in there and it works pretty great as is.
 
I've got an LSG vertical offset and also bought the charcoal basket. It took me a year and a half to use it and it did pretty good. Used to 18.6 bags of K-Comp and I got an 8 hour burn out of it at 275 average temp. A bag and a half with chunks to begin with. 5 hours into the cook with a 1/4 of the fuel left from the original load, I added the remaining 1/2 bag.

At the end of the day it's a stick burner like the old timers told me and if I had to do it again I'd skip the basket since I don't use it much. Only twice. :becky: I thought I would use it a lot more but no. Like Jacks said perhaps it'll be worth it with the oven option we have.

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The initial bag and a half with wood chunk

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ssv3 did the fire ever jump the dividers? I have the same basket as you. Some day I'll give it a go.
 
BillN said:
ssv3 did the fire ever jump the dividers? I have the same basket as you. Some day I'll give it a go.
Click to expand...

It did but it was my fault because I wanted to crank it up a bit and took the propane torch to it which caused briqs across the dividers catch also. I should've used a chimney to dump more coals instead.

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Regardless, it still burned long and clean and all I did was choke down and crack the intake a tiny bit.
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Thin blue all the way. I must say it burned very clean

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Yeah my biggest fear was dirty smoke like when a chimney is first fired up. ssv3 that is pretty amazing how little intake it takes to keep it going. Thanks for posting.
 
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