Major Uneven Temps Solved in my Horizon 16in Offset

The Smoke

The Smoke

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I'm so freaking excited I can't see straight right now. I have cooked on an offset for many years now - and I just got a new Horizon only to have some similar left/right temperature problems. This new smoker is much more efficient than my old one, so I honestly noticed even greater temperature differences at times than on my leaky char griller.

I finally called Horizon and talked with an amazing dude who greatly discouraged me from lowering my smokestack down to grate level. I was thinking this mod might be the last one I needed to get things evened out. He even went and spoke directly to Roger, the owner of Horizon and ultimate designer of the tried and true design of the smoker. Roger said that have tried many different modifications of smokestack placement and they keep arriving at this placement. He said placing the smokestack down further at grate level or lower is not ideal as you are trying to force hot air downward where it doesn't want to go to circulate out. I know, lots of opinions out there on this. But if you keep reading, you will see why I am a firm believer that a smokestack placed towards the top of an offset grill with my specifications is perfect, and I wouldn't change a thing.

I was using the Horizon convection plate. I've seen many people post that they needed to seal up the convection plate where it butts up against the firebox side to keep ANY air from leaking around it and thus forcing all the hot air under it. This is what I was doing and thought I needed to do as well. (For the record, I've also seen people post that they need to move the convection plate away from the firebox)

I WAS WAY WRONG!

The guy at Horizon told me I needed to move the convection plate away from the firebox about 1 inch. I had tried this about a week ago in the midst of a cook and didn't give it much time, because I didn't notice much difference. I lost faith and went back to forcing as much air under it as possible.

I couple days ago, I did a fire test. I built a fire and started messing with the convection plate. My temps originally were rising way higher on the right as normally do. (usually 40 to 100 degrees different from right to left - which IMHO is pure madness)

  • I moved the convection plate 1inch to the left, away from the firebox -
    • Nothing really happened. I was getting discouraged and thought. Crap. I'm just going to be one of those poor smoking suckers who never really gets his grill figured out - even after he gets a more pro quality offset. :confused::mad::mad2:

  • I THEN MOVED THE CONVECTION PLATE 1 MORE INCH TO THE LEFT, away from the firebox, to a total of roughly 2 to 2.5 inches away.
    • BAM!!! This totally changed the way the air was circulating:shock::p
I use the maverick dual smoker/food thermometers. I had one set up far left and one set up far right as I usually do to monitor temps. (My goal is just like most others. I really do want to cook in the sweet spot of 220 to 230 as much as possible.) When I changed that plate, the right side immediately began to drop and the lid bi-metal thermometer which reads the temps located in the top of the smoker immediately began to rise.

It changed the way the air was circulating and instead of a great difference from left to right, I had a new separation of high and low temps.
Left temp settled at about 240 and my right temp settled at about 235. I was between 1 and 8 degrees difference now from left to right. My left temp was now actually even a little bit higher than my far right temp. This seemed like a miracle, because my left temp had always been at least 40 to 100 degrees lower on average.:p

Also - my lid thermometer was now about 30 to 40 degrees higher.
This is exactly what I wanted. I want to be able to use ALL of my smaller sized smoker's rack space from left to right. I understand that I should have a dome of hotter air. And I just won back a lot of evenly temped cooking space.

All because I moved the convection plate 1 more inch to the left and completely changed the way the heat was circulating in my smoker.

I still can't believe it was that dramatic of a difference. I plan to smoke a pork butt this weekend and maybe a chicken and who knows...maybe a brisket, some baby backs, a few spare ribs, some salmon some almonds and cheese too. maybe I'll also throw in a little lamb and a whole pig if I can rustle one up.

OK - folks - sorry for the long post. I just had to document a little of my journey in case my newbie experiences can prove to be helpful to anyone else on their quest to have even temps and lots of sweet spot rack space in their smoker.

Cheers!

The Smoke.
 
Interesting. It really doesn't make logical sense that you have hotter temps opposite the firebox but I cannot argue with your observations. Now, when you have the temp probe on the right side was it over the diffuser plate or was it closer to the firebox over the gap? I am guessing that it would still be quite hot in that 2" space between the firebox and right edge of the plate. Regardless, glad to hear it is working better for you. Also, you can do a biscuit test to check for hot spots.
 
Way to stick with it and get it working right.
You're the Convection Plate Whisperer.
 
Colonel00 - The temp probe was still above the diffuser plate but about as far right as it could go without getting into that 2 inch gap where there is obviously lots of hot air now rushing up in that spot. I'm sure the temp in those two inches would measure very hot.

Need to learn about the biscuit test. I've never done one of those, but it sounds interesting. I'm guessing it has to do with setting uncooked biscuits all over in different spots to monitor how they cook??? I'm sure I could research it.

Thanks for the comments.
 
Yep, get some uncooked biscuits and strategically place them in the cooker. It will give you a good visual representation of the heat distribution and will help identify hot spots.
 
that is some impressive temps in a little smoker. Good job figuring it out..rustle up some biscuits and see how they come out and you will be ready to roll
 
That sounds like a very small smoker. I'd like to see some pics, if you have any, of the smoker and plate. TIA
 
Good for you. The difference between cooks is in how well they know and can control their cooker.....especially with stick burners. You are on your way Jedi. When you can tell the heat and point of cooking by the sound of the cooker, you will be feared (or worshiped). Keep it up.
 
To Mr "The Smoke"

Man I know this post is from 2011...........but I wanted to personally thank you.

I was fighting a 40* to 85* heat differential as well ,on my Okie Joe.
Which I added two Tel-Tru thermometers one on the left and one on the right side down at grate level.............My thermo's are dead nuts on , I test them once per month.

You are THE MAN !!!!!!!

By moving my homemade convection plate 2'' away from the fire box / the right side / the hot side...........of my pit instantly got hotter on the left hand side , (The side away from the fire.):shocked:
So like you, I moved the plate back towards the fire box about 1/2'' which instantly equalized my pit temp, with in 5* from side to side !!!!!!

I never would have tried this move , because it absolutely make no sense to me .
I can't tell you why it works.....I won't even begin to try.
All I know is your old post saved me a bunch of money / was gonna buy a Lange.
Now my Okie pit is dead nuts on.............Right on brutha !
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.......this pit temp differential was driving me flip'in nuts !:clap2::clap2::clap2:

Thanks again bro.
Forktender :cool:
 
How much space do you guys have between the convection plate and the grate?
 
I think what may be happening here is by moving the plate away from the firebox side a little, the super heated air right out of the firebox is bypassing the plate and going directly to the top of the smoke chamber and out the chimney, if the plate is tight up against the firebox wall then that superheated air is really cooking the tuning plate causing it to get real hot
 
Just goes to show that every pit is different and the slightest tweak will make a huge difference in performance on one pit and not on another. You should be sure to save your OP so that you can have it ready for the next guy that gets stumped, there's a lot of Horizon owners out there and many of them are probably having the same issues as you did. It's a matter of time before they're looking for advice from the brethren!:wink:
Good Job!:thumb:
 
oldbill said:
Just goes to show that every pit is different and the slightest tweak will make a huge difference in performance on one pit and not on another. You should be sure to save your OP so that you can have it ready for the next guy that gets stumped, there's a lot of Horizon owners out there and many of them are probably having the same issues as you did. It's a matter of time before they're looking for advice from the brethren!:wink:
Good Job!:thumb:
Click to expand...
LOL! Just noticed that the OP was from 2011! I guess you've already saved it, so disregard the second half of my reply!:p
 
forktender said:
Man I know this post is from 2011...........but I wanted to personally thank you.

I was fighting a 40* to 85* heat differential as well ,on my Okie Joe.
Which I added two Tel-Tru thermometers one on the left and one on the right side down at grate level.............My thermo's are dead nuts on , I test them once per month.

You are THE MAN !!!!!!!

By moving my homemade convection plate 2'' away from the fire box / the right side / the hot side...........of my pit instantly got hotter on the left hand side , (The side away from the fire.):shocked:
So like you, I moved the plate back towards the fire box about 1/2'' which instantly equalized my pit temp, with in 5* from side to side !!!!!!

I never would have tried this move , because it absolutely make no sense to me .
I can't tell you why it works.....I won't even begin to try.
All I know is your old post saved me a bunch of money / was gonna buy a Lange.
Now my Okie pit is dead nuts on.............Right on brutha !
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.......this pit temp differential was driving me flip'in nuts !:clap2::clap2::clap2:

Thanks again bro.
Forktender :cool:
Click to expand...

Fortender, can you post pics of your setup ? Are you also running a baffle to deflect heat smoke down? What's the distance between the plate and grates?
 
So Smoke, you didn't say how you finally decided that the high placement of the stack was best. Why is it that one of the favorite mods is to extend the stack down to the grate level? I'm confused. Do you have any additional info?
 
Joe Black said:
So Smoke, you didn't say how you finally decided that the high placement of the stack was best. Why is it that one of the favorite mods is to extend the stack down to the grate level? I'm confused. Do you have any additional info?
Click to expand...

Trial and Error. Some people like the chimney ext to grate level, some say it does nothing and some say it makes it worse. :mrgreen:

Same thing with size and amount of tuning plates and where to place them and size and placement of convection plates. What works on one pit may not work on another pit. :twitch:

Even 2 of the same Pits may not like the same mods cuz Jonny cooks at 225* but Biff likes 300*. :shock:
 
As SmittyJonz say's. Every smoker and cook are different so results vary. I borrowed a Horizon convection plate from a guy at work last Thanksgiving to do a turkey on my snpp. I made a quick aluminum plate to seal the hole above the plate coming out of the firebox as it had a gap. As I remember it did help even temps, but it seemed to get hotter on the far end longer into the cook which made no sense. I bought a new Horizon convection plate for mine and returned his. As I did I noticed all the holes in my new one were about one size larger than his. Possibly a production change? His was modded at the Horizon factory I believe so maybe it was custom.. Never the less there maybe 2 different plates out there. Also there is a member here who frequently advocates that air flow is the key to offsets and lowering exhaust exit is not beneficial. As with everything bbq it seems it all depends... I have no sure answers, just more questions
 
Old Rusty will be trying this next time out.:grin:

Later,
Doug
 
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