The Smoke
Found some matches.
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)
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.
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.
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. :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:
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.
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.