Lone Star Grillz Vertical Insulated Cabinet Smoker-For the new Owner

Laphroaig4Breakfast said:
...
- Don't overshoot your target temp. I overshot the target temp on my third test burn to about 290, and it took a couple of hours to come back down to 225.

- I'm still experimenting on the best way to bring it up to temp with my Fireboard 2 Drive. It takes at least 90 minutes to get to 225, which based on some of the comments here and Youtube videos, seems to be on the longer side. So far it seems like the best way I've found (but also the longest) is to keep the Fireboard damper open 1/3, the intake open 1/3, and the vent to 1/2. Let the Fireboard fan run 100% to around 190, and then dial the max fan speed down to 40%. But, I'm still experimenting and open to other ideas.

- I've tried both Royal Oak lump and KBB briquettes. It could be me still getting used to the smoker, but briquettes seem to burn longer and show a more consistent burn pattern when I'm done...

- On the fence about the t plates. They don't seem to stay in place when I close the box. I'll give it a few more cooks but some firebricks may be in my future...
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Your start up procedure sounds right. Let it go 100% up until 50 or so degrees off your set point. Start clamping down on intake(or use choke) & exhaust to slow the heating process. Much like a kamado you kind of want to slide gently into your intended temp.

While lump charcoal is serviceable in the IVS its less than ideal compared to briquettes due to lump's irregular sizing. The regular sizing of the briquettes lend to better packing in the firebox comparatively. I Find that lump tends to leave large, useful chunks behind. During a cook you could use a rake to corral them together for extended cooking time. Alternatively you can re-use them for future cooks.

T-plates for the firebox? For my IVS I found the T plates being most useful in shorting the firebox in order to keep the charcoal bed as deep as possible. With the IVS efficiency you likely don't need a full basket of charcoal (you said 28 hr for 1x18# bag, right?). When you get a feel for how much charcoal you do need you can reduce your overall charcoal consumption by shorting the firebox & keeping a smaller charcoal bed than you otherwise would filling it up 100%. Keeping the bed in a small area & deep is better than in a large area & thin. Charcoal seems to burn more efficiently as a thicker bed than thinner. For stuff like ribs & chicken I don't fill the firebox more than 1/3 full.

Very happy to hear you like your cooker. I eyeballed that IVS for a long time before going elsewhere. Still wonder what could have been lol. Maybe one day I'll get my hands on one.

Happy smoking brother! Also post some pics when ya can!
 
Congrats! I've had mine for about 7 years now, I do a pop-up a week and it still performs. All of the food pics on my Instagram are from my LSG IVC.

Agree with the above, go at 100% until you get closer to temp. at 50 out I shut the second intake, at 25-30 out I close the intake and stack down to cruise settings for the rest of the cook.

can't wait to see pics of the food!
 
Folks thanks for this mega thread! My large IVS should be here Monday and I have picked up a few great tips to reduce the learning curve.
 
Howdy everybody, I ordered my IVS in October so I'm patiently awaiting that phone call. Expected is January or February.

I went to the shop so I could get a better feel of what would work best for me. When I was there I felt the mini would be more than sufficient. But after stewing on things for a few days I called them back and changed the order to the large. The price difference for twice the cooking space is just too good to pass up.

Appreciate the mega thread, I'm trying to read it all but after a week I'm still in 2014 LOL

Interesting to see the progression of the product, why some of the decisions that were made came to be, and that sort of thing. Hopefully here in the near future I'll be able to contribute and show off some awesome cooks.
 
ctxwil said:
Howdy everybody, I ordered my IVS in October so I'm patiently awaiting that phone call. Expected is January or February.



I went to the shop so I could get a better feel of what would work best for me. When I was there I felt the mini would be more than sufficient. But after stewing on things for a few days I called them back and changed the order to the large. The price difference for twice the cooking space is just too good to pass up.



Appreciate the mega thread, I'm trying to read it all but after a week I'm still in 2014 LOL



Interesting to see the progression of the product, why some of the decisions that were made came to be, and that sort of thing. Hopefully here in the near future I'll be able to contribute and show off some awesome cooks.
Click to expand...
Good choice going with the large.
 
Well geesh, it took a few weeks but I went and read this entire thread. :grin:

Lots of good information in here, thank all of you for contributing. It was pretty fun watching the dozens of people asking about this smoker and seeing the thought process that went into making their final decision. Also seeing what they had in their signature before finding out in the thread!

I made this decision before I found this thread, but I definitely have found that some of the options I have in mind now are because of y'all. Chris listens to his customers, especially here, and it's nice to see how things have evolved over the years. It's because of this thread that some of the improvements have come about.

Suppose I do have a couple of questions that I didn't see here, if you can believe that... ?

First question; I'm going with the off road package. I wonder how tippy the the large IVS will become if one of the tires goes flat? I see the off road package has a wider stance and the tires are kind of low profile, but that's a lot of steel leaning over. I'd hate to see that going over, and I'd hate to have to get it back upright just as much.

Second question: Has anyone picked this up from the shop in the bed of their truck? I've got a 1-ton and I've got forks at the house to get it out. I'm about 3 hours out (Dripping Springs area) from Conroe and my trailer isn't small, I can drag it down there if I need to but seems like it'd fit in the bed just fine. I haven't seen anyone in here do this.

Third question: Brisket seems like it might be difficult on this smoker, what are some strategies to use here? I see one of y'all are separating the point and flat, I'll typically set the point towards the heat source to even them out. That doesn't seem to be an option here so it makes me wonder if I'm going to start having brisket problems with the two sides having the same heat.

I'm about 10 weeks from when I ordered, they estimated 16 weeks, but looking around it's looking like things are closer to 20 weeks. Not a problem at all other than I'm chomping at the bit.

I'm coming from a pellet grill that's just terrible. I've had it about a year and the controller has gone out twice, and the temperature setting seems to be more of a suggestion. If I set it to 225 who knows if I'll get 200 or 300. I really like the thought of the pellet grills but after being forced to cook a prime brisket in the oven because of it failing I've vowed to never let electricity get in the way of one of my cooks ever again. It's all about steel and fire from here on out.


While I'm here, I've got a funny story that happened yesterday. My neighbor has a stick burner someone gave him and it's just been sitting a couple years. (It sat for a few years before that also, sad.) I noticed it at his house the other day, it's 1/4" all around and a real nice piece of equipment. It's a Klose 20x30. I opened it up when I saw it and saw a bunch of charcoal in the food chamber, someone was using it as a grill. He's never used it at all and it was all left like that for several years. So I talked him into cleaning it up and was going to show him how to run an offset. So we get it all cleaned up, all that charcoal out, scraped the rust spots off, hit it with some PAM everywhere, and fired it up with a couple racks of ribs.

It was getting to about 200 and I had to leave for an hour to do a zoom meeting (2021 LOL). He had grasped the concept of the fire and splits and dampers so what could go wrong?

I told him to get the couple of racks of ribs on when it hit 250 and keep it there.

I came back and he had a mess going. What the heck is going on here? That cooker was billowing smoke and hot like crazy, so I ask "what are you doing?!".

My probe was showing 200 and he's not used to cooking so he believed it, so he saw it drop from 250 down to 180 or something after he put the ribs on so he started feeding it to get it back up. I opened the food chamber and he set the ribs on the probe! :shocked:

I moved the ribs off the probe and shut the chamber, it was 400 degrees LOL

One end of the ribs got charred pretty good, but we were able to save about 2/3 of the racks. Total facepalm!

Anyway, sorry for the long winded post. I thought the situation was pretty funny and thought I'd share. Need that IVS to get here quick before my neighbor kills me!

Don't set your food on the probe, boys and girls.
 
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In regards to your brisket question check out Fat E’s BBQ YouTube channel,,,
He owns a LSG offset and LSG IVC.
He does a couple of brisket cooks in the cabinet smoker and explains his method and set up,,,
It looks like they came out amazing
Think Eric is from San Antonio area
 
I have seen his videos, maybe I should rewatch them. He's just down the road from here, don't know him or anything but he's got a few good videos about the IVS out there.
 
I was all set to have a Myron Mixon MMS-60 H2O shipped, when the guy I was buying it from decided he didn't want to have to mess with crating it for shipping. So, in figuring if I wanted to search for another MMS or go new, I stumbled upon LoneStarGrillz in one of the forums. After continued research, the large insulated IVS became the favorite. Loved that I could cook excellent product with water or not, and it was more mobile without sacrificing capacity. Ordered it last Saturday. Got the comp trailer and off-road tires, and extra rack. Chris said 16 weeks. I never want time to go quickly, but man, I'll be like the little kid asking, "Are we there yet?" :-D
___________

XL Big Green Egg, Hunsaker Drum, Pit Boss Pellet Pro 2300 vertical, Pit Barrel Cooker, WSM 22", Karubecue C-60, self-built Brickwood Box, woodburning pizza oven being completed this week
 
Hi guys! I am looking at a LSG IVC and found this thread. I am selling my Lang 60 this weekend - I love it, but it's too high maintenance for my life right now. I just don't have time to tend a stickburner most days. I've had a Pitmaker Safe in a past life and I liked it, but grew to like it less and less over time. Temps were not consistent through the chamber so you basically had two grates of usable space. I sold it as well.

Are these LSG cabinets considered the best in class vertical smokers at present? Who else competes with them? Watching the YT videos that Chris posted, they seem to have thought of everything.

I am looking at the large with 8" casters...I assume these will roll fine over pavers, etc.
 
Libertarian said:
Hi guys! I am looking at a LSG IVC and found this thread. I am selling my Lang 60 this weekend - I love it, but it's too high maintenance for my life right now. I just don't have time to tend a stickburner most days. I've had a Pitmaker Safe in a past life and I liked it, but grew to like it less and less over time. Temps were not consistent through the chamber so you basically had two grates of usable space. I sold it as well.

Are these LSG cabinets considered the best in class vertical smokers at present? Who else competes with them? Watching the YT videos that Chris posted, they seem to have thought of everything.

I am looking at the large with 8" casters...I assume these will roll fine over pavers, etc.
Click to expand...
Yes, best in class. I have competed with mine. Won 4th place in brisket with mine. I only competed a few times.
 
Libertarian said:
Hi guys! I am looking at a LSG IVC and found this thread. I am selling my Lang 60 this weekend - I love it, but it's too high maintenance for my life right now. I just don't have time to tend a stickburner most days. I've had a Pitmaker Safe in a past life and I liked it, but grew to like it less and less over time. Temps were not consistent through the chamber so you basically had two grates of usable space. I sold it as well.

Are these LSG cabinets considered the best in class vertical smokers at present? Who else competes with them? Watching the YT videos that Chris posted, they seem to have thought of everything.

I am looking at the large with 8" casters...I assume these will roll fine over pavers, etc.
Click to expand...

You may want to take a look at Cascade Smokers.
www.cascadesmokers.com/
 
Libertarian said:
What would be better about this maker, vs LSG?
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Personally I like a reverse flow over a direct flow smoker as I find I have much more consistency in regards to temperatures. I've had both a direct flow cabinet and a reverse flow cabinet. and my preference is a reverse flow cabinet. I was able to get my smoker configured the way I wanted it (custom sized) and the colors I wanted.
 
luv2smoke said:
Personally I like a reverse flow over a direct flow smoker as I find I have much more consistency in regards to temperatures. I've had both a direct flow cabinet and a reverse flow cabinet. and my preference is a reverse flow cabinet. I was able to get my smoker configured the way I wanted it (custom sized) and the colors I wanted.
Click to expand...

My Pitmaker Safe was reverse flow and it had major temp differentials between grates. Was not even at all. Quite the opposite actually. The same is true for my Lang reverse flow. Where does everyone get this idea that reverse flow produces even temps across the grate? In my experience, the opposite is true.

Chris says his IVC is 5-10 degrees differential top to bottom.

I think I am done with reverse flow pits.
 
Libertarian said:
My Pitmaker Safe was reverse flow and it had major temp differentials between grates. Was not even at all. Quite the opposite actually. The same is true for my Lang reverse flow. Where does everyone get this idea that reverse flow produces even temps across the grate? In my experience, the opposite is true.



Chris says his IVC is 5-10 degrees differential top to bottom.



I think I am done with reverse flow pits.
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I have a reverse flow Shirley 24x60 (stick) and Humphreys Q'bed Pint (cabinet).

The Shirley is dead nuts left to right and 5-10 degree difference top to bottom when ran properly. Compared to our old Lang 60 and direct flow offset it shines with temp differential.

The Humphreys is another story. Top to bottom is always off by a great margin especially if you cook at different temps often.

Reverse flow can be advantageous if built properly, IMHO.

I have a Lonestar IVS on the Offroad cart coming soon (should be in production this week). The other builders we considered were Ironsides (they really disappointed us) and Pitmaker. Hard to beat the value of the Lonestar cabinets.

For homeowner use I'd go Mini but like a barn...

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk
 
Libertarian said:
My Pitmaker Safe was reverse flow and it had major temp differentials between grates. Was not even at all. Quite the opposite actually. The same is true for my Lang reverse flow. Where does everyone get this idea that reverse flow produces even temps across the grate? In my experience, the opposite is true.

Chris says his IVC is 5-10 degrees differential top to bottom.

I think I am done with reverse flow pits.
Click to expand...

In my experience it's far from an idea to have even temps from top to bottom grates, it's a simple fact. My cook chamber is 42" tall x 36" wide x 24" deep and I can get zero degree differential in temps from rack to rack if I want. I can also create hot zones either on the top portion of the chamber or the bottom portion. You asked a question you then question my answer with " where does everyone get this idea that reverse flow produces even temps across the grate"? I guess it all depends on the quality of design and the builder of said pit. In my opinion there's a few high quality cabinet builders out there but your mind appears to have been made long before you asked the question. So my question is, why did you bother to ask?
 
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