Need Help on my New Vault Cabinet Smoker

[PaulstheRibList]

Today's results were better!

Put more wood than I did on previous cooks.

And, controlled heat by:

1.) Keeping water in the waterpan
2.) Controlling heat largely by the amount of fuel in the cooker, so I never had to turn the valve more than 45 degrees (so 50% open)

Results:
> More of a smoke ring
> Better smoke flavor (though not awesome, yet)

I've learned a lot from the comments. Can't wait to implement

 

[THoey1963]

Am I the only one that can't see any of Paul's pictures?

 

[bking]

Am I the only one that can't see any of Paul's pictures?

nope. don't seen them either.

 

[Leftwngr]

me neither.

 

[txsmkmstr]

No trouble here.... That is if a minus sign inside of a circle is what I should be seeing... :mrgreen:

 

[spedly]

After struggling with my Safe for a while I learned a few things:

- Double the amount of wood
- Mine is happiest running 265-300 range
- There is formula for preheating but you have to find it. I turn my torch on to about medium and do 45 secs/side and then 45 secs for back/shelf. It seems to preheat to 225 almost every time. I suspect yours will take longer since it's bigger.
- I add 30 pre-lit coals to a small number of unlit coals. For example 30 pre-lit added to 10 unlit will get my Safe up to temp and keep it there for 6 hours. When it comes to unlit coals, less is more.

 

[PaulstheRibList]

Am I the only one that can't see any of Paul's pictures?

Hmmm...I'll try a different way. These I put on my Google Photo's, then copied the URL and pasted it in the "Insert Picture" box.

Let me go to the instructions on here and see if something's changed.

 

[cfrazier77]

I can't see them on internet explorer but I can see them on my phone using chrome.

 

[PaulstheRibList]

I paid a subscription to the Breathren so I could have a signature and could upload photos in an album here, but now it's giving me an error.

Maybe I'll upload photos to a non-google site and see if the links work from there?

 

[PaulstheRibList]

Pit is still not, now 3rd day in a row.

Pair of Pork Butts sitting on it now.

No water in the pan.
Small batch of hot coals in there, temps are steady at 250.

It needs a good bit less fuel to keep temp with no water in it (obviously).

Tomorrow morning...Breakfast Pulled Pork!

 

[txsmkmstr]

Started my cabinet smoker with 1/2 chimney (Weber) of KBB at 5:30pm. Put the ABT's on at 6 and things were chumming along at 250* by 6:15. Tossed on some hotlinks at 6:30 and pit was up to about 285* - pretty much stayed there until everything was done at 7:15. The only additional "fuel" was four small hickory wood chunks - added one at a time as each piece quit smoking.

Final clean-up at 8:00pm and the pit was sitting at 325* and very few coals to speak of. By 9:30 it had dropped all the way to 275*. All dampers were left wide open the entire cook. Pretty incredible for 1/2 chimney of charcoal. :thumb:

 

[PaulstheRibList]

Started my cabinet smoker with 1/2 chimney (Weber) of KBB at 5:30pm. Put the ABT's on at 6 and things were chumming along at 250* by 6:15. Tossed on some hotlinks at 6:30 and pit was up to about 285* - pretty much stayed there until everything was done at 7:15. The only additional "fuel" was four small hickory wood chunks - added one at a time as each piece quit smoking.

Final clean-up at 8:00pm and the pit was sitting at 325* and very few coals to speak of. By 9:30 it had dropped all the way to 275*. All dampers were left wide open the entire cook. Pretty incredible for 1/2 chimney of charcoal. :thumb:

What kind of cooker is this? How big of an insulated cabinet?

If I put a 1/2 to 2/3 lit chimney of coals in there, vents wide open, it's nearly 3 hours to get it up to 250 in the vault?

 

[Skinnyv]

New poster here with a new cooker myself. Backwoods Fatboy G2 that I started up for the first time last weekend.
Unit used what I guess was 4-5 lbs of lump, loaded in the basket towards the rear. I lit with a torch and installed the guru. Within 45 minutes I was passed 250 and on my way to 325 to wich I cooked at for a few hours. I added no additional lump and no water for the chicken cook.
After the chickens were done I had limited charcoal left and cooled the cabinet to run some jerky at 170.
All in all not bad for my first cook and first ever experience with a vault smoker. Now that I have this cooker I myself will be utilizing this forum to learn and. Gain some knowledge from the folks here.
I am sure there is something going on with your setup. Good luck.

I will add , I opened all non guru cents wide open to get the temp up, then choked off the lower vent, followed by the top towards the desired temp.

 

[txsmkmstr]

What kind of cooker is this? How big of an insulated cabinet?

If I put a 1/2 to 2/3 lit chimney of coals in there, vents wide open, it's nearly 3 hours to get it up to 250 in the vault?

R & O FatGirl (as posted in the for sale section) - four shelves and likely comparable to your pit in many ways.

To be fair - it was 95* outside when I started and I've learned to crack the firebox door open 1/2 inch or so to really feed the fire some O2. I could have had it up to 250* in ten minutes but didn't want to break out the weed burner for pre-heating.