New to me Klose smoker... First real stick burner

[98ramtough]

I had been looking for a nice stick burner for a while. I was looking for a Lang or similar. I found a Klose a couple hours away. I loaded it up in my dump trailer and brought it home. When i got home i was glad to have a tractor to unload it. Wow these things are built stout. I’m not sure what year it is, but it doesn’t have the slide out shelves. I cleaned it real well a few times and seasoned it and have done a few cooks in it. I first did a dry run just to learn how to keep a somewhat consistent temp. I live in the northwest so have a lot of apple wood around. I found cutting the 3-6” round logs into 8” long chunks made it much easier to keep the temp i wanted. Then i just add one every 35-45 minutes.

What a difference how one of these cooks vs a cheap one. It takes a while to get up to temp to warm all that metal, but after that seems to be waaaay easier to keep a nice fire going with a 40-50 degree variance between adding logs etc.

Anyone have a clue on the age of this thing??

 

[mcyork28]

Nice find!! Looks to be in pretty good shape.

 

[Inthewoods]

I have no idea how old it is, but congratulations on scoring the cooker! The northwest is a pretty bleak area fer high quality offsets.

-D

 

[Shiz-Nit]

Congrats you will enjoy indeed

 

[gtr]

No idea on the age of it, but I guarantee you are gonna have a lot of great cooks on that thing! My Klose is one of the best purchases I've ever made for sure. One thing to watch, esp. if cooking at low heat is that you've gotta check your fire - the cooker holds heat so well that you can be at temp for a while even after the fire has pretty much burned out. Don't ask me how I know this.

 

[98ramtough]

One thing I have noticed, the actual cooking surface can be 25-50 degrees or more hotter than the analog temp gauge. My next cook i'm going to try keeping it at around 200 degrees on the analog gauge. To do this, i have to use a very small amount of fuel, or leave the fire box door partly open which goes through a lot more fuel. Almost like it holds temps too good to keep it that low. It would be easy to run it at 275 grate temp, but that makes the bottom of the ribs crispier than I like. I just need to get a bit better at keeping the temp where I want. But I have a dump trailer full of seasoned apple wood and all winter to drink beer and get good at it! haha.

 

[gtsum]

Great find! Looks like an older klose outdoor chef model maybe?


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[Swine Spectator]

My old Klose had the date of manufacture welded inside the cook chamber.

 

[creek bottom]

Congrats! Good times are ahead!

 

[98ramtough]

Thanks. Now that you say that I remember seeing some numbers welded on the inside. Next time I clean it I will look and see.