Offset Damper vs. No Damper Experiment

[Fooball]

Nice find! From those flow velocity calculations, he could calculate the air flow flux through the cook chamber. I would be very interested to see how the air flow flux values in the cook chamber compare for that guy's Oklahoma Joe smoker vs. a Workhorse and vs. a big 1,000-gal Moberg.

A little off topic but that brings to mind some people's obsession with getting the absolute most draft possible from a smoker or asking "how good does it draft?" as if the more draft the better the smoker.

I'm not one that thinks a great amount of draft is better. I once added a 36" stack extension to my offset while watching the therms and it sucked all my 275* air out as soon as I connected it.

I went to 200* in a matter of 2 minutes meaning I would have to have a bigger fire with more fuel to maintain 275* or simply adjust the stack damper or intake to SLOW the draft so I won't have to use so much wood to maintain.

To me, some draft is needed to maintain clean smoke and clean not smoldering fire, but too much draft is not desirable either because you'll be using more wood than you need to.

 

[Connor_Macleod]

To me, some draft is needed to maintain clean smoke and clean not smoldering fire, but too much draft is not desirable either because you'll be using more wood than you need to.

Agreed; I think you summed up the issue of draft well - you want enough but not too much.

When I was at Wright's Barbecue in Fayetteville a few weeks ago, I took a pit tour and paid close attention to the exit velocity of the smoke coming out of their 1,000-gal Moberg smoker stacks, and I would describe the smoke as wafting out at a medium-slow and steady rate instead of blasting out the end of the stack. I would speculate that the "air flow flux" I have mentioned in the discussion above would be higher for many backyard smokers than for the big 1,000-gallon units at Goldie's, Franklin, etc.

I see the benefit of a strong-drafting backyard smoker as providing flexibility such that you can run it wide open in "air fryer mode" to crisp up chicken skin for example, but then you can also damper it down for long brisket cooks.

 

[Fooball]

you can run it wide open in "air fryer mode"

ound: