Newbie questions!
Posted: 22 May 2015, 17:45
Hi there everyone, apologies for the long post but i've got a lot of questions! I've been researching over the last 6 months or so but theres a lot of contradicting information out there.. SO thought i'd throw out to anyone with experience of offset's and similar. I've recently acquired an older Cactus Jack offset and have been thoroughly enjoying using it. However getting info in the UK about these things is virtually impossible... even the suppliers havn't responded to me.
1. Do people favour a small or large fire in their offset? i've tried both, i find the smaller fires ( 3 parts coal, 1 part wood) run inconsistently with large fluctuations in temp and need more attention. The larger fires a few briquettes deep (1 kettle unlit, half lit on top) run hot and are hard to hold with the dampner and firebox air intake alone. Im entertaining the minion method, in a coal basket, but am a little wary due due to the science involved. Surely if you light the end of the wick and it burns around like a snake, after an hour or so you'll simply have half the box alight as the first coals are still alight.. therefore the temp should increase over time?
2. Has anyone had any luck sourcing coal baskets for their fireboxes? any good contacts? im looking at going down the expanded steel route and a pair of pliers...
3. Do a lot of people swear by adding wood to until 145f internal? a lot of references on the web encourage running offsets mainly on wood on top of a coal base. Surely this would over smoke? and if not why not?
4. Do people on the site favour adding a water bowl i understand a lot of the forum member use WSM and similar which have the water bowl? do you use it religiously or just for larger cuts? wondering whether to start or not!
5. Are people fazed by what direction to have their smoker, in regards to wind direction when getting enough air intake into the firebox?
6. Any body modded their offset with a gasket to help with the inevitable smoke leakage around the doors? any good links or leads on gasket tapes kits in the UK (preferably 650f+ tape) im looking at building a slightly better seal to aid temp control. Theres not much leakage but im attributing it to not helping hold solid temps.
7. I've recently been using a cut down apple tree as my wood supply, ive been pretty happy with the results, it's 12 month seasoned and i generally run it in the chimney for 10 minutes before moving to the firebox to burn off any excess moisture and bark, anyone else try this? Chunks can run pretty expensive in an offset...
8. Anyone using a metal diffuser board in the food chamber of there smoker to balance heat in the chamber? im looking into it but was wondering if anyone had any tips that they've used to do it cheaply without having to go to a fabricators to build something up? any tips?
9. Anyone running a blower system on their offset? any views on it? i've been tempted purely for temp control?
10. If any forum members have any posts or photos to link to how they treat the firebox (coal amounts, wood amounts, minion method? etc. ) on the forum that would be awesome!
Cheers for any help you can shed guys. I'm loving the forum so far. It's a great hangout.
1. Do people favour a small or large fire in their offset? i've tried both, i find the smaller fires ( 3 parts coal, 1 part wood) run inconsistently with large fluctuations in temp and need more attention. The larger fires a few briquettes deep (1 kettle unlit, half lit on top) run hot and are hard to hold with the dampner and firebox air intake alone. Im entertaining the minion method, in a coal basket, but am a little wary due due to the science involved. Surely if you light the end of the wick and it burns around like a snake, after an hour or so you'll simply have half the box alight as the first coals are still alight.. therefore the temp should increase over time?
2. Has anyone had any luck sourcing coal baskets for their fireboxes? any good contacts? im looking at going down the expanded steel route and a pair of pliers...
3. Do a lot of people swear by adding wood to until 145f internal? a lot of references on the web encourage running offsets mainly on wood on top of a coal base. Surely this would over smoke? and if not why not?
4. Do people on the site favour adding a water bowl i understand a lot of the forum member use WSM and similar which have the water bowl? do you use it religiously or just for larger cuts? wondering whether to start or not!
5. Are people fazed by what direction to have their smoker, in regards to wind direction when getting enough air intake into the firebox?
6. Any body modded their offset with a gasket to help with the inevitable smoke leakage around the doors? any good links or leads on gasket tapes kits in the UK (preferably 650f+ tape) im looking at building a slightly better seal to aid temp control. Theres not much leakage but im attributing it to not helping hold solid temps.
7. I've recently been using a cut down apple tree as my wood supply, ive been pretty happy with the results, it's 12 month seasoned and i generally run it in the chimney for 10 minutes before moving to the firebox to burn off any excess moisture and bark, anyone else try this? Chunks can run pretty expensive in an offset...
8. Anyone using a metal diffuser board in the food chamber of there smoker to balance heat in the chamber? im looking into it but was wondering if anyone had any tips that they've used to do it cheaply without having to go to a fabricators to build something up? any tips?
9. Anyone running a blower system on their offset? any views on it? i've been tempted purely for temp control?
10. If any forum members have any posts or photos to link to how they treat the firebox (coal amounts, wood amounts, minion method? etc. ) on the forum that would be awesome!
Cheers for any help you can shed guys. I'm loving the forum so far. It's a great hangout.