Drill holes in pot or cut bottom out??


 

SeanKM

New member
Hi All. I'm new to the forum and am looking to build my first Smokey Joe Mini any day now. I was curious on everyone's take about drilling holes in the bottom of the pot verses cutting it completely out. I've looked though some of the posts and haven't seem much discussion either way about it. I figured it might not get as hot with the wholes but wasn't sure if there would be enough smoke. I live on the coast of SC so I'm always smoking in hot weather, no snow here.
Also, if drilling holes in the bottom should I put the heat diffuser directly on top of them or come up with a way to raise it up a bit for extra smoke flow. I'm using a smokey Joe premium and a Imusa Pot

Thanks.
 
The first one that I built I drilled out the pot. Didn't like it. It limits the amount of fuel you can load into the charcoal basket. It also didn't allow my to do high temp direct smokes. All of the ones I've built since have the bottom cut out. You can do this with a jigsaw and a metal blade or use tin snips. With the bottom cut out I can run 180° all day or 450°+. I can load the basket up and do a low and slow cook for 12-14 hours.

When I use a diffuser I place it at the same level as the steamer insert. If I need a second rack it sits right on the difffuser, with no issues. Sometimes I use the steamer insert as a diffuser. Most the time I run with no diffuser at all.
 
Cut out the bottom. Use the plate that came with pot to use a raised grate or trivet to hold a planter dish. I then use a small pizza tray on top of that to catch the grease.
 

 

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