Off Topic - Build Mod for HM


 
Yes, absolutely using WiFi. I keep the pocket oriented towards the house so the HM has a clear view. I would expect it to fail if the smoker shields it from the access point.
 
Since I have the double pan, my heatermeter stays pretty cool. It's not hot at all. Mine only gets hot around the fire box area. That being said dont do what I did and route the cat5 cable inside the smoker. My last smoke I tried to hook it up to the blower and my HM would stop working. Luckily, it turned back on as soon as I removed the Cat5 cable.

As for Wifi issues, none
 
John, I'm pretty sure I just don't have enough insulation on the firebox end. I think I'm going to cut open the skin, and add more.

I started the smoker last night to smoke pork butts, chicken and potatoes for a party (35 people...) tonight. Got up to 225 in pretty short order and held pretty well until I put the pork in at 0630. Not bad, considering the temp dropped to around 5 degrees F overnight. Hrrrm...... I should go hit the skin with an IR thermometer this morning.
 
I put in a turkey yesterday for a cousin's Thanksgiving dinner and after an hour I had issues with my HM and probes. I believe my Gravity feed was alot hotter then the 325°F setpoint, as my door warped Grease deflector spot weld broke, yikes. Anyways, my HM was supper hot also. When my temps are below 300, the HM stays cool, but it can and we'll get very hot if the temperature does increase. I stuffed my cavity as much as I could without compressing it, as I still have 4 boxes of insolation available to use if I needed it.
 
Ouch.... I ran mine up to over 300 degrees during a seasoning run, but I've got no indication of a warped door (might be another advantage of 1/8" skin.) If you popped a weld on that deflector, you've got something to look at.
 
I have a question about the level of smoke being generated by this, or any, gravity feed smoker. Given that smoke wood chunks are typically placed on the ash pan, under the fire box grate, to be lit by live embers that drop from the grate, how well does the smoke from these wood chunks flavor the meat?
 
I'm happy with what I get, then again, I also have a somewhat restrained hand with smoke. There's really only one way for the smoke to go, and that's out into the cook chamber.
 
I get a very pleasant amount of smoke, and it's a clean smoke, so I don't get the bitter smoke flavors. I've even tried putting the chunks in the chimney dispersed among the charcoal. Works well.
 
One additional question, will the smoker sustain a low temperature of between 150-160F? If I build it, I would like to use it as a holding oven after the meat is finished cooking.
 
Personally, I've had problems with flame-outs below about 175 F cook chamber temperatures. 200 is no problem, but a sustained 175 is risky.
 
Mache said:
One additional question, will the smoker sustain a low temperature of between 150-160F? If I build it, I would like to use it as a holding oven after the meat is finished cooking.
Click to expand...

About 165 is getting pretty challenging imo. Ive done 165-185 for smoking bacon. I have to pinch top vent off halfway or a little more at 165. It all depends on air leakage, and internal air distribution.

If your coming down from much higher temp, yeah, air may be blocked off long enough it goes out totally when it cools off slowly. I stage my temp drops to prevent that.
 
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