so how are you attaching your blower to the smoker

[Todd E.]

I can't speak for Todd but I tried turning the max fan speed all the way down to 10%. It just cooled the pit slower.

I suppose a lower cfm fan would help. I'll check and see if there's one available that fits my damper housing. I'm also holding out some hope that deflecting the air flow downward will help.

EDIT Maybe there would be a software solution to this. If your damper is at 100% open and the temp still isn't coming up, reduce the damper to XX% and start the blower. I think there's some howling about making it so you can ramp the blower speed. With that, you could close the damper to 50%, start the blower, blower ramps to 100% (or whatever max set point), if temp still not reached, open damper to 60% and repeat blower ramp. Super complicated but I like the logic.

All this time I thought I was cooking good stuff by manually adjusting my WSM vents every so often. Boy, am I dumb.

Todd

 

[John Bostwick]

Just set the max blower speed to the point of which you get the optimum performance. I use a 28cfm on my UDS and always have the blower set to a max of 30%. I do sometimes close down the ball valve, a bit and I raise the max percent once in a while to stroke the coals a bit, if I need to raise the temperature to above 300 or if I have had the smoker going for over 20+ hours and have a build up of ash, those are the only times I may go over 30%

 

[RalphTrimble]

IDK Todd, closing down the damper and turning on the fan seems to me will get you nowhere... Air flow would decrease from closing the servo damper but then increase again from the forced air from the blower, so back where you started.
The remedy here is to reduce the MAX value on your fan until the top speed isn't providing so much flow that it cools the pit, or use the "on at Max only" function and let the servo damper control the flow and leave the blower off during the cook.
Aiming the air flow more directly at the fire rather than allowing it to just flow into the pit will aid the situation by making better use of your air flow to stoke the fire. The air burner design does a really good job making efficient use of the air flow, might be something to look into as well. The air burner on my bullet smoker works really great.

 

[Todd E.]

IDK Todd, closing down the damper and turning on the fan seems to me will get you nowhere... Air flow would decrease from closing the servo damper but then increase again from the forced air from the blower, so back where you started.

Agreed Ralph. Just being a little silly. It seems like the air burner would almost necessitate the blower being on at some rate during the cook. I would think that the small holes in the manifold would cut down on the natural draft (already "restricted" by moving through the damper mechanism). Is that right?

Todd

 

[RalphTrimble]

Yes, correct, the air burner was designed before the HM had servo functions available and is designed to be used with the forced air system.... and correct again, one of the functions of the small holes is to reduce the open area for natural air draft to control overshoot. A side benefit of the small holes is when the blower cranks up it shoots little jets of air through the holes that stoke the fire very efficiently, like a bunch of tiny fireplace bellows in your pit! So it is a system that can be built/tuned to work well without a damper of any sort, or in combination with with a damper if you desire, but not without a blower.
If you are using damper only control (blower off during cook, no air burner) you shouldn't be getting a cooling effect from the HM ramping up, because it is essentially like running the pit with the manual vents. Only difference I guess is the air is all coming from one location rather than multiple vents in the burn pan. Since the air will be coming in slower without a blower I think it would stick around to feed the fire rather than being forced up into the pit like a blower can do at times.

 

[Benjamin Thibault]

I took some 35mm Hydraulic tubing and flared the end of it. Also turned it down slightly on the lathe so it fit nicely inside the Microdamper.

Then, punched the biggest hole my step drill would (1 3/8") in the bottom of my Webber 22.5" Kettle and slipped it in from the inside. (I cleaned it after the picture, and used high temp silicone from inside and outside to seal it)

I also made this plate from stainless steel, to cover the unused portion of the charcoal grate when using the Slow n Sear I have the Microdamper unit on the opposite side as the Slow n Sear, so it doesn't get filled with ash. I may make an Air - Burner after I get a chance to run it and see how it works.

And here it is attached

 

[MichaelJF]

Here's what I rigged up to make my Auber blower usable on the WSM.

 

[Dominick A]

I just got my HM and RD3 all hooked up and it looks just as sweet as I imagined it. I have a BBQ Guru adapter plate that I taped on to the front of my kamado using black foil tape. The tape can come off pretty easily, but I think it will be as permanent as it needs to be. I'll use a shop vac to clean out the ash as needed going forward. I have the RD3 connected to my HM in my basement. I have 1/4" grey pvc that the cat5 is running through under my deck so the damn rabbits don't chew through it!

RD3 connected to front of Vision Kamado:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzSBmZGY0VqYYmY4bFNMM0xaS00/view?usp=sharing

Side view of RD3 connection:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzSBmZGY0VqYWFdVdV9GbmtrVGM/view?usp=sharing

HeaterMeter hooked up in a basement closet next to my router:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzSBmZGY0VqYSnYzbDRXekRNeXc/view?usp=sharing

 

[Chris.M]

I like things simple, the fewer moving parts the better.

Just slides into the kamado air vent, slides off if I want to take it inside.

 

[DavidAsman]

Using an RD3, piece of 1" conduit compression connector (HD $1.13), and some shingle step flashing (HD $0.48) I cut out a piece of the flashing to fit my Kamado Joe bottom damper and put a hole in it for the conduit connector. Haven't cooked on it yet. Just put this together last night. Onward to PID tuning.

 

[Nathan FA]

I hooked my blower up via an "air burner" to my WSM. I drilled a hole in the middle of the bottom and used a threaded copper fitting to hold the burner in place. It's harder to find a nut that fits that then you would think. I just pounded a 3/4" elbow into a rectangle and taped it to attach the 3/4 copper tube to the blower. In the future I would like to get something 3d printed to make a better housing for the blower, I may go with a damper or may just try to make a case with the aux probe board in it so I can clean up the wires.

The "burner"

I didn't consider that the fittings sticking out of the bottom would stick out to far for the legs. I ended up putting casters on it so that killed 2 birds with one stone.

Can be unscrewed if I want to remove it and then I have a cap to kill the fire.

Just put on the wheels...may not have got the one centered real well. Hopefully it holds up. I'll probably try to tweak it a bit.

Thanks everyone here for the great ideas and thanks Ralph for the advice on the burner.

 

[RalphTrimble]

That looks pretty sweet Nathan, great job!

 

[Benjamin Thibault]

With my recent first working build of the FlatDamper, I got it attached to my PBC this morning. I have made a "plug" to fit in the stock PBC vent hole, that offers a 35mm male part (33.75mm Inside Diameter), for the FlatDamper to connect to.

This isn't intended (for me anyway) to be the final position. I intend to put the damper underneath,in the center of the PBC at some point. But I'll need to devise a way to deliver the air, without ash filling the damper. Anyhow, pictures below.

 

[RKHanso]

I didn't get the blower that was recommend in the build instructions. I have this old computer case fan that I was planning on using. Until....I looked at the CFM differences between the two blowers. The blower recommended from Digi-Key says it's just a 6.7 CFM blower. The one I have is an Evercool SB-A blower for a computer case. Their website says it's a 42 CFM blower. That's a huge difference. Should I even bother trying this thing on my Weber Silver Kettle grill?

The fan appears to need 3-4% HM output to start spinning. It won't start below that.
But, once it's started spinning, it will drop back down to 1% and keep going.

 

[Benjamin Thibault]

I use. 9.5CFM fan on my kettle. 30-50% max and it usually doesn't need that much until the coals are almost gone.

 

[RKHanso]

I took one of the sides off and easily get to the squirrel cage fan/fins. I broke off every 3rd fin, still keeping it in balance - expecting it would lower the CFM. I'll have to finish my dog-bowl type attachment for the kettle (using the ping-pong damper) and give it a try after I get my probes.

 

[SteveCK]

The evercool website states 38CFM @ 0.17 inH2O. I do not believe that blower will work for what you want it to do. It just isn't capable of producing the static pressure required to run your pit (CFM isn't everything). And since you broke of every 3rd fin you've essentially reduced it's static pressure capabilities further. With that said just because I don't believe it will work doesn't mean it won't, but I'd have very little faith in it. Give it a try anyways and report back. There is a possibility (if my current train of thought is correct) that since you are decreasing the mass on the outside of the wheel you might be freeing up come torque, increasing your static pressure output.


Ben: Your damper mounted up on your pit actually looks really nice. I like it!

 

[AaronC]

My V2 Rotary Blower lives! Thanks Tom Kole for the excellent design. The 3D prints I had done by a local bureau were pretty poor and need a lot of sanding and filing to get to a functional state. Job done and this was the result;

I opted to use the 22mm brass compression fittings so epoxied a nut onto the outlet;

My first attachment was the dog bowl method and used a Tank Flange Compression fitting in 22mm;

This proved to be unsatisfactory with the HeaterMeter not able to get decent control. I played with the PID values for two test burns but could not get to a happy control. I'm pretty sure the problem was the side entry of the blown air. Using Heat Beads, the pit oscillated by 30-50F and nothing I tried stabilised it. This is the problem;

So time to build an Airburner! Thanks Ralph Trimble for the idea!

I decided to go with 22mm copper pipe (nearly 3/4") and drill a hole in the bottom of the smoker. I've used stock copper fittings readily available in the UK so this makes the build real easy and the Airburner can be removed and the hole plugged with a stock end plug fitting. I used a compression Male Iron Coupler and a compression Female Iron Coupler to "bridge" the newly created hole in the bottom of the smoker. This in side the smoker;

And this outside;

Then onto the Airburner build;

The finished item;

A final 90deg elbow and a few extra pieces of 22mm pipe plus a 22mm Compression Coupling means I use the same nut that I glued on for the Dog Bowl;

Pit is now almost Rock-Solid. I'll have fun tweaking the PID values for months yet!!

3 hours later and still within a degree of 225F either way.



Thanks again to Brian, Tom & Ralph for all your hard work and superb design.

Thanks Ron for the really detailed instructions. I have just got a Frontier Elite and am going to do the exact same thing

Where did you get all of your fittings from?

Looks really really good

 

[Joost Westra]

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For fun I rigged this up to use heatermeter on my Performer. Cigar box with a couple holes then cut in half and held together with a rubber band. Used once so far and worked great. Blows air into Performer through burner tube so no holes or mods at all to Performer. Installs and removes in seconds. Will hold 225 degrees with top and bottom vents closed and fan set to 5 percent max. I ran it that way for two hours then dialed in 350 degrees ( also opened top vents 1/4 ) to cook some pork chops and it climbed right up and held beautifully. I was using one charcoal tray off to the side and minion with 5 lit coals. Worked better than I imagined.

Thanks for the tip, I was hoping I could re-use that pipe without breaking anything.

Also saw this post on adding a servo on the bottom damper:
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?619...o-Weber-kettle&p=685531&viewfull=1#post685531


What do you guys think is the best way forward to do low-and-slow on the Kettle (I have the gas assist pipe);
Servo or fan?

 

[Nathan FA]

I have a new Kamado Big Joe and I had a vent door fabricated to hook my RD3 blower up to it. The blower can be easily slipped on and off so I can switch it between my WSM and the Kamado. I'm going to pick up a copper cap to close it off when not using the blower.