Hi guys, I've been noticing some slow temp recoveries after opening the door and wanted to even that out with a brick. I know a lot of you guys do it here as well, but I was wondering if I can foil wrap the brick. I know somewhere in the booklet it said not to foil wrap the walls for some reason and that it could break something.
Just want to make sure I won't blow anything up! :D
Yes several members use a foil wrapped brick inside of the OBS
Quote from: Tenpoint5 on June 15, 2011, 11:47:49 AM
Yes several members use a foil wrapped brick inside of the OBS
What he said. ;D
Yep !!! serves as a heat sink...
Yes you can but some find that a larger water tray (filled with hot water) works better.
I do both (brick & hot water in larger tray) It works.
Jim O
Thanks guys, appreciate the quick replies as always
I use an old Lodge case iron skillet (the square one) in mine. Just lop the handle off so it fits - and you can put in a small foil brownie pan to act as the water pan.
I currently use two small bricks on bottom and two on top shelve and it helps.
I am interested as to why adding more water than just the bowl would help with this.
Well I ain't exactly Mr. Science, but the way I understand it is that since water has a higher heat capacity than air, sand, or brick, a space filled with heated water requires relatively less energy to maintain temperature and therefore allows more of the energy from the heating element to continue to heat the rest of the cabinet. If you have more water (bigger pan) it fills more of the cabinet and requires correspondingly less energy to maintain the temperature of that part of the cabinet. Or maybe it's just magic.
I vote for the magic. ;D
Thanks for the explanation
I added the 2nd element so - Bricks?I don't need no stinkin' bricks
I've been using a pan with near boiling water to keep the temps up but I am going to go to bricks so I don't have to babysit it.
Quote from: GusRobin on June 16, 2011, 08:24:28 PM
I added the 2nd element so - Bricks?I don't need no stinkin' bricks
Yep, second element is the way to go. Mine preheated to 225F degrees in just 8 minutes the other day, with an outdoor temp of 70F degrees. Chamber recovery temps are even faster. No stinkin' bricks needed here, either. ;D
So whuts the deal with the second element and how do you do it? thanks
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?572-Additional-Heating-Element-Modification
or
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?578-Additional-Heating-Element-for-OBS-with-On-Off-Control
Thank you, thank you kindly
sorry to reawaken a sleepy thread, but i'm curious about the foil too.... i read NOT to use foil in the OBS but haven't figured out why... any thoughts?
i want to smoke some nuts and the best way i can think of doing so is to foil-line a shelf and fork holes all through it - i can't get my hands on a small enough piece of metal screen.
Quote from: mrphilips on November 12, 2011, 08:53:58 AM
sorry to reawaken a sleepy thread, but i'm curious about the foil too.... i read NOT to use foil in the OBS but haven't figured out why... any thoughts?
I believe there was a danger of grease accumulating in foil pockets and causing a fire. Either that or if the rack was covered in foil with no drip holes the grease could run off the back of the rack and drip directly onto the heating element and cause problems.
After a bit of Google searching I found where others have smoked nuts using a Frogmat, pizza screen or baking pan sprayed with Pam. Good luck to you.
For nuts I use cheese cloth on my racks. It works very well. That said I will be posting pics at some point this morning of how I did my jerky nuggets. Cheese cloth would not have worked well for this. So I got a roll of fine mesh aluminum window screen and cut a piece to fit my racks.
As for not using foil in the cabinet they say not to cover your V-tray with foil so you don't channel grease back onto the element and cause a fire. The foil wrapped bricks are fine but be careful if you put it on the v-tray. I really should say don't do it but I do sometimes. But I set it to the side leaning against the side so any grease will run off on to the tray.
If you cover the trays completely with foil, this can also trap the heat below the tray, thus creating a potential fire hazard.
ok, guys... seems like a valid safety precaution, but something that can be thought around, now that i grasp the rational.
the mesh screen seems optimal...
i smoked black pepper corns in a mesh seive (not sure how to spell that). not 100% effective, but functional enough
quarlow, what temp do you take your unit to with the cheesecloth? that makes me fearful of fire, but the "screeniness" of it seems good...
I had the temp right up with no trouble at all. There are no grease or oil and the racks seem high enough to not catch fire. The mesh, I am looking at making little baskets by folding the edges up and then sew the corners with either thread or maybe a strand of the mesh itself. I don't like messing with stuff rolling off the sides.