Explain to me this brick thing....

brderj · November 18, 2007, 06:52:49 AM

A brick? I would use what little thought process I have and assume that its to help keep the temp up when the door gets opened or closed.... ??? Only one, more than one? I ask because its about to get really cold here in CO and I could use all the help I can get. Plus whoever gave me the idea about the pucks was right on....thanks.

Jay

Mr Walleye · November 18, 2007, 07:01:06 AM

They help recover the heat quicker when the door is opened by storing heat. I would think if you could fit 2 in beside the water pan, one on each side. I'm not sure if two fit or not.

Mike

West Coast Kansan · November 18, 2007, 07:02:18 AM

Your thought process is on target. The warm mass of the brick helps the tower temperature recover when you open the door letting the heated air out. :D One or two ??? How big is your brick ;)

Something else that will help is preheating the unit before you load the meat. Also starting with hot water in the water bowl.

If I remember you have a DBS 6R. It will come on at 280 set point when you first power it up and that is a nice preheat temp.

Some of the Northlanders can help with other hints with cold weather coming on... got down to 55 in SD last night . . . SD 8)is not for the weak for sure Burrrrr ::)

brderj · November 18, 2007, 07:09:30 AM

I always pre heat my smokers before I insert meat (thats hot ;D) I typically turn the smoker on full blast and then put the meat in, adjust from there. I always use as hot as i can get it water and I let the meat get to as close to room temp before I put it in. I figure if I'm not using the very bottom rack I can load that with a brick or two if possible...I'll go get a few this weekend and give it a shot on Thanksgiving, thanks for the help......again. ;D

Scotty-G · November 18, 2007, 03:55:06 PM

I had just started trying to use 2 bricks on top of the V part and am going to go back to 1, next to the bowl. Saw no measureable difference between 1 or 2 bricks unless I am holding the door open for a long time to rotate racks. Then the time difference was about 5 min between 1 & 2 bricks (not a big deal when going low and slow).

Duster · November 18, 2007, 04:11:33 PM

brderj, I found that some field stones around my water bowl works well also, I had a hard time getting bricks to fit myself.

Oyènkwara · November 19, 2007, 05:39:42 AM

I have been using a disposable aluminum bread pan loaded up with those ceramic brickets that you use in a gas grill. (I believe someone on the forum suggested this, cannot remember who). I place it in the bottom near the water bowl. I will also use hot water to get things heating quicker.

With winter approaching, you can often pick up the brickets on clearance.

Tom

brderj · November 19, 2007, 06:32:51 AM

Perfect guys thanks! I was going to use a brick I found outside, and then thought that of all the things I want to put in my smoker, a urine soaked brick isnt one of them :o I'll go out to day and get one, thanks for the tips all.

standles · November 19, 2007, 12:58:36 PM

You been peeing in the back yard again ;D

I got two paver bricks, wrapped them ini AL foil and put one on either side of the water bowl.

Steven

brderj · November 19, 2007, 03:19:10 PM

I'm a dog handler, where the hell else am I suppose to pee? ;D

SKSmoker · November 19, 2007, 08:36:54 PM

As a true northerner <sorry guys, a low of 55F and its' chilly, just doesn't cut it :) > I do this to get my smoker going quicker.

1. Use both the puck burner and oven to pre heat
2. Turn up temp to 320F on digital for preheat
3. Preheat for at least an hour with as hot as water as you can get out of your tap in your water bowl
4. Put 1 brick in the bottom by the water pan <I used a clean, new paver we had left over>
5. Get meat to as close to room temp as possible
6. Shelter your smoker. Wind kills these things. Build a wind break out of a few sheets of plywood or move it to a sheltered location.
7. When you put your meat in the smoker, leave the temp at 320F UNTIL it comes back and reaches your desired temps. My DBS will take almost 30 mins to come up to temp when it is cold outside left at 320F. Taking 30 mins to recover is at about 45F and above.
8. Once your unit reaches the desired temp, turn down to desired temp.

The beauty of keeping the DBS at 320 that I have found is that the element does not turn off for very long at all, so it keeps steady heat. With a load of cold <well room temp> meat, at say 220, the cycles are too long to get the smoker up to temp in cold weather. It will never recover from my experience

Cold weather is defined as anything from 32F to -40F here. Yes, it gets to an actual temp of -40F, without the windchill. I smoked two racks of ribs this way last weekend and it was 34F with a windchill that had the temp at 22F outside. I left my smoker at 320F and it took almost 3 hours to get back up to temp. I preheated for almost 2 hours just like above. I had the ribs on the upper two racks <the one at the very top was empty> and it works just fine. Two racks of baby backs still took 6 hours.

One thing I have learned from here and experimenting on my own, is not to be afraid of turning up the heat. I smoke everything at 250-275F and it is fantastic.