chargriller with sfb

[BluDawg]

This makes me feel a little better knowing i am not the only person with the no heat problem. The bbq pro i have is so out of whack i can not get 200 deg out of it with a digital thermometer. The manual says to use wood which i tried and all i got was the paint burned off the fire box. I know have built a basket. Changed the stack to be longer inside(if this works i will relocate to the side) i still need to work on the diffuser. I have not tried these mods. Yet so i need to do the diffuser and try it.

Steve I have the same pit as the one pictured in this post. I did the mods sans the 1/4' plate and I can run 225º for 5 hrs. +- 7º front to back end to end the only thing that I did different is I made a lid gasket out of HD Aluminum foil.
take some pictures of your fire box and cook chamber and post them.If we can see your pit we can probably get her fixed.

[BluDawg]

This makes me feel a little better knowing i am not the only person with the no heat problem. The bbq pro i have is so out of whack i can not get 200 deg out of it with a digital thermometer. The manual says to use wood which i tried and all i got was the paint burned off the fire box. I know have built a basket. Changed the stack to be longer inside(if this works i will relocate to the side) i still need to work on the diffuser. I have not tried these mods. Yet so i need to do the diffuser and try it.

Here are A some pictures of the FB Coal basket and stack Exhaust w/O Intake 1/4 open.

[SmokyOkie]

This makes me feel a little better knowing i am not the only person with the no heat problem. The bbq pro i have is so out of whack i can not get 200 deg out of it with a digital thermometer. The manual says to use wood which i tried and all i got was the paint burned off the fire box. I know have built a basket. Changed the stack to be longer inside(if this works i will relocate to the side) i still need to work on the diffuser. I have not tried these mods. Yet so i need to do the diffuser and try it.

Raise the fire grate as high as you can in the firebox. burn a good hot fire with lump charcoal and add a minilog every 30-45 minutes. You should not have a problem.

I have cooked on 3 different units done that way and had no problem.

[1894]

# 1 . Make sure that opening between the fire box and cooking chamber looks like the pic above.
Since my OP I have stuck with three bricks to hold the charcoal tray upside down in my cooking chamber . Them bricks absorb a lot of heat before they start radiating it back.
Other change I made was a better , higher charcoal holding device ( that lil wire basket didn't work for me ) maybe more lit coal to get things all heated up .
Keep changing things one at a time , you will get that char-griller running well. Wind , outside temps , ash buildup in the firebox ,opening that cooking chamber lid too often , etc etc all affect the temps. Laughed at myself on my last cook because I had a tough time keeping the temps below 250
You will find that groove , have fun and enjoy the ride.

[Umpa]

i have a 1/4 steel firebox with grilltop and lid it is 24" long 20" high i would like to know if it's big enough to connect it to a fuel oil drum and put out enough heat smoke smokerboy

mines about that size (22x22).. and is paired up to a 250 gal drum.. works great.. just make sure that you play with the height of smoke box to drum.. mine sits too high i think.. but its not gonna move.. so i learned around it..

[1894]

Been a while
It seems I neglected to update pics on my char-grilla

Where it sets is a victim of swirring wind , anywhere in a 360 circle the wind can change to during a few hour cook.
Spin the beast so the general wind is toward the fire box (ash pan often left 1/4" to 1/2 " open ) but that does not always keep the air flow going as good as I like it. So , along the lines of a fire place or wood burning stove some extra height to the chimney adds some extra draw.

4" flex duct ( allum dryer vent type stuff ) fits over the stack with the cap removed. This can rotate 360 to point downwind. Looks like this :





Another thing for when not in use , a 3 liter soda bottle with the bottom cut out sits nice over the stack with the cap on . ( no pic )

Hope this helps

[tomshoots]

Good thread Phil! Thanks for sharing. Lots of Chargrillers on this forum.