There are times when folks will only install a baffle, which can help the imbalance somewhat and help the hotspotting in the area near the firebox. The Baffle is the part that touches and/or attaches the firebox end of the cooking chamber, where the heat enters the cooking chamber. near the Firebox (right side) can run 50 degrees hotter than the Left, depending on where you are in terms of fire/heat management. In stock form, these smokers, and others in the lower price range suffer from unbalanced heat across the grate area. Now the damper sits open about 1" to keep those temps.īaffle and Convection Plate(s): This mod is to correct the Left to Right temperature imbalance. before, the air leakage was bad enough that the actaul slide damper stayed almost closed when trying to maintain 225-240 range. Now I can actually open the damper more and get a better gauge on how much air I am letting in. I am pleased with this one, but I know it might be beyond the scope for some folks.Īlso, notice the rivets on the bottom factory door? That is where the internal flange is attached to seal up the bottom door.Ī lot of air was getting into the firebox through that gap. Very easy.Įffect: easy to add fuel to an existing fire without opening the top firebox door which disrupts the air flow and dumps a lot of heat from the FB into the air. Open, toss in a stick or two and close it. It is above the height of the charcoal basket. I built this side firebox door in the upper half of the firebox. When smoking, I like to toss some wood splits or sticks in there, and needed a way to do this quickly without opening the big top FB door. On my previous smokers it was apparent that any time the larger main firebox door was opened (Like the pic above) massive amounts of heat escapes, which is not good for the actual smoking going on, and unpleasant for the BBQ chef who gets blasted with hot gasses when he opens it.įor years i had been thinking of a way I could add fuel, that would be less disruptive and easy. I calculated the are of the 3" stack circle, then made sure my exhaust baffle was equal or slightly larger so that it didn't choke the outgoing flow.Įffect: Gets the heat and smoke down closer to grate level where the food is sitting.Īdditional Side Door: This one takes a little more fabricating experience. If you do this, make sure to do the math to ensure you are not restricting the flow. To get around that issue, I used a piece of SS sheet metal, made a cardboard mock up to make sure i had the correct shape, and bent an exhaust baffle which bolts to the side of the cooking chamber, directing the gasses up to the factory stack opening. The downside to have a round pipe extended down is that you lose a little bit of prime real estate. The normal way to do this is by using a piece of 3" round aluminum dryer vent, with a bend bringing it down to grate level. Based on other smokers I have used, I knew this would keep the heat flowing across the grates better, rather than bottling up at the top of the cooking chamber. Same goes for adding a seal around the FireBox Side Air Inlet/Clean out door when i discovered that controlling inlet air was sketchy.Įxtend Exhaust Stack Down to Grate Level: One the most important mods in my book was to extend the exhaust stack down to about 1" above grate level. I added the lavalock nomex gasket to the FireBox and Cooking Chamber area after reading and seeing the leakage with y own eyes. Having owned a Chargriller many years ago, then another generic offset smoker, I had a list of mods for right out of the box. This is a newer Oklahoma Joe Highland purchased early 2017. Any newer Reverse Flow models should probably go in a different thread. State whether yours is a Highland or Longhorn. Please add any of your experiences below. There are many helpful threads throughout these forums dealing with the Oklahoma Joe smokers, perhaps we can compile some information here in a running thread to assist everyone who is using, modding, and wondering what to do in their particular situation. I am going to attempt to list my OKJ Highland modifications, reasons, and observations.
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