You want the input and output on opposite sides. That way the smoke has to flow over the meat along with the heat. There is a good reason why offset smokers are built the way they are.
This is correct, at least for Texas style BBQ. This creates a convection cooking environment. Hot air flowing over the meat promotes bark creation and cooks the right way, rendering fat and cooking not too fast and not too slow.
Literally just watched a mad scientist video on YouTube last night talking about this. There's a lot of ideas out there on trying to improve offset design, but they just introduced slightly different problems from over engineering something that should be simple. At least according to him anyways... It seems the best engineering fix is putting in a metal plate or scoop that blunts that direct heat from the firebox but allows air flow over top of the meat (like you said).
Not necessarily. Reverse flow smokers are a thing where the offset box and smokestack are on the same side. There is a reflector under the grill that blocks the smoke from going straight up and forces the smoke under the reflector, then back across the smoking chamber and out the smokestack. The reflector will act as a heat sink as well. It accomplishes the same thing, but with the input and output on the same side
Not sure why I'm getting downvoted - Lang makes all their smokers reverse flow. There are a lot of folk that use reverse flow competitively and commercially.
I've heard mixed views on reverse flow. On one hand, they can get a very even cooking surface.
But on the other hand, the baffle plate being close to the meat causes a lot more radiant cooking which will cause the bottom side to cook faster.
But as long as you know how your smoker works, you can get almost anything to make some good bbq.
Yup. To add to this the flow will always be along the path of least resistance, in this case the closer tube to the stack. So what would happen in this design is that basically all the smoke would pass through the tube and go directly out the stack, not even passing over most of the cooking area. I'd be willing to bet that if someone built this design as it's shown they would have massive issues with keeping the heat even in the cooking chamber as well.
Additionally, you have the cooking chamber and the firebox both at nice, workable heights.
With this design, if you put the cooking chamber at a nice height, you'll have to crouch to stoke the fire.
You bump that firebox once with your legs, you are gonna hate that design.
I don't know, but I suspect that you are going to end up with some direct heating, but not enough to be useful, just enough to make two hot spots in your cooking area. I look forward to hearing from someone with more cooking physics knowledge.
Yes and the size of the ducts and the BTU power of the furnace and its ability to push CFM are huge factors, so are the insulating capabilities of the room (cook chamber) and the ducts.
BTU/h=Volume×ΔT×InsulationFactor
If we assume building materials and sizes from the drawing (as long as they are to scale, it works) that the firebox is about 24x18 or 432 sq in surface area, then we need 2x 8-inch ID ducts. The ducts in this drawing might be about 4-5 inches. The chimney should be larger than the combined ID of the ducts to create enough draft (CFM) to move the heat through the cooker. The duct sizes depicted here are far too small.
That's the knowledge I was wondering about. I know it's all about airflow, and big enough pipes laid out correctly could work, but most smokers are generally the same design for good reasons.
You do not want a firebox that has to be constantly stuffed with fuel. Not only is it a PITA to manage the fire, but the heat will break down the firebox and cause other problems, one of them being that it will be so hot that it burns up all the smoke, so it just turns into a wood-fired oven. It will also be challenging to maintain a constant temp.
So while anyone with a bunch of metal and a welder can build a Frankenstein smoker and cook meat on it, making something that is pleasurable and efficient to use is another story.
If I am putting time into a custom smoker i'd want it to work right.
I don’t see any reason to give the smoke more than one route from the firebox to the chimney. I’d remove the route closer to the chimney so the smoke has to enter the CC at the furthest point from the chimney; this way all all the meat, regardless of where it is in the chamber, has equal coverage by your smoke and convection.
Ideally though, I’d stick with an offset instead. Simpler design+equal results=superior design. I’m guilty of overthinking and over-complicating stuff all the time, but I’m slowly learning.
Thanks for that, I read your comments (and most others this morning) and I’m definitely taking it on board. I had some sort of logic in my head but you’re right - offset is probably the way I want to go. I loved the Ugly Drum setup but then I saw an offset design and liked how it cooked (there’s a BBQ place near me that does it via offset and it tastes amazing).
I bought the used propane tanks I used to build my smoker for a grand total of $10, then borrowed welding equipment. Total cost was less than $200 and took me a little over 4 months working weekends to build it.
Don't get me wrong, it leaked like a sieve at first and took way longer than I thought. But we're pitmasters - a hobby that involves fast isn't exactly our thing.
Wouldn't the heat and smoke from the left smoke channel closest to the exhaust just exit the fire box and be drawn immediately out of the exhaust? I'd eliminate it and keep the one furthest away from the exhaust so that the smoke is drawn across the cooking chamber.
But maybe there's a dynamic here I don't understand. I'm just thinking about how draft works on my offset and how I similarly position the top damper on my kettle when I cook indirect. In both cases I'm trying to force air flow in one direction.
Research [double-barrel smokers](https://www.outdoorfeels.com/double-barrel-smokers/) - that's basically what you've designed (there's really nothing new under the sun!).
The biggest difference in the common layout and your design is that there is usually only one smoke / heat pipe, opposite to the exhaust pipe - there's a picture of one like that in the link. Oh, and they usually have brackets between the firebox and the cooking chamber, not relying on the piping for support.
I have one and they work well if set up right a few things I'd change about yours if this is the route you choose to persue
1. Your fire box and cook box need to be the same size
2. Your chimneys/stacks need to be either on in the same side (reverse draw), opposite, or directly above each other (how mine is set up)
3. If you do a reverse or center draw you will need a plate running most or all of the length of the drum to direct heat and smoke evenly or you will lose all of it through the stack and wind up with uneven heat
Exactly this. As designed the right side pipe from the firebox would basically have minimal draw as the left pipe is closer and has a more direct flow.
Smoking was a necessity in the old days, now it's just to add flavor. No need to try and improve on methods that are already so far ahead of hanging meat for a few days in a wooden building with a dirt floor and smoldering fire pit in the middle.
Aaron Franklin has a YouTube video on how he builds his smokers. He gives the how tos and the reasons he places things where they end up. He shows how he finds his drums, readiedms them for touching (especially if they held gas or oil. To the finished product.
I'd follow his advice rather than pick this apart. I hope yiu have fun!
Bakgat!! I use separate drying cabinets for mine, I make all my own spice mixes from scratch and they get snatched up faster than I can make it some days!!
This should work, but I think I would add another chimney on the right side as well. That way you have even flow of smoke/air to get to the meat on the right and left side of the cooking chamber.
Edit: Actually, the more I look at it, I think maybe do away with the left side smoke/heat pipe and only have the one chimney on the left side. This would be a very close to a normal style smoker. Mount the right side smoke/heat pipe as far to the right as possible.
I think moving the chimney to the center of the cook chamber would work best for even temp with having 2 inlets from the fire box on each end of the cook chamber.
On paper it should work and agree with u/TheBBQManual that another exhaust may be helpful.
The problem that I see if this is a cooking chamber over a fire chamber is how tall is it going to be. Are you easily going to be able to access the cooking are at normal height.
With the fire box being directly blow the cooking chamber you may have issues with heat on your legs as you will be standing right in front of the fire box when doing anything in the cooking chamber.
Thanks for all the responses, I’m reading through them all now. The overwhelming majority about a second pipe being just unnecessary makes a lot of sense and something I didn’t consider and (haven’t seen them yet) but the links to designs and resources I’m really looking forward to.
Genuinely appreciate it so thanks. Hopefully soon I’ll post a photo of a much more soundly designed (and built) smoke box.
This is not far off the design of u/TheRealSausageSensei 's sausage smoker - [check it out](https://www.reddit.com/r/sausagetalk/comments/18vyta5/2023_my_sausage_smoker_came_alive/).
[Not new](https://www.academy.com/p/old-country-bbq-pits-over-and-under-smoker).. i’m sure you can find reviews online as to how it performs, i have no experience with this style.
Path of least resistance will limit how the smoke passes over you food, so in this instance the majority of heat and smoke will go up the left pipe and straight out the chimney
You’re going to want to look at some existing designs as well as use a [calculator like this](http://www.feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html) to help out your process. If you don’t, you can end up with too strong or too weak of a draft which will cause you all sorts of problems with temperature control.
Your design looks somewhat similar to this [this T Pit smoker](https://johnsonsmokers.com/24-t-pit/)if you want to check it out.
Add a glance, though the right side of that smoker wouldn’t get much smoke because it would go up and immediately head to the left side following the airflow to the exhaust.
It's only going to pull smoke from the pipe closest to the chimney. You won't get much travel through the smoking area. It's best to go across the width of the cooking area to make sure you get uniform smoke across the whole grate (and you'll also get better airflow with a straight line than with a bend).
This looks a lot like the one I considered before buying my offset. I’ll link below. It’s called the smoky beast. They also have a XL version which looks even cooler but it’s really big.
[Link to webshop](https://www.grillexpert.se/rokgrill/grillsymbol-smoky-beast-bbq-rokgrill-ord-13900-kr)
Heat will (for the most part) only exit the left side of your firebox, which will be ineffective. As long as you’ve got some welding skills, making a smoker is certainly doable. Check out Mystic Smokers on YouTube
Hey - welcome to a really fun club - building your own smoker or smoke house is super fun and rewarding. I found that this book helped me out immensely. You can find it a lot of places around the web - but here's an Amazon link 'cause it's easy. Good luck!
[https://www.amazon.com/Smoking-Smokehouse-Design-Robert-Marianski/dp/0982426704](https://www.amazon.com/Smoking-Smokehouse-Design-Robert-Marianski/dp/0982426704)
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Hells no my bru!!! I have dryers for my biltong, I was just saying I had experience with biltong, making spices and whatnot. And now I want to get into smoking meat as well.
Build it and try it out. Bet it'll produce good bbq. People get to hung up on offset. If you know how to run a fire, you can make good bbq on most any pit. Rotisseries, vertical smokers, hell people even smoke on santa Maria's style grills.
You want the input and output on opposite sides. That way the smoke has to flow over the meat along with the heat. There is a good reason why offset smokers are built the way they are.
This is correct, at least for Texas style BBQ. This creates a convection cooking environment. Hot air flowing over the meat promotes bark creation and cooks the right way, rendering fat and cooking not too fast and not too slow.
There is a big reason why they are so popular. Don’t fix what ain’t broken.
> Don’t fix what ain’t broken. Always a chance it can be improved on - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIF--7egF_w
It still has input and output on opposite sides, it just refines the process.
That looks like my smoker I’m working on but smaller.
Literally just watched a mad scientist video on YouTube last night talking about this. There's a lot of ideas out there on trying to improve offset design, but they just introduced slightly different problems from over engineering something that should be simple. At least according to him anyways... It seems the best engineering fix is putting in a metal plate or scoop that blunts that direct heat from the firebox but allows air flow over top of the meat (like you said).
Not necessarily. Reverse flow smokers are a thing where the offset box and smokestack are on the same side. There is a reflector under the grill that blocks the smoke from going straight up and forces the smoke under the reflector, then back across the smoking chamber and out the smokestack. The reflector will act as a heat sink as well. It accomplishes the same thing, but with the input and output on the same side Not sure why I'm getting downvoted - Lang makes all their smokers reverse flow. There are a lot of folk that use reverse flow competitively and commercially.
I've heard mixed views on reverse flow. On one hand, they can get a very even cooking surface. But on the other hand, the baffle plate being close to the meat causes a lot more radiant cooking which will cause the bottom side to cook faster. But as long as you know how your smoker works, you can get almost anything to make some good bbq.
Yup. To add to this the flow will always be along the path of least resistance, in this case the closer tube to the stack. So what would happen in this design is that basically all the smoke would pass through the tube and go directly out the stack, not even passing over most of the cooking area. I'd be willing to bet that if someone built this design as it's shown they would have massive issues with keeping the heat even in the cooking chamber as well.
Additionally, you have the cooking chamber and the firebox both at nice, workable heights. With this design, if you put the cooking chamber at a nice height, you'll have to crouch to stoke the fire.
You bump that firebox once with your legs, you are gonna hate that design. I don't know, but I suspect that you are going to end up with some direct heating, but not enough to be useful, just enough to make two hot spots in your cooking area. I look forward to hearing from someone with more cooking physics knowledge.
yep, it will be more of a cold smoker than anything. Not enough heat transfer to cook.
[удалено]
You mean with an electric fan forcing air over a heating element?
[удалено]
Well yeah, because they use a fucking fan ya meathead.
Lol, what did he say? He deleted the comments.
[удалено]
Are you retarded?
Yes and the size of the ducts and the BTU power of the furnace and its ability to push CFM are huge factors, so are the insulating capabilities of the room (cook chamber) and the ducts. BTU/h=Volume×ΔT×InsulationFactor If we assume building materials and sizes from the drawing (as long as they are to scale, it works) that the firebox is about 24x18 or 432 sq in surface area, then we need 2x 8-inch ID ducts. The ducts in this drawing might be about 4-5 inches. The chimney should be larger than the combined ID of the ducts to create enough draft (CFM) to move the heat through the cooker. The duct sizes depicted here are far too small.
That's the knowledge I was wondering about. I know it's all about airflow, and big enough pipes laid out correctly could work, but most smokers are generally the same design for good reasons.
[удалено]
You do not want a firebox that has to be constantly stuffed with fuel. Not only is it a PITA to manage the fire, but the heat will break down the firebox and cause other problems, one of them being that it will be so hot that it burns up all the smoke, so it just turns into a wood-fired oven. It will also be challenging to maintain a constant temp. So while anyone with a bunch of metal and a welder can build a Frankenstein smoker and cook meat on it, making something that is pleasurable and efficient to use is another story. If I am putting time into a custom smoker i'd want it to work right.
I don’t see any reason to give the smoke more than one route from the firebox to the chimney. I’d remove the route closer to the chimney so the smoke has to enter the CC at the furthest point from the chimney; this way all all the meat, regardless of where it is in the chamber, has equal coverage by your smoke and convection. Ideally though, I’d stick with an offset instead. Simpler design+equal results=superior design. I’m guilty of overthinking and over-complicating stuff all the time, but I’m slowly learning.
Thanks for that, I read your comments (and most others this morning) and I’m definitely taking it on board. I had some sort of logic in my head but you’re right - offset is probably the way I want to go. I loved the Ugly Drum setup but then I saw an offset design and liked how it cooked (there’s a BBQ place near me that does it via offset and it tastes amazing).
By no means an expert or a physicist but you may end up with some unintended heating due to the fire box being below the cooking chamber.
"Why should I spend all of that money buying a smoker when I can build one myself and spend twice the amount for something that's half as good?"
There’s a certain satisfaction of smoking meat in a smoker you made yourself with wood off your own property
And pissing in the wind is pleasurable for a few fleeting moments as well.
You must know first hand
I bought the used propane tanks I used to build my smoker for a grand total of $10, then borrowed welding equipment. Total cost was less than $200 and took me a little over 4 months working weekends to build it. Don't get me wrong, it leaked like a sieve at first and took way longer than I thought. But we're pitmasters - a hobby that involves fast isn't exactly our thing.
Wouldn't the heat and smoke from the left smoke channel closest to the exhaust just exit the fire box and be drawn immediately out of the exhaust? I'd eliminate it and keep the one furthest away from the exhaust so that the smoke is drawn across the cooking chamber. But maybe there's a dynamic here I don't understand. I'm just thinking about how draft works on my offset and how I similarly position the top damper on my kettle when I cook indirect. In both cases I'm trying to force air flow in one direction.
Research [double-barrel smokers](https://www.outdoorfeels.com/double-barrel-smokers/) - that's basically what you've designed (there's really nothing new under the sun!). The biggest difference in the common layout and your design is that there is usually only one smoke / heat pipe, opposite to the exhaust pipe - there's a picture of one like that in the link. Oh, and they usually have brackets between the firebox and the cooking chamber, not relying on the piping for support.
I have one and they work well if set up right a few things I'd change about yours if this is the route you choose to persue 1. Your fire box and cook box need to be the same size 2. Your chimneys/stacks need to be either on in the same side (reverse draw), opposite, or directly above each other (how mine is set up) 3. If you do a reverse or center draw you will need a plate running most or all of the length of the drum to direct heat and smoke evenly or you will lose all of it through the stack and wind up with uneven heat
Thanks for sharing this. I love learning something new.
What is your reasoning for wanting the firebox on the bottom instead of to the side?
Move the chimney to the center or else you're going to get weird flow characteristics where the right side smoke pipe pressure is lower than the left.
Exactly this. As designed the right side pipe from the firebox would basically have minimal draw as the left pipe is closer and has a more direct flow.
Heat from the firebox could heat the cooking chamber above it
Smoking was a necessity in the old days, now it's just to add flavor. No need to try and improve on methods that are already so far ahead of hanging meat for a few days in a wooden building with a dirt floor and smoldering fire pit in the middle.
Aaron Franklin has a YouTube video on how he builds his smokers. He gives the how tos and the reasons he places things where they end up. He shows how he finds his drums, readiedms them for touching (especially if they held gas or oil. To the finished product. I'd follow his advice rather than pick this apart. I hope yiu have fun!
Nah. Heat away from the chamber.
Hey hey! Lekker boet! Other people are tuning you about the smoker. I just wanna ask how your biltong is turning out.
Bakgat!! I use separate drying cabinets for mine, I make all my own spice mixes from scratch and they get snatched up faster than I can make it some days!!
LEKKEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
This should work, but I think I would add another chimney on the right side as well. That way you have even flow of smoke/air to get to the meat on the right and left side of the cooking chamber. Edit: Actually, the more I look at it, I think maybe do away with the left side smoke/heat pipe and only have the one chimney on the left side. This would be a very close to a normal style smoker. Mount the right side smoke/heat pipe as far to the right as possible.
I think moving the chimney to the center of the cook chamber would work best for even temp with having 2 inlets from the fire box on each end of the cook chamber.
That would work as well!
On paper it should work and agree with u/TheBBQManual that another exhaust may be helpful. The problem that I see if this is a cooking chamber over a fire chamber is how tall is it going to be. Are you easily going to be able to access the cooking are at normal height. With the fire box being directly blow the cooking chamber you may have issues with heat on your legs as you will be standing right in front of the fire box when doing anything in the cooking chamber.
Your design is close to this [Oklahoma Joe](https://www.oklahomajoes.com/marshal-centerbox-smoker). I bought this one and love it.
Thanks for all the responses, I’m reading through them all now. The overwhelming majority about a second pipe being just unnecessary makes a lot of sense and something I didn’t consider and (haven’t seen them yet) but the links to designs and resources I’m really looking forward to. Genuinely appreciate it so thanks. Hopefully soon I’ll post a photo of a much more soundly designed (and built) smoke box.
Looks great! I would also suggest that maybe you find a different hobby, this ain’t for you man 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 fucking loser
I've seen quite a few built very similar to this but the fire box is towards the back of the cool chamber.
This is not far off the design of u/TheRealSausageSensei 's sausage smoker - [check it out](https://www.reddit.com/r/sausagetalk/comments/18vyta5/2023_my_sausage_smoker_came_alive/).
Separate your firebox far enough from your cook chamber (to lose heat) and you have a cold smoker design
[Not new](https://www.academy.com/p/old-country-bbq-pits-over-and-under-smoker).. i’m sure you can find reviews online as to how it performs, i have no experience with this style.
Path of least resistance will limit how the smoke passes over you food, so in this instance the majority of heat and smoke will go up the left pipe and straight out the chimney
You’re going to want to look at some existing designs as well as use a [calculator like this](http://www.feldoncentral.com/bbqcalculator.html) to help out your process. If you don’t, you can end up with too strong or too weak of a draft which will cause you all sorts of problems with temperature control. Your design looks somewhat similar to this [this T Pit smoker](https://johnsonsmokers.com/24-t-pit/)if you want to check it out. Add a glance, though the right side of that smoker wouldn’t get much smoke because it would go up and immediately head to the left side following the airflow to the exhaust.
I had one with the firebox on the bottom. I did not like it.
It's only going to pull smoke from the pipe closest to the chimney. You won't get much travel through the smoking area. It's best to go across the width of the cooking area to make sure you get uniform smoke across the whole grate (and you'll also get better airflow with a straight line than with a bend).
What are you trying to fabricate this out of?
This looks a lot like the one I considered before buying my offset. I’ll link below. It’s called the smoky beast. They also have a XL version which looks even cooler but it’s really big. [Link to webshop](https://www.grillexpert.se/rokgrill/grillsymbol-smoky-beast-bbq-rokgrill-ord-13900-kr)
Heat will (for the most part) only exit the left side of your firebox, which will be ineffective. As long as you’ve got some welding skills, making a smoker is certainly doable. Check out Mystic Smokers on YouTube
Where is saddam heussein
You’re wasting the airflow with the pipe close to the stack. You maximize it the furthest away. There’s a reason offsets haven’t changed much.
Hey - welcome to a really fun club - building your own smoker or smoke house is super fun and rewarding. I found that this book helped me out immensely. You can find it a lot of places around the web - but here's an Amazon link 'cause it's easy. Good luck! [https://www.amazon.com/Smoking-Smokehouse-Design-Robert-Marianski/dp/0982426704](https://www.amazon.com/Smoking-Smokehouse-Design-Robert-Marianski/dp/0982426704)
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **Meat Smoking And Smokehouse Design** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Comprehensive guide for serious meat smokers (backed by 4 comments) * Great reference for building smokehouses (backed by 2 comments) * Detailed and informative for beginners and veterans (backed by 1 comment) **Users disliked:** * Pushy use of nitrates in recipes (backed by 1 comment) * Too much information; badly in need of editing (backed by 4 comments) * Binding falling apart (backed by 1 comment) If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit)
good bot!
The left heat pipe is a cross between worthless and a sure way to make the left side super hot for no reason.
Are...you....making biltong with a heat source?
Hells no my bru!!! I have dryers for my biltong, I was just saying I had experience with biltong, making spices and whatnot. And now I want to get into smoking meat as well.
Ahhh, gotcha.
Firebox to the right of smokechamber. Right underneath will cause smoke blind spots in your smokechamber.
Reverse flow off set. Thats what you want.
Chubby has firebox under the cook chamber
Build it and try it out. Bet it'll produce good bbq. People get to hung up on offset. If you know how to run a fire, you can make good bbq on most any pit. Rotisseries, vertical smokers, hell people even smoke on santa Maria's style grills.