Ultimate TEMP CONTROL mod on the Oklahoma Joe's Offset Smoker (2023)

Introduction

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Content

A big question that I get asked all the time is how to make fire Management on a small Offset Smoker.

A lot easier than it is for example, on the Oklahoma Joe's, Offset, Smoker, it's, very difficult to get low and slow temperatures of around 200 to 225 while still burning a hot, clean burning fire, where you're only burning sticks.

So you're, not just burning charcoal, you're burning sticks.

And that is the primary heat Source.

When people do this, they tend to be stuck in the temperature zones of 275 to 325.

They can't get the temperatures down, and they often have really big temperature spikes that Spike up to 325 and then back down to 225.

And then all the way back up again.

So in this video I'm testing out a potentially revolutionary new method that could make fire management easy, even for a beginner let's, get smoking in previous videos.

You'll see me sitting by the smoker and constantly tending to it to get steady temperatures.

But the reality is I don't always have time for that.

Now that I'm a dad, my time is really precious to me and I want an easier way to get low and steady 10 temperatures on my small offset now I could just burn all charcoal and close the vents down and get steady temperatures low and slow for hours, but I don't want to do that because I believe that the best flavor comes from burning actual sticks and having a live fire in that Firebox that is burning at all times that's.

What I do with my larger offset smoker and that's? What I want to do with my Oklahoma Joe's because it produces the best results.

But if I run the smoker with all wood splits, it just likes to sit in the temperature zone of 275 to 325 and to get it to 225 I really have to be watching the fire I have to use really small dry splits and add them like every 10 to 15 minutes to keep that low temperature going and still have a burning flame in the Firebox.

And it doesn't go out and produce smoldering, nasty smoke.

So the challenge I started thinking about is how do I stick burn in my Oklahoma Joe's while still getting low and slow temperatures of around 225 and not have to sit by the smoker all day and that's when I saw an Amazon ad on social media, the other day, you know, those weird ones where it shows a bunch of weird stuff that you can buy on Amazon.

You don't know what it is because it doesn't have a product name.

So you click on it to find out.

And it just leads you down a rabbit hole, maybe I'm.

The only one that sees these ads, but I actually clicked on one.

And what I saw was a transmission, cooler, basically, a small radiator that I actually had no use for at all or did I.

The next day I was tending to my smoker and trying to dial in the temperatures, but still getting temp swings and not able to get below 250.

But even with those challenges I was still daydreaming and I was thinking quite a bit about that ad that I saw yesterday about the radiator on Amazon.

And it made me think back to my Army days in Afghanistan I used to work with a bunch of tank mechanics and I actually learned a lot about engines while I was over there, let's use this whiteboard for an example.

So in the tanks, we had these massive radiators.

And in the radiators, we had coolant tubes that squiggled in the radiator like that they went in like there.

And then they went out like that.

So we'd have the power pack over here.

So that is is the engine power pack.

And we would have hot hot liquid coming out of the power pack all hot from the combustion of diesel fuel and the engine's activity.

And then it would flow through these tubes.

And what the radiator also had is these squiggly little things made of aluminum called cooling fins.

And that increased the surface area that was in contact with these tubes.

And it exchanged all that cold air that was flowing through the radiator with these tubes.

So we have cold air coming in from outside.

And then we have it being exchanged with this hot fluid.

And then we have cold fluid going back to the engine and the cycle repeats itself, but because thermodynamic principles work equally as well in Reverse, what happens if we have cold water going in instead so cold water or coolant going through these tubes, and we have hot air hot air going in through the radiator.

So the hot air is going in it's, exchanging with this cold water.

And then what we get out of the back end of the radiator is cold air.

And at the other end, what we'd get is hot fluid, and that would just be dumped into a bucket, for example.

So I thought in theory, I could install this into my smoker and I'd have the Firebox here with the burning fire, that's.

The Firebox all that hot air is flowing through the radiator with cold fluid.

In this case, water going through it it's, exchanging.

And then what I get in the cook chamber over here, oops cook chamber.

And what I get is cold air or cooler air.

So that if I'm getting, you know, 300 degrees air coming into the radiator, maybe I'm getting 225 on the other end, which is exactly what I want I'll just erase this and I'll put this back in That's supposed to be 225.

that's.

The thing I love about dry erase markers, they're quite remarkable.

But the big question is would all of this work and allow me to get the low temperatures I want with a hot burning fire in the Firebox or is it just a poorly drawn out plan on a whiteboard before I get to installing the radiator I want to thank the sponsor for this video established titles established titles is a Project based on Scottish custom, where if you own land, you are a lord or lady.

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Don't worry.

Guys.

This thing is already a Frankenstein from all the experimentation.

I do so I wasn't really worried about it I then inserted the rubber tubes that came with the radiator, which might sound like a dumb idea.

But as long as there's cold water running in them, they won't melt.

Why is that? Well, here's an old thermodynamics experiment that you might have seen in high school, I have a bag here filled with air and one filled with water when I apply a very hot torch to the air filled bag.

You can see it melts, almost instantly.

But when I apply the torch to the water filled bag, it takes a long time to melt.

This is because the water in the water filled bag is absorbing all of that heat that's being applied to the plastic bag it's in contact with.

And the plastic is staying relatively cool as a result without getting too scientific about it.

This is because water basically loves heat energy, and it likes to steal that heat energy from other things it's in contact with like this plastic.

So as soon as the plastic gets a little bit hot from the torch, the water Wicks away that heat and keeps the plastic from melting.

Now, this bag still eventually melted.

Because usually this experiment is done with a lighter and I'm using a super hot blow torch.

But you guys get the point.

So even though I'm using a rubber hose in contact with the hot air in the smoker and the metal of the smoker next to the Firebox it's, not going to melt that being said, this setup is just a proof of concept if I improve on it and I start using it more I'll, definitely switch over to a metal tubing because I don't know what kind of chemicals are burning off the outside of that rubber hose and getting on my meat, but at least I know for now it's not going to melt now I'm hooking up a garden hose to one end of the radiator.

And the other end is emptying into a bucket.

You could also just empty this into the drain, the sewer or even your lawn or garden to make sure the water is not going to waste.

And after I turn on the flow of water, I'm starting up the fire with my grill gun and I'm monitoring the great level temperature in my smoker with my thermowork signals after a few hours of monitoring the smoker temperature.

It became apparent that it was a little bit too efficient patient at doing its job.

I could barely get temperatures above 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

And when I tried adjusting the flow of water to just a trickle to try to bring the temperatures up a little bit that really didn't work.

And it was just too good at cooling the air from the Firebox that was going into the cooking chamber.

For example, with this big of a fire I was still only getting 170 to 180 degrees at Great level, which was way too low.

So back to the drawing table, I had to think of some ways to make the radiator less efficient.

The first option is I could have pulled it back from the Firebox, but then the hot air from the Firebox would just go up and over the entire radiator, and it wouldn't go through it.

So the option I decided to go with is making the radiator itself, less efficient and I did that by removing a bank of the cooling fins.

This would mean there would be less surface area for the aluminum fins to grab onto that heat energy and transfer it to the radiator coils with the cold liquid.

So more hot air would be allowed through the radiator and wouldn't get cooled down quite as effectively I did this by getting some tin, snips and I snipped out an entire Bank of fins between two coils and then I reinstalled it into the smoker.

The results were immediately successful.

Now I was able to run a steady 200 degrees at Great level with this size of fire or I was able to run a steady 220 to 225 degrees at Great level with this size of fire.

I was also able to adjust the flow rate going through the hose and with a higher flow rate, I could bring temperatures down.

And with a lower flow rate, I could increase the temperatures.

This provided just a little bit of extra control in any event.

I was getting a clean burning fire.

It was around 225 degrees and I wasn't having any temperature spikes up to 275 or 325 or anything like that.

So this proof of concept works with a radiator installed in a smoker I can burn a larger fire and still get a low and slow temperature of 200 to 225 degrees.

So at first blush, it appears to be a viable solution to the first issue I have with my smoker, which is getting low temperatures as for my second issue, which is getting inconsistent, flat temperatures for long periods of time and not having to tend to the smoker.

Well, it didn't do as great a job at that I could get lower temperatures, but I'd still need to tend the smoker by adding a split of wood every 20 minutes or so and I would still have to watch the fire read.

It see when a split was about to burn out, and then add another split and I'd have to use traditional fire management principles to manage the fire.

So it didn't really help me to save time or be able to be away from the smoker for longer periods of time.

But it did allow me to get low and slow temperatures of around 200 to 225 without having temperature spikes.

And while being able to burn with only splits with a small hot fire, burning the entire time, guys, if you're a barbecue nerd like me, then consider joining my patreon I'll link it in the description section below we got a really awesome Community there and you'll get access to a private Discord Channel where you can ask me any questions you want and get access to me in real time, we're having a good time over there.

So I hope you'll join us and I hope to see you in the next video, happy smoking.