If anyone's been waiting to pull the trigger on an electric smoker, Amazon has the 30-inch Masterbuilt on sale.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SKO7C18...-20&ascsubtag=[t|link[p|1787747807[a|B00SKO7C18[au|5727177402741770316[b|deals

you need firebrick on the inside. regular bricks will not stand up to the heat.

i intend to insulate the fire box, but we are in discussions as to whether as a slow cooker, the cook chamber needs 'fireproofing'. doing a road trip to sydney today. gonna get heat resistant mortar, and looking into fire bricks.

just browsing video builds i have seen many made simply of brick, but i don't want to get it built and after ten cooks it crumbles.

ETA: http://www.fieldfurnace.com.au/fire-...a-based-c-1_5/

think i may start here for the bricks.

unsure of smoker dynamics... advice...
 

so the drawing is an offset smoker out of bricks. where would you place the chimney exhaust? in my original, where the red line is, or somewhere different?

I've seen them at the top, near the bottom, and just above/at/below the grate level, and I've had the best results from those where the stack extends into the smoker and is just above the grates.

Just curious, but why an offset design? You could easily build a vertical brick smoker with either bricks or a steel plate between the fire and the food (with a small opening of course for smoke/heat) or you could put a rack in for a water pan between the fire and food. I've used different offset designs and different vertical designs over the years, and I've always turned out better results with vertical because the heat is so much more even throughout

like these. I plan to eventually have one like the one that is open faced and have the side, which I think is intended for wood storage, to use as a pizza oven/roaster

I had one like pictures on the left tooge. Briskets were unbelievable. Way better than the professional i use now. It helped me master burnt ends too. It's really how i cut my teeth in BBQ.

i dont want to spend any money on steel lined doors and hinges in concrete. plus having my thin sheeted metal offset, i realize the food will be five times better and efficient with the brick insulation. to boot, you cannot create enough smoke without too much heat in a vertical. this is purely for smoking, no pizza's, nothing hot.

aaaaaaand... i am only working with the materials i have on hand :D

now for my disclaimer: i have never used a vertical so i may not know what i am talking about :D

im going for a little more redneck than that but those look nice.

on my cheap offset, i modded it to stretch down to grate level. i gain about 15 F with it. i have a pseudo deflector plate just at the chamber entry too. :D

i think my dilemma is that i will have several rack heights. i assume in this scenario, very bottom would be ideal?

Agree. Then it's just a matter of learning the heat zones to what you're smoking.

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You actually get more smoke with less heat in a vertical, and the temps are more uniform throughout the unit. A horizontal cooker will have a high heat area next to the firebox and a cool side closer to the chimney. In addition, you will have smoke draw above the food on the cooler side (heat and smoke rise). In a vertical, all the heat rises, and while it may be a tad higher near the bottom, it will be very minimal, especially in a brick insulated unit. In addition, all of the smoke passes over lower and upper grates, so you get even smoke. In competition bbq, most of the guys use vertical units for the meat they turn in. It's just more predictable.

Just put a few pounds of chicken wings on the PBC for the Chiefs game.

Did some turkey smoking from the scouts. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...18f1639f44.jpg

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