Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Any type of purchased BBQ Pit.

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Re: Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby Boots » Mon Aug 29, 2011 1:37 pm

Not to add anything redundant, but I have traded emails with him. Chad Johnson / Johnson Smokers I think. Looks like he builds a pretty good cooker, innovative design guy. Told me he was staying backed up on orders. Seems a nice guy.
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Re: Johnson Smokers made in Ennis

Postby Damon54 » Mon Aug 29, 2011 9:18 pm

He had burned one load of Pecan prior to us taking delivery but we are about to engage in some pit seasoning this week.
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Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby grtpain » Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:23 pm

Any updates on this pit?
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Re: Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby Damon54 » Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:19 am

Bad turn of events. The new lady of this house see's little use for this appliance & even less for it's accompanying personnel. It is a virgin except for a seasoning session.

Not mine, btw.
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Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby grtpain » Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:30 pm

Wow sorry to hear that that's going to be a expensive yard ornament
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Re: Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby Damon54 » Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:52 pm

A test run of chicken and ribs was done last night and the pit operated perfectly.
This weekend it will be used as intended for a gathering of 40, mostly ribs.

Hopefully that can save the day!
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Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby grtpain » Fri Oct 14, 2011 2:34 pm

I am going to order the smaller two door patio model but I haven't had a chance to go look at them yet
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Re: Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby Damon54 » Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:56 pm

Have 100 plus pounds of Ribs and Chicken on currently. Love this pit! It works as advertised.

Report: to test it's mettle & worthiness the Smoker received a nice little work out over the weekend. There is little doubt that reverse flow process transfers heat effectively to the non- firebox side. On this session we had a large serving tin of beans removed from the fridge. This is the only time I have seen the 2 main chamber temp gauges not in synch as the beans were heated up from their cold soak state. The ribs from Restaurant Depot were fantastic and got rave reviews!

That was the good news, the owner is now proud of the unit and is ready to light it up Again next weekend.

To further stretch it's legs we placed one of the two supplied charcoal trays on the bottom and grilled some burgers on the top rack with lump mesquite.
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Which Pit

Postby Damon54 » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:34 pm

Greatpain,
So you are getting the 7'2" Patio model called the Ultimate Patio?
Ours is the 1/2 Adv. Stationary @ the Johnson site. No idea what that name means but it is quite stationary!
Last edited by Damon54 on Wed Oct 19, 2011 12:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby grtpain » Tue Oct 18, 2011 7:24 pm

I am going to order the 2D patio which is the 2door 72" the ultimate patio has the vertical cooker over the fire box I talked with Chad and he told me he could make it so if I wanted the vertical smoker I could shut off heat to the main side and open more heat to the vertical cooker to cook only in it if I wanted but I don't know if I want to pay $500 more for the vertical pit
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Re: Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby Damon54 » Wed Oct 19, 2011 12:24 am

We also got the option to pipe heat directly into the vertical chamber which is configured above the firebox just the same as your model.
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Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby grtpain » Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:00 am

I checked the one I want is 2 feet wide and yours is 30" wide I havent had a chance to see one in person yet if you what is the max brisket and racks of ribs could you cook at once in the main chamber? Also can you cook on top rack? I am trying to figure out if o need the vertical or not also how is the paint job? Thanks
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Re: Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby Damon54 » Wed Oct 19, 2011 8:48 am

Grtpain,

Without the use of rib racks , which we did not have, we were able to put 50lbs of ribs across the top rack laying flat. Imagine how many we could do if we had them vertically arranged ( X 3?). They cooked just fine.

Note: our upper rack is one piece due to the design changes we made to allow for a single large door.

The lower rack is a two seperate, slide out grates.

I would be guessing @ the total # of briskets, but we could cook them on both levels of our over 7 foot main chamber. No reason we could not put some in the vertical section as well. We total 34 sq ft. of cooking area so that would be a large number!

We have yet to use the vertical chamber, but we have had very little experience to date with the Pit. We envisioned the vertical as a warm & hold option when we made our purchase. I was blissfully unaware that the racks rotated in the vert section till last weekend! Too cool!

Paint, Umh..., not much to say here. Industry standard I imagine.
Last edited by Damon54 on Fri Apr 20, 2012 1:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby grtpain » Wed Oct 19, 2011 7:25 pm

Wow that holds alot I am thinking to just order the 2 door patio without the vertical I doubt I would ever cook more then a case of ribs I think there is 9 and 4 or 5 brisket at one time most of the time it will be 1 brisket and 1 3 pack of ribs thanks for info I may just call him next week and tell him to start on it he said put 20% down and he would build it and I could take as long as I needed to pay it off hopefully a couple of months is all I need I don't think I could wait much longer then that
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Re: Johnson Smokers made in Ennis?

Postby Damon54 » Thu Oct 20, 2011 1:36 am

Our design goal was first and foremost to cook whole lamb & whole hogs. A 60" inch opening with no obstructions drove our criterium for purchase.

Entertaining 40 is a very common occurrence where this pit resides & the owner happens to be a restraunteur as a sideline. In close outdoor proximity to the pit is a Pizza Oven, a 2 bay deep frier, and a 4 burner stove top.



We first looked at a very famous name custom built pit and talked to an honest fellow whom had the model we desired for sale second hand. After a 45 minute conversation he admitted ( to his credit) that performance at the vertical with the opposite side firebox config did not really work as advertised.

For the record I think the "T" Design is awesome but I was not the lead voice in the purchase & there was just no way to adapt to the 60" opening with a T. Neither would a firebox behind the chamber be an option at our end, though I have seen several of those designs I like.

Near as I can tell the primary drawback of having the vertical section above the firebox is
that you have to use much more care and planning during the move. hydraulic equipment also helps!

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