The Texas BBQ Forum

I just read a thread from Allen BBQ in the Smokring which he makes a statement i which I have experience with my reverse flow cooker and find troublesome. His statement is: "While reverse flow cookers may seem to be the best, they are notorious for eating large amounts of wood to maintain temperatures." Can anyone out there in this forum tell me why this is true and what can one do to correct it? I find myself adding sticks every 30 to 45 minutes which should be unnecessary. I can see one of two sticks per hour. My cooker works well and it maintains temperature but loves sticks. Thanks and I look forward to your comments.

Hang tight; somebody will answer.

flexster wrote:I just read a thread from Allen BBQ in the Smokring which he makes a statement i which I have experience with my reverse flow cooker and find troublesome. His statement is: "While reverse flow cookers may seem to be the best, they are notorious for eating large amounts of wood to maintain temperatures." Can anyone out there in this forum tell me why this is true and what can one do to correct it? I find myself adding sticks every 30 to 45 minutes which should be unnecessary. I can see one of two sticks per hour. My cooker works well and it maintains temperature but loves sticks. Thanks and I look forward to your comments.

My guess would be that since the smoke/ heated air coming from the firebox has to take a longer route to get to the smokestack that it requires more BTUs ( more wood) to keep the smoke moving. With a traditional offset, more direct heat is making it into the cook chamber thereby requiring less wood to achieve the same cook chamber temp. If I was looking to lower wood consumption, I’d look at insulating the cook chamber if not both the cook chamber and the firebox. In my experience with my insulated vertical reverse flow smoker, my charcoal consumption is around 1# per hour running 275*. At the end of the cook with all the vents closed, after 6 hours, the cook chamber temp is still around 100* regardless of outside ambient temps.

If you read a post on the ring from Alien it’s old lol.
A few questions please?
Homemade cooker ic not what brand?
How large is the cooker IE cook chamber and firebox?
How far is the RF plate from the cooking grate?
How hot are you cooking?
Exhaust wide open running temps with the intake?

I cook on a Lang reverse flow and that is pretty normal to be adding a split every half hour or so, especially if you are using small splits. I run my pit around 275. I cook a lot on my buddies 250 gallon standard stick burner and it is remotely the same. Hope that helps.

When I fire up my 250 gallon reverse flow it burns about 3 bags of coals, and 40-50 lbs of wood for an 8 hour cook. some one mentioned insulation, that is one way keep your temps up and slow your wood consumption.

Most factory made smokers are better insulated than home builds, but generally they do consume a lot. If you can park your smoker in a nice calm sunny spot, that will help maintain some heat.

Good luck.