Pellet Fan
All Things Considered => General Discussion--Non food Related => Topic started by: dk117 on August 31, 2023, 02:59:07 PM
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https://smokedaddyinc.com/product/the-heavy-d-stick-burning-heat-diffuser/ (https://smokedaddyinc.com/product/the-heavy-d-stick-burning-heat-diffuser/)
I thought I had a unique idea / twist on the Camp Chef design to introduce wood chunk smoldering by placing the wood over or next to the fire pot. I asked Gator pit to build me what I thought was a good design (it wasn't) They directed me to the Heavy D by Smoke Daddy.
My heat shield is warped badly, which wasn't supposed to happen, but it's 5 years old. I'm in the market for a new one, a few bucks more and I'm going to try this. Anyone have any experience with it?
DK
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If you are looking for a heavier smoke flavor, it looks like it might produce that! Interesting concept.
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I've been to their shop in IL. They make some quality stuff.
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Interesting concept, I might give it a try.
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I bought a Smoke Daddy heat shield years ago after the one that came with my Traeger got badly warped. The Smoke Daddy version is built like a tank. It is made with much thicker steel. I doubt it will ever warp.
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Bentley and Kristin please proceed with any edits, moving, redirecting or deletion. Not affiliated with Smoke Daddy and this is certainly not a PF review. Just having fun.
Got my heavy D last week and am trying it for the first time today. I ordered hickory logs from Smoke Daddy, I purchased lump charcoal from Safeway. I split the hickory and charcoal, and have my pit sitting on high prior to putting a single rack of ribs on for the Broncos game today.
I am seeking additional smoke flavor. Best BBQ I've ever had was on a stick burner. I'm pretty good at turkey legs, bacon (yup just regular old thick cut bacon) and tri tip. I have room for improvement on ribs, brisket, and pork butt. I've tried all sorts of things over the past 14 years ... stick burning wasn't one of them.
I suspect my larger cooks will all be with this pseudo stick burner contraption. It doesn't take long, but is an additional step to startup. I believe I run on high for 30 mins to get some combustion of the hickory and charcoal, then let it ride as normal. We'll see how it goes and I'll report back if I get noticeable smoke on the ribs today. Will go without saucing to hopefully determine smoke flavor.
DK
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Beautiful morning!
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Interesting contraption. Looking forward to hearing how your cook turns out.
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I'm interested, too. Especially in the nature of the smoke produced. I've come to agree with a statement Bentley made years ago (that I originally poo-pood) that the best flavored smoke could be invisible or at the most visible, be light blue. (Remember his post of an outdoor fire he had built to burn wood he was clearing from his woodlot? The smoke was light blue and he captioned it that it was almost perfect smoke for BBQ.) I've rejected several smoke augmenting devices because they made sour white smoke due to smoldering rather than burning.
This may be a game-changer for me. It may stimulate a rash of pit selling and a new unit purchase.
This web site is invaluable to me.
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Have at it!
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the product itself is thicker gauge than the original, which is surprising as Gator is known for their steel work. I need to get a picture of the box post cook. I just glanced, but it looked like all of the hickory and charcoal were ash. Smoke output was high initially, as was temp. Took an hour all told to get started and then settle down. I suspect I can reduce that time significantly. When I put the ribs on the grate they sizzled. To me that signaled I was too hot. A few crispy bits on the bottom of the rack seemed to confirm. When it did settle, I'd call it invisible (more so than thin blue) smoke. I recall the old conversations and the debates and how a palate would be for pellets. I'm not looking for burp level smoke. Just that extra layer I think I'm missing.
Now to the hard part. I made too many changes baseline for proper judgement. No sauce, butcher paper wrap, beef tallow, Lawry's, pepper, and my go to rub for mccormick pork sweet and smoky.
These were the second best ribs I've ever made. Maybe I just got lucky and rendered them properly. Maybe it was the additional smoke. I'm going to have to do a lot more cooks before coming to a judgement. I'm inclined to say winner, but time will tell with other cuts.
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Since my Traeger heat shield is severely warped. I used that as justification for buying one of these. In my opinion a bit pricy, but you can't take it with you. I also bought three boxes of wood chunks, one cherry, one hickory and a whiskey barrel version. All from Amazon with free delivery, some arrive tomorrow.
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Heat shield arrived, it fits, and it is indeed a lot heavier than the old one. It came with two massive chunks of dried split wood, however the chunks that I ordered from Amazon were just cut pieces of sawed lumber. I do not know if they will work in this gadget.
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DK, I tried to buy wood chunks from Smoke Daddy but the shipping charge was outrageous did you find a source that was affordable?
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DK, I tried to buy wood chunks from Smoke Daddy but the shipping charge was outrageous did you find a source that was affordable?
I have gotten wood chunks at Home Depot and even Lowes or Walmart may have them. These are usually fist sized chunks, I have a small table top band saw. I used to buy a bag and then cut them on it so they would work in my electric smoker.
I bought some chunks off Amazon a few years ago also.
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WOOD CHUNKS.
You may want to try a firewood supplier. They might be willing to sell you a few pieces, cut & split them if required. Easy for them as they have the tools. All @ a cost.
Even @ triple the cost it would be less $ than buying a few chunks of "Special BBQ wood".
Tree trimming services may be another source.
One piece of firewood split & cut produces many chunks.
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John, I came to the same conclusion and bought some hickory firewood. My 12" radial arm saw, a hammer and a wedge should make lots of chunks for this device.
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There's a hardware store near me that carries a huge supply of wood for cooking year around. An employee told me that most of the higher cost is due to the wood being heated for a few hours at a temperature high enough to kill fungus spores and boring insects. Restaurant owners must be able to prove to health inspectors that their wood that's stored inside the restaurant has been accordingly treated.
EDIT: As a result, the smoking wood that I buy is stored outside. I sometimes see bugs. Those harvested trees died from something. It's difficult to know what tree disease I might be bringing home.
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There's a hardware store near me that carries a huge supply of wood for cooking year around. An employee told me that most of the higher cost is due to the wood being heated for a few hours at a temperature high enough to kill fungus spores and boring insects. Restaurant owners must be able to prove to health inspectors that their wood that's stored inside the restaurant has been accordingly treated.
EDIT: As a result, the smoking wood that I buy is stored outside. I sometimes see bugs. Those harvested trees died from something. It's difficult to know what tree disease I might be bringing home.
All the wood I have processed into chunks has had the bark removed. If left on it leaves a good home for the unwanted & permotes decay. Finally splitting it makes it
less hospitable for the critters.
There is always the possibility of systemic chemicals in fruit trees that have been sprayed. I live with it.
The restaurant wood you describe isn't debarked, cut & split as debarked chunks are. Nor are they closely inspected as in our home processing methods.
That was good interesting info Paul.
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been a while on the updates. Vegetarian daughter on the east coast, youngest now 17 and rarely home. Leaves just the two of us and firing up the pit doesn't happen as often as it used to. I recollect a lot of you mentioning that over the years at PF and PH ... I guess I'm in the same boat now. I did two tri tip last night, nothing special, but the heavy d seems to be doing it's job. My wife commented on the additional smoke flavor, not overpowering but the nudge in that direction that I was looking for. I did not spend the hour on high to get the smoke going, just cooked as normal, maybe a minute extra to add the hickory and lump charcoal.
This is what I've been looking for. Set it and forget it with pellets but a stronger smoke flavor (won't pretend it's a stick burner, but I like the subtle difference.)
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I bought the heavy d and my Traeger with SS4 controller took over an hour to get down to the set temperature. I used cherry wood on one side and apple wood on the other side, no charcoal. I'll add charcoal for next cook.
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Hugh, I infer from your comment about your Traeger taking an hour to get down to your desired temperature that the Heavy D burns wood that adds heat to the cooking chamber. The controller calls for pellets just to keep the flame (pilot light) and the wood burning in the Heavy D maintains a too-high temperature.
I further infer that it isn't until the Heavy D fire reduces that your Traeger's temperature reduces to your desired set point.
If I'm correct, then should users add only very small wood pieces into the Heavy D to ameliorate the temperature skew?
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or turn down controller temps
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or turn down controller temps
I don't follow you. If Hugh has the controller set to 225°F and the wood burning in the Heavy D has the temperature above that, the controller is going to add just enough pellets to keep the fire going.
What would be accomplished by turning the set point down to, say, 200°F?
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or turn down controller temps
I don't follow you. If Hugh has the controller set to 225°F and the wood burning in the Heavy D has the temperature above that, the controller is going to add just enough pellets to keep the fire going.
What would be accomplished by turning the set point down to, say, 200°F?
It probably won't burn the wood as fast and increase the pit temp near the probe is my guess. I think it is something that is worth experimenting with. May also be worth trying putting the wood in some sort of stainless container with a perforated lid to keep it from burning so fast and driving up temps in the pit.
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Found Dennis doing a video on how to use.
https://youtu.be/nrO37c5NlKU?si=p9SDkeka3AMwz11H
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In anticipation of the additional heat, I set the pit to 150 degrees.
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last night was chicken breast, plain old chicken breast. Marinaded with a store brand type Italian marinade. Aka nothing special. Came out a tad dry, top 5 chicken ever made. The extra smoke was very present.
At least for me, this is a game changer. The extra layer of smoke flavor is improving all my cooks.
hughver I'm only a few cooks in, but I'm no longer running up the temp, just two small hickory sticks and two small lump charcoal pieces. Not having the temp issues I did on the trial run.
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not sure I have a ton to add here other than saying once again ... game changer. Last night was skinless, boneless chicken thighs. They really took the extra smoke flavor. I've been using half a hickory chunk from Smoke Daddy and a lump charcoal from Safeway on each side. My pit actually smells different, you can experience the additional smoke during the cook. The end results are some of the best I've done in playing around with this hobby since 2009.
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I watched the video that Big Dave posted, now it's off to procure some lava rocks. I appears that I did not load the wood correctly. I could see flames coming from around the shield. When all else fails, read the instructions ;D.
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In that video all I saw was high-quality smoke, blue, light blue and invisible. That seems to be perfect. Here's hoping that it does as well in a more conventionally shaped pellet pit.
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I watched the video that Big Dave posted, now it's off to procure some lava rocks. I appears that I did not load the wood correctly. I could see flames coming from around the shield. When all else fails, read the instructions ;D.
I'm far from the expert here. I did watch the videos, there was talk of overloading. That's why I'm splitting the wood. The lump is my own idea and I asked Dallas at Smoke Daddy about it, he said go for it. Only caution was to not overload the boxes. Two cooks ago I had a bit of unburnt lump after the cook (hickory was ash). So far so good, haven't experienced any overshoot on temps since the first cook. I have yet to fully figure out how long the extra smoke lasts (full fire combustion vs smoldering). I haven't tried the lava rocks, don't think it's necessary.
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My wife bought the wrong size lava rocks (too small) so I used small cherry wood hunks with lump charcoal as mentioned above. It worked great, very little temperature overshoot and lots of smoke.
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My wife bought the wrong size lava rocks (too small) so I used small cherry wood hunks with lump charcoal as mentioned above. It worked great, very little temperature overshoot and lots of smoke.
Excellent! I'm trying to get two of my local friends to try as well (Traeger/GMG). I'd like to have some more input to ensure I'm not simply too excited to have a balanced opinion. This simple product really makes a big difference. The more feedback the better! What really surprises me is that there's a 5 year old Heavy D video on youtube. How this has been out there for 5 years and we didn't know about it is shocking to me?!? It was actually the woodwinds/Campchef smoke box that got me thinking along these lines.