CharBoil Silver Smoker help

[Hqly]

Hi guys,

New to the forum, any help would be great!
I'd started out with gas grills and found out that I enjoy slow smoking better. I bought a sidekick for my weber. A Char-boil Silver smoker!

I've heard that you have to season it and modify it to hold the heat, can anyone help me turn it into a nice smoker? I want to slow cook my ribs and pork butts since my other small 18 1/2 incher is too small and cumbersome when i try to put in extra charcoal. The firebox for the silver smoker is pretty nice.

Any advice on how to use this thing? I plan on using charcoal to get it going then putting in some oak for slow cooking..

Any advice would be great!!

What is the best way to season and cook a pork butt? uncovered for 5-6 hours then foil it up to finish off?? Mustard and rub?

Can't wait to get the fire going tomorrow after I assemble it!!

[ddog27]

Hi guys,

New to the forum, any help would be great!
I'd started out with gas grills and found out that I enjoy slow smoking better. I bought a sidekick for my weber. A Char-boil Silver smoker!

I've heard that you have to season it and modify it to hold the heat, can anyone help me turn it into a nice smoker? I want to slow cook my ribs and pork butts since my other small 18 1/2 incher is too small and cumbersome when i try to put in extra charcoal. The firebox for the silver smoker is pretty nice.

Any advice on how to use this thing? I plan on using charcoal to get it going then putting in some oak for slow cooking..

Any advice would be great!!

What is the best way to season and cook a pork butt? uncovered for 5-6 hours then foil it up to finish off?? Mustard and rub?

Can't wait to get the fire going tomorrow after I assemble it!!

I have owned a silver smoker for a few years now and it will always be a difficult smoker to use. I had a lot of trouble keeping a constant temp so I asked my brother-in-law (who does iron work) if he could work on it a little. He dropped the firebox a little (Before any flames went right into the cooking chamber!) and he put together a heat sheild in the firebox and cooking chamber to force the heat all the way through the cooking chamber. He was trying to reduce the difference in temps from one side to another. After all that work it was better but it still had problems. If you like having to manage the fire a lot you will love it! But I got tired of it. I was given a WSM for Christmas and I haven't used my silver smoker since!

With all that negative stuff aside it is a good way to learn about smoking and also how to control your fire. Then once you get some experience you will want to move on to bigger or better smokers. Let me know if you have any more questions! I will be happy to answer them! :D :D

[Hqly]

so it's reaqlly that bad huh?
i was hoping that it will be fun to use.. I'd been using my weber gas grill as a charcoal grill.. but it was hard..
I guess I don't care about the temp being around 200-225.. i'm worried that the fire escape through the pipe without touching the meat..
maybe i will just put charcoal in the smoking chamber to make sure the food gets enough heat?

If i shut the firebox..close the vents..w hat does that do?
how about if i shut the pipe tight? Will it kill the flame?

[StPeteBBQ]

Why would you want to punish yourself so much? Get the right tool for the job and make your cooking experience a pleasure. Nothing worse than hating to fire up your grill or smoker.

[Rump Roast]

Why would you want to punish yourself so much? Get the right tool for the job and make your cooking experience a pleasure. Nothing worse than hating to fire up your grill or smoker.


I like how you think. :)

I have a buddy who has the same smoker and he sometimes has the same problem holding the temp in his smoker. His smoker is straight out of the box unmodified. If you haven't assembled it yet, my suggestion is to go and try a Chargriller Smoking Pro. It cost roughly the same as the silver smoker but is almost twice the size and holds heat incredibly well. Just sitting outside in the sun the grill will register at 100 degrees. I've had this grill for a year now and love it.
Then again, you might have a different experience with yours and turn out some fantastic meals with it.

Rump

[Hqly]

I had trouble using ti for the first tiem yesterday..
meat took forever to cook.. never went above 170.. or 180..
just seems like the fire wasn't enough.. this was unmodified.. as i waited for Dan's e-mail which never came.. couldn;t wait so i cooked with it without modifying it..
it was kinda hot near the firebox.. but only warm towards the end..
i was using cahrcoal and some mesquite wood chunks.. barely any heat goes through i'd say..
ribs at the end were dried out and nto tender..

I will probably put charcoal inside the smoker next time to get better heat..

[ddog27]

I had trouble using ti for the first tiem yesterday..
meat took forever to cook.. never went above 170.. or 180..
just seems like the fire wasn't enough.. this was unmodified.. as i waited for Dan's e-mail which never came.. couldn;t wait so i cooked with it without modifying it..
it was kinda hot near the firebox.. but only warm towards the end..
i was using cahrcoal and some mesquite wood chunks.. barely any heat goes through i'd say..
ribs at the end were dried out and nto tender..

I will probably put charcoal inside the smoker next time to get better heat..


I don't think you need to go that far. How much charcoal and wood are you putting in the fire box? I would guess that you need to put a lot more in. Make sure that the chimney is open and the firebox vent is all the way open. The more air the hotter the fire. When you shut these the temp will drop. I always left everything wide open then once the fire was really hot I would close the firebox vent a little to control the temp. You then can open and close this vent to control your temp. Like I said before it will be hard to keep it constant, but as long as you keep it within the 200 - 250 range you should get some good results. Let me know if you have any other questions! :D :D

[TomKattt]

Sharkey, I have a pdf file with mods that can be made to a SIlver or most any other offset smoker to improve their cooking characteristics. If you could tell me if there's a way to post it, I will. Lots of people have made these mods and they make dramatic improvements to their smokers. (This is not spam. I am not selling anything. All parts can be purchased at a Home Depot.)

[RibRib]

I have been using my Silver Smoker for two summers now and love it. Like you I had trouble with maintaining temp. Then I found out how to make modifications to the cooking chamber that distributes the heat more evenly and I found out about the Minion Method for fire building and management. The modifications are easy to do and the Minion Method of heat management is widely know and used by experienced owners of offset smokers. I can maintain a consistant 225-240 degrees in my smoker for a 5 hour period. Here is a link to a PDF file that will show how to do the modifications and how to do the Minion Method of fire buiding. www.bbqinstitute.com/smokermods.htm Then click on "Smoker Modifications" for the pdf file. A Google search on Minion Method will find links as well. In the Silver Smoker you should only use charcoal. It is not designed to build a wood fire in it. Smoke can be acheived by placing wood chunks (1" to 5") directly on the charcoal or what I do is put 4 or 5 chunks in a 46oz juice can with aluminum foil on the top with a small hole in the center. Just place the can directly on top of the coals. This allows the wood to smoke without flaring up. I only use smoke during the first 90 minutes of cooking. Any smoking after that is overkill in my opinion.

The Silver Smoker is a very nice offset smoker - for the money. I paid $150.00 from Home Depot. It does need some tinkering to modify it but once done it can perform nicely. If you want better performance and better quality, there are other offset smokers out there that are more heavy duty and already are built to distribute heat evenly through out the cooking chamber. These cookers are costly ($800 and up) but will perform more consistantly and last a lifetime. I am currently researching these units and will have one for next years bbq season.

RibRib