Smokenator 1000 Introduction |
If you are a complete novice to low temperature smoking, you own a 22” Weber kettle, and want to learn how smoke food, read on to learn about a simple but sophisticated tool that will improve the efficiency and capacity of your workhorse Weber Kettle. |
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This page is divided in several sections with bold titles to give you information on deciding if Smokenator is for you. Please Scroll down. |
How Smokenator Works |
The Smokenator contains the hot coals channeling heat upward and shields food from direct heat. Food is cooked by convection and gentle radiation through the 18 gage stainless shield. A pan containing water rests right on top of the coals which is the most efficient way to fill the kettle with high humidity. This humidity does three things. Keeps food moist (assuring deep smoke ring penetration), keeps temperature lower which gives you more control over temperature.
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Benefits and FeaturesEfficiency is a term that means to conserve energy, time or effort. The Smokenator is a device that has several kinds of efficiency that saves you time and effort letting you produce fine food.The first thing you notice about the Smokenator is that is it compact and rests on the side of the kettle. The Smokenator is only 6” wide freeing up space. In the past, people only had the option to put coals into charcoal rails or baskets, and for its time, a good idea. It stopped coals from sliding around placing coals on the side of the food, yet did not shield food from intense heat radiation, because of this the baskets really limit the Weber’s capacity due to burning the food. To prevent food near the kettle from getting too hot and drying out, aluminum foil can be placed between the food and the coals. I found when cooking this way, that the foil becomes displaced when I added coals, causing me to have to reposition the foil to keep the food from burning or drying out and losing heat in the kettle. You have probably cooked this way and come back and found the foil slipped away and your food exposed. |
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The above picture shows the charcoal basket and charcoal rails used for what is called "indirect cooking",
a marketing euphemism for moving the coals over to the side by about 2", but not diminishing direct radiation
to any effective degree. Typically a pan containing water is placed between the
two rails or baskets. The picture below shows the indirect method in use. Note how charred these ribs are, probably because of the high sugar content of the rub and the effect of the unshielded indirect method. The site does
a great job of discussing brisket and rib cooking! When you use a Smokenator and follow the instructions your ribs will start out at 210 degrees F and if you follow the directions never exceed 250 degrees F. I doubt you will char the sugar in a rub. |
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| Gimpysoft RibLog | |
The placement of the Smokenator lets a 25-pound turkey sit comfortably in the Weber, without worrying about getting ash on the turkey when one stirs the coals. There is no worry about the foil moving and the turkey getting dried out. The Smokenator partition blocks the majority of direct radiation while turning the kettle into a highly moisturized cooking environment. |
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Turns Weber into offset SmokerThe placement of the Smokenator on the side of the kettle turns the kettle into a self-contained offset smoker. The kettle has volume above the coal supporting grill of about 2.5 cubic feet and depth above the same grill of 13". With some ingenuity a person can easily increase the capacity of the grilling surface. I have personally used three levels in the Weber to smoke food, one grill above and one grill surface below the Weber’s food support grill. One does have to rotate the food,(you have to in any big smoker) but it’s easy to get over 700 square inches of surface area out of this arrangement. This is simply exploiting the volume that is in the kettle. The Weber Smoky Mountain has a capacity, using the two grills provided, of about 537 square inches. I have a 17.75" grill that has 247 square inches of surface that rests 3" above the food support grill. This gives about 550 square inches of surface on which to put your ribs or split chicken halves on. |
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Fuel CapacityAnother kind of efficiency is the cavity of the Smokenator can be loaded up with charcoal briquettes and wood chunks, the upper and lower vents set and the charcoal charge will last up to 6 hours with an average food support grill temperature of 220 ° F and the charcoal support grill at just under 200 ° F. It’s pretty hard to hold all of 60 briquettes and 11 oz of wood chips in a basket!!!The Smokenator will hold 68 Kingsford Briquettes. |
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Heat ExchangeThe third form or type of efficiency is heat exchange: The design of the Smokenator allows the placement of a pan into the actual firebox of the Smokenator, this placement of the pan right against the coals is the most effective and efficient placement for water used to dampen temperature and increase moisture in the Weber Kettle. Heat transfers quickly into the water dampening the temperature of the kettle.Why, is this important? You will find that without water the vents in the Weber Kettle are very touchy, the kettle’s upper vents have to be closed way down to around 0.2 to .3 square inch venting surface area to get into the range of about 230 ° F. Any small mistake, such, as accidentally, not placing the top kettle cover back on properly will cause the water temperature to skyrocket over 100 ° F in about 10 minutes. Thirdly, the kettle cools off very slowly; only by removing coals can you get the temperature to move down rapidly. |
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Having the water pan in the firebox is simply the most efficient means of transferring heat to the water and keeping temperature lower. This allows the user to control temperature using the upper kettle vents with more range. The kettle actually burns charcoal at a faster rate; this is ok, since there is adequate air for the wood chunks to burn to blue smoke, which is the best. In actual standardized tests, with no sacrificial water to absorb heat, a pan of 1500 milliliters of water lost 33% of its volume in a three hour time period. The same test using water in the Smokenator pan, showed a loss of only 15 percent. This difference is caused by the increase in moisture in the kettle due to the coals heating the water to produce steam. This steam also carries heat away through the upper vent. Complete InstructionsThe Smokenator comes with complete instructions for setting it up in your 22.5" Weber. In fact, I'm pretty sure you will be pleased at the detail provided to show you how to cook low and slow at 230 ° F Dome temperature and 210 to 220 on the food support grill. Actual procedures are given to show you how to set up the Weber correctly. Customers who bought the Smokenator and smoked food for the first time are able to regulate the temperature and produce quality results using only the control vents on the Weber with no expensive mechanical temperature controlsSecondly, I will describe how to set up the Smokenator to run up to six hours on one filling of the firebox cavity (Minion Method). These instructions are the result of over 60+ hours of tests with Kingsford charcoal. You should know that the settings work well for lump charcoal and offer an excellent starting point for lump Charcoal. In addition to having a Smokenator and 22”Weber kettle ,you will need an inexpensive bi-metal thermometer;(Taylor puts out a metal dial candy thermometer for about $8.00. ) To compare what your Weber kettle’s potential is to other smokers on the market click: |
Smokenator's Competitive Advantage
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