Took me 3 years to figure out my offset smoker had a leak I couldn't see

I bought a used offset smoker from a guy in Nashville back in 2021 and fought with temps the whole time. Thought it was just my fire management being trash, kept buying different wood chunks and adjusting airflow. Turns out there was a hairline crack along the weld near the firebox that only showed up when it got hot and expanded. I finally found it by running a dollar bill around every seam while smoking a butt one night. Has anyone else spent forever chasing a problem that was just a simple mechanical issue?

3 comments

3 Comments

lopez.simon11d ago

That infrared trick makes me wonder though - did you check your firebox door seal when it was cold AND hot? I've seen some guys say their lid gasket passes the cold dollar bill test but fails once the metal warps after an hour at 275. Also, were you getting temp swings in both directions or just struggling to get past 250? I had a friend chasing a similar issue and it turned out his charcoal basket was sitting too low, not actually a leak. What kind of temp issues were you actually seeing?

felix_lane9912d ago

That dollar bill trick is brilliant actually, I never thought to use something thin like that for heat expansion cracks. You'd think people would talk more about checking welds when temps are acting squirrelly, but everyone jumps straight to blaming the fire or the wood. One thing that nobody brings up is using a cheap infrared thermometer to scan the whole cooker while it's hot, I caught a cold spot on my lid gasket that way that was letting in too much air. It's crazy how a tiny mechanical thing can make you doubt your whole smoking ability for years.

patriciareed12d ago

@felix_lane99 that infrared trick is gold, I found a leak in my firebox door hinge that way.