Anyone Using Ole Hickory Ace?

[Perry Mason]

I purchased an Ole Hickory Ace MM (charcoal only) smoker a few months ago. Pricy but great stainless steel construction and huge amount of room. Have used it about a dozen or so times and absolutely love it. Only issue I've had is with keeping the temperature down in the 225-250 low n slow range. Setting it up exactly like all of the videos on YouTube and closing the bottom vents completely and setting the thermostat to 200, it stays in the 280-300 degree range. I had the company swap out thermostats and still no difference. Finally on the last couple of cooks, I started blocking the 2 stacks with wet towels to cut off/reduce the air flow (the stacks have no built-in way to adjust this). Finally, with 1 stack completely blocked and the other blocked about 90%, it'll run in the 240-250 range. I called the company because I was shocked that a smoker this expensive didn't have a way to regulate the stacks, but was told this model did not have this feature. Anyway - I think I might have it figured out now with the wet towels. Wondering if anyone else uses an Ole Hickory smoker and has had this issue?

[Mosca]

I don’t have that smoker (beautiful piece of equipment!) but I have a question. How does the food taste when you cook it without the towels, in the 280°-300° range?

It sounds like you could perhaps fabricate a damper to go over the stacks, if you want something more elegant than wet towels.

Edit: the website says it has manifold dampers for the exhaust stacks…

Quote:
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EXHAUST


Two-3/4″ X 5 1/4″ Vents. Equipped with adjustable manifold control dampers.

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[Perry Mason]

Yes - the description says that, but they told me that's a mistake. I'm going to call again (maybe I talked with the wrong person). Actually the food tastes great in the 280 range, but there's a bunch of videos on YouTube showing people cooking on this thing in the 250 range without using towels and that's what has me worried that something's not right.

[smokin fool]

No experience with your smoker but my BKK is much the same, its wheel house is 280-300.
When the planets align I can get her down to 260 and even that's a battle.

[Perry Mason]

Maybe that's just what I have to deal with.

[Mosca]

Also, notice the difference between your photo and the one on the website. Yours has no damper on the visible exhaust stack, theirs clearly shows dampers on both exhaust stacks.

[Perry Mason]

Yeah - maybe it's something that they left off. I just left a message. I'll let y'all know what I find out. thanks!

[Perry Mason]

UPDATE - Just got off the phone with Ole Hickory. They're shipping me the adjustable dampers to put on top of the stacks as shown on their website. They said they stopped putting those on the Ace MM a few years ago, but didn't explain why.

[Mosca]

Good. They should take a new photo, too. And edit their copy.

[FireMan]

Hey, towels & 280 & it tastes great. I’m not complainin.
PS. I’m also a nobody when it comes to that cooker. Just a taste tester.

[Jerod Broussard]

Me thinks there is too much air coming in somewhere. I know on a kettle, if the lid leaks you can choke down the exhaust all you want, it'll still climb.

[Perry Mason]

Yeah, I agree. I can completely close the lower vents and turn the the fans completely off and it'll still run about 265 for hours, so it's got to be drawing air from somewhere. The Ole Hickory guys think I'm using too much charcoal - I've been filling the basket (which is not all that big - maybe holds 4 to 5 lbs). They suggested I try filling it half way and see what happens. I'll have to keep fiddling with things and hopefully figure it out. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Jerod Broussard]

Perry Mason not to be smart, but this may be a job for....PERRY MASON!

From what I've seen those baskets seem pretty small. Any practical way to set up a snake with some dividers. I'd be looking to seal up some gaps too. Lotta money for those things to run like that if you ask me. I'd love a CTO, my bank account, not so much.

[Perry Mason]

I tried it last weekend and using wet towels over the stacks was able to keep a pretty steady 250 degrees for 5.5 hours before the temperature started dropping on about 5lbs charcoal, so I think if I solve the airflow issue I'll be fine. I can use smaller amounts of charcoal for shorter cooks/ daytime cooks, but I'd like to be able to get 5-6 hours if I'm doing overnite with a butt or brisket. We'll see how the dampers they're sending do.

[Perry Mason]

UPDATE ON Ole Hickory smokestack dampers: Finally received and installed the (free) smokestack dampers from the manufacturer. Turns out the sales guy was right - they aren't needed for this smoker, BUT not because the smoker doesn't need dampers. It is because the dampers are total garbage and do almost nothing to reduce the stack flow even when totally closed because the slider mechanism doesn't fit tight enough to be of any use. I called the sales guy again and he said that what I'm supposed to do is control the temperature by reducing the amount of charcoal I use. I guess that's fine if I want to only light about 10 briquets at a time and add more every couple of hours. You would think that a smoker as expensive as these would have an efficient way to damper the stacks. That's not to say I don't love the way this thing cooks, but here's what I've learned: If you run it exactly like the mfr recommends in their manual and YouTube videos, it's not going to run below 275-295 and you'll use up a basket of charcoal (the baskets aren't that large) every 3 hours. If you do it the way I did on Saturday and cover the stacks almost totally with wet towels, close the lower vents completely and turn the fan/thermostat off, it'll run at 240 degrees steady for 6.5 hours with almost no temperature fluctuation at all before beginning to taper off. (240 degrees on the top rack, means probably 225-230 degrees on the lower racks (4 total racks). Perfect for ribs and perfect for doing butts and briskets and still being able to get some shut-eye. BTW - did 2 racks of STL ribs "semi-Last Meal" style. Wrapped one for hour and a half and not the other. Both came out great at the 6.5 hr mark. The wrapped ones passed the toothpick test. The unwrapped ones did not, but were still great. (Rested for 1 hr in 170 oven after taking off.) Should've taken photos.

[Greygoose]

Check with Malcolm Reed at "how to bbq right"
he has one and cooks on it on some of his videos

[Perry Mason]

Greygoose Thanks - I've looked at all of Malcolm's Ole Hickory videos as well as those from Dskigrillz who uses the same one. In the older videos, Malcolm's has a stack damper (but different from the one the sent me), but these have been removed in the more recent videos. It looks like Malcolm may be turning the fan off when he gets up to temp. since I can't see the light on the switch once the fire gets going. Dskigrillz puts a very small amount of charcoal in the basket and I'm assuming that this is how he keeps the temp down. He'll also use a few briquets and then large wood chunks - so maybe the wood chunks don't get as hot as the charcoal only fires. I'll keep experimenting.