Workhorse Pits
Anyone know what kind of baffle Workhorse Pits has, or have a picture?
I’ve been trying to find something, can’t find anything.
I’ve been trying to find something, can’t find anything.
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I didn't have a lot of luck finding actual pictures of their baffle or throat opening from the inside of the cook chamber. I'll keep looking, but here's something I found. I think they either have a wide-open no-baffle design, OR it's just a short horizontal plate. I got a quick glimpse on one of the videos, but no one ever really zoomed in to eyeball the throat opening. Several reasons - when this came out a couple-three years ago, the whole 'throat opening/baffle plate' wasn't talked about a lot. Just over the last year or two has this become more widespread knowledge of how it really changes your cooking style and characteristics on social media.
Here's a couple of pics one guy showed on his video, I liked this. He was demonstrating the difference in the location and intensity of the hot spot using the stack damper open, closed 1/3 or closed 2/3.
If you watch his video here, he talks more about it. Decent test, if you ask me. It's less than 4 minutes, so it's a good short one that yields decent information.
From my experience, I'd think just from looking at this hot spot and the characteristics of how this pit runs, it's either an open-throat model, or there's a very short horizontal baffle plate. I'll keep looking for a pic though.
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Absolutely! I don't even have a stack damper on my 3 offsets, but I've built them with dampers for others. I like to run fully open most of the time and control temps and flow with the firebox door and/or pinwheel damper. But I kind of like high-flow convective cooking. I'm thinking about adding some dampers, though, just to experiment with them more. I've cooked on other offsets with them, just didn't 'need' them on mine. -
I run my offset wide open - don’t even close the firebox door. It’s a method I first read about in Aaron Franklins meat manifesto, and it’s been the best way I’ve found to get a clean burning fire. Any time I limit air supply in or out I end up with dirty smoke. Temp is controlled simply by how much/size of wood I add. -
What stood out to me in the video, is the size of the fire he's running in the " fast airflow " mode. He's getting mostly 275* with at least two splits. If I ran that fire in the Franklin it would be 350* at the stack end, and probably higher.
And he runs larger splits. I buy 16" splits and cut them in half. Then I split them again and most of the time I've got one split burning, depending upon the coal bed and the willingness of the split to burn.
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There’s nothing, I’m surprised it’s this hard to find.Originally posted by bbqLuv View PostComment
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I'm pretty sure this is it . And there's a YT vid with a one year review of the 1975 that has a shot of the baffle. Vid should start at that point, if not, its at 2:45
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Its somewhat similar to the baffle in my old Brazos. Except the Brazos looks to be more restrictive. At the widest point, there was 3" opening under the Brazos baffle. I had the same issue as the pics above, if I increased air flow, the heat/air would shoot further into the cook chamber. My theory was the restriction caused a mild venturi effect.
I finally figured out, that I had to run the Brazos at minimal air flow. I kept the damper in the firebox door at 1/2 open. I tried to get air/heat rising as soon as it entered under the baffle.
Many Brazos owners ( and Old Country Pecos ) have cut the baffle out and are much happier with how it cooks. I considered that but thought if I opened up the firebox end, I would also need to rebuild the stack end i.e. add a collector and taller stack. I was talking to welders about doing this when I got an email from Franklin that their smoker was available.
But the opening in the Workhorse pic above, looks to be larger than 3". Still though, it appears to be a restriction of flow into the cook chamber. Just me, but my first thought is to control air flow with the damper in firebox door, or the door itself. Rather than close off the damper on the stack.
Just try to ignore the foil that's sort've distorting this pic.
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Nice find. I think they’re trying to almost do a split by having a slits in it.Originally posted by Lynn Dollar View PostI'm pretty sure this is it . And there's a YT vid with a one year review of the 1975 that has a shot of the baffle. Vid should start at that point, if not, its at 2:45
The new M&M is trying to do something similar, but the review from the guy who has smoker #1, said too much heat goes up top and creates a lot of heat zones and almost burns the top.Attached FilesComment
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Old Country has a new smoker. The baffle is sort've optional, in that its removable .
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Workhorse Pits 1975 baffle - more of a deflector plate.
Pic of the 'hot zones' illustrated during a couple of biscuit tests. I think this guy on YouTube did this with his exhaust stack damper set to wide open and to half or three-quarters closed.
Hope this helps someone. Pictures of their setup are surprisingly hard to find. Honestly, this is not a good way to do it, in my opinion, but their pits are well built and they're very successful, obviously.
Newer designs with vertical baffles or deflectors make much more efficient use of the BTUs, at least for the main lower cooking grate. Again, in my opinion, and everyone likes to cook in a different way, so that's why there are a lot of different ways to do it, and cook meat effectively.Comment
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