I recently bought a Char Griller COS. I needed some additional cooking space for an event I was grilling burgers and hot dogs for, and it was on sale for $100, so I got it knowing it wasn't high quality, but it would work. Plus it fit in the back of my mini van (Yeah, I used to be cool) if I took the top off. After reading up on some mods that others had done, I decided to try to make it better for smoking. This is the finished product from outside.
As you can see I added two thermometers to monitor the heat on both ends.
I also used a high heat felt type gasket to seal around the edges and put bolts in all the unused holes to help hold heat and smoke a little better.
Then I got a piece of steel, cut it to fit inside the unit, and cut out some on the edges to allow heat and smoke to come up around the edges. My other cooker is a BGE, so I patterned it roughly after the plate setter in the BGE. This did a couple of things. First, when making the fire in the fire box, it distributes the heat more evenly instead of having high heat where it comes out of the fire box. Now both ends are within about 5 degrees of each other. It also allows me to build a fire inside the grill and still have indirect heat available. It has to be for shorter cooks, as I can't easily add more fuel, unless I just put it in the fire box, which is always an option. The baffle sits on bolts at each end and 2 bricks in the middle.
That's pretty much the extent of the mods. It still leaks smoke a bit, but it's acceptable. I definitely have to monitor the heat and fuel more than I do on my BGE, but that's ok too. This allows me to become better familiar with offset and stick burner techniques while giving me more cooking capacity. Some day I'll get a higher quality offset, but this gives me the utility I need for now. I can use my BGE, and/or this and have plenty of capacity for most cooks I do. If I need more capacity I have access to an American Barbeque Systems Judge (pictures on another post of mine from a few weeks ago) than can handle more than I need to cook. Total cost for the mods was about $45 for the thermometers and $25 for the steel sheet, plus the $100 for the COS.
As you can see I added two thermometers to monitor the heat on both ends.
I also used a high heat felt type gasket to seal around the edges and put bolts in all the unused holes to help hold heat and smoke a little better.
Then I got a piece of steel, cut it to fit inside the unit, and cut out some on the edges to allow heat and smoke to come up around the edges. My other cooker is a BGE, so I patterned it roughly after the plate setter in the BGE. This did a couple of things. First, when making the fire in the fire box, it distributes the heat more evenly instead of having high heat where it comes out of the fire box. Now both ends are within about 5 degrees of each other. It also allows me to build a fire inside the grill and still have indirect heat available. It has to be for shorter cooks, as I can't easily add more fuel, unless I just put it in the fire box, which is always an option. The baffle sits on bolts at each end and 2 bricks in the middle.
That's pretty much the extent of the mods. It still leaks smoke a bit, but it's acceptable. I definitely have to monitor the heat and fuel more than I do on my BGE, but that's ok too. This allows me to become better familiar with offset and stick burner techniques while giving me more cooking capacity. Some day I'll get a higher quality offset, but this gives me the utility I need for now. I can use my BGE, and/or this and have plenty of capacity for most cooks I do. If I need more capacity I have access to an American Barbeque Systems Judge (pictures on another post of mine from a few weeks ago) than can handle more than I need to cook. Total cost for the mods was about $45 for the thermometers and $25 for the steel sheet, plus the $100 for the COS.
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