Took me 3 hours to fix a stuck damper on my off-set smoker

I've always been a charcoal purist who thought baffle plates and tuning plates were for people who couldn't manage a fire. But last Saturday I ran a brisket on my Oklahoma Joe and the thin blue smoke turned into a white billowing mess. The damper on the firebox side was jammed open from years of grease and rust. I spent 3 hours with a wire brush, a heat gun, and a lot of swearing to get it moving again. That was 3 hours I could have been relaxing with a beer. What convinced me to change my mind was watching a YouTube video from a guy in Kansas City who showed how a simple baffle plate evens out hot spots and keeps dampers clean. I ordered one that night. Has anyone else had a damper freeze up on them during a long cook?

2 comments

2 Comments

aaron8963d agoMost Upvoted

Man, 3 hours of cussin' over a stuck damper sounds like a perfect Saturday to me, I mean that's basically meditation with extra rust.

grant7282d ago

Got a buddy who had his intake damper seize up mid smoke on a pork shoulder. He panicked, grabbed a sledgehammer, and cracked the whole firebox. Meanwhile his neighbor came over with a can of WD-40 and had it fixed in ten minutes. Speaking of neighbors, @aaron896 there's something real satisfying about wrestling a 20 year old piece of steel for three hours while sipping a warm Coors. My personal record was six hours unsticking a flat top griddle that had been sitting in a barn since 2003. Ended up using a floor jack and a two foot pipe wrench. The neighbors thought I was running a chop shop in the backyard.