I recently purchased a Char-Griller Duo Model 5050 and a Side Fire Box Model 2-2424. I got them from local retail. The Duo had several damages inside the box. The company promptly corrected the decencies. The grill works great out of the box with gas and with charcoal in the adjustable burner tray. The paint is cheap and burned off of the trouble spots on the side fire box within 2 hours of the first firing. With the side fire box added flipping the burner tray over doesn't provide enough of a baffle to adequately distribute heat and smoke in the cook chamber. I built a water reservoir baffle and heat tuning plates that fit in the contour of the cook chamber. These would fit in just about any offset smoker of this style. They help to baffle the heat and smoke down and across the cook chamber and up through the gaps between the tuning plates.
I have never been a fan of extending the chimney to the cook surface with the flex tube because I dont care for the look and taking up the cook space. I fashioned a false wall in the lid that covers the chimney opening and directs the flow to a one inch gap along the entire left edge of the cook surface. You can look down the chimney and see the smoke pulling evenly all along the baffle. If I were making this lid from scratch I would double wall the cold end by one inch and elbow the chimney into the end of the lid instead of the top. This would put the chimney input at grate level all along the cold side of the grill.
My next mod is to make a jacket and lid seals out of grill cloth (heavy terry cloth). I was trying to come up with a good idea to seal the cook chamber. At the same time I was using terry cloth towels to cover the lid to insulate the cook chamber. The cook chamber doesnt get hot enough to scorch or burn the towel. I plan on sewing some fitted terry cloth covers for the lid with thermometer (Which I plan to add) flaps and a chimney opening. For the seals I will hem up several strips of terry cloth about one inch wide and the length to fit around the edge of the cook chamber and seal the lid. They will also help soak up the lid dripping and are washable.
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