Yoder Smokers Community Forum

Considering the purchase of a loaded wichita to replace my pellet smoker. I have two questions i was hoping you all could help with.
1) In pictures and videos there appears to be a a gap between the side fire box door and box when closed; wouldn't you want a tight seal here??

2) With a real stick burner like this, can i assume i will now get the real wood flavor in my smokes??

Thank in advance!
Rick

Rick,
Our Loaded Wichita is our #1 seller in a backyard wood pit. I will try and address your questions.

1) You aren't really looking for a tight seal on a traditional offset wood smoker. You want the ability to control the air intake (firebox) and outlet (stack) to manage your pit temperatures. You don't ever really have a need to seal the fire completely off, this would create a smoldering effect.

2) This truly is the age old debate that is very subjective. A wood pit will have the ability to produce more "smoke" for several reasons. A) there will always be a greater moisture content in the fuel B) you can control the burn of the fire. Both of these will allow you to create a slightly dirtier fire which will produce more smoke and deeper flavor on the meat. If you are burning wood with bark it will produce slightly more smoke as the bark burns, this can be viewed as a positive by some palettes. Other people are going to run a tiny efficient hot burning fire to minimize the dirty smoke.

The wood pit will provide you the versatility to create the kind of results you choose.

I hope this helps.