Other Versions: - Brinkmann Green Gourmet, Meco bullet smoker & a couple other variations.
Here's my "super-modified" ECB with some accessories. (from top left: fancy wood-soaking water container, favorite extinct briquettes, ECB firepan w/mods, ECB cooking chamber with Polder Thermometer on top, grid cleaning brush, charcoal tongs, chimney starter, aluminum pan with neoprene gloves, paraffin starter w/example slice, "grilla" gloves.)
Now the Bad News...
Well, that works great for about 2 hours....afterwhich you got major
problems. The fine designers of this device neglected to take into
account the long cooking times needed for barbecue, and hence, did not provide
for the "Three A's":
Airflow, which in turn controls
burn rate and temperatures. NO CONTROLS, so your cooking temperatures go
through major spikes and dips throughout the cooking process. Ashfall
- where is the ash going to go after it's burned off the charcoal? In
this design, it goes NOWHERE and ends up smothering the charcoal after a few
hours. Access to the firepan to add
fuel, other than an access door on the side of the unit (How do they expect us
to change out a pan of ashes and fill it with hot coals?...through that little
access door?) To swap out the charcoal the way it is designed, one would
have to remove the lid, the food on the top grid, the top grid, the food on
the bottom grid, the bottom grid, the water pan (with boiling water in it),
and FINALLY the charcoal pan (with RED HOT Ashes in it). This entire
exercise would have to be repeated about 3 times during a typical pork butt or
brisket cook. Very doable, I know since I've done it, but a huge Pain In
the A#@.
The designers figured that the magic water pan and
handy-dandy access door would take care of all these things......WRONG.
Furthermore, many barbecue traditionalists are offended that one would use a
water pan as a "crutch" in place of proper fire control skills, but
that is a subject for another day.