Offset Smoker Tools: 5 Essential Tools for BBQ Success
Check out this list of 5 of the must have offset smoker tools to get you started with your offset smoker. All of the tools in this list are essential to getting the most out of your pit during your next cookout. I use these 5 things every time I run my own offset smoker and I wouldn’t cook without them. Here they are:
What are the 5 essential offset smoker tools?
Chimney Starter
The first thing you are going to need is something to help get your fire going. The chimney starter is the perfect thing for starting charcoal on fire without the use of lighter fluid. (Note: DO NOT USE LIGHTER FLUID TO START YOUR CHARCOAL) One full chimney of charcoal is the perfect bed of coals to use for building your wood fire.
Simply fill the chimney with unlit charcoal, grab either some old newspaper or a couple of wax cube fire starters, light them and place chimney over the top. In about 20 minutes you will have a chimney full of coals burning uniformly and extremely hot. Ready to be dumped into your firebox and start heating up your pit.
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Charcoal Basket
A charcoal basket to place in your firebox helps to contain your coals, leaves room around for air flow, and allows perfect airflow to your fire. I find that since this keeps my fire in the middle of my firebox, the paint on my firebox has held up very well over the past 3 years. This can easily be made from a sheet of expanded metal with the use of a disc grinder and hammer.
How to make charcoal basket: click here
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High Temp Grilling or Welding Gloves
When dealing with fire, you want to stay safe. Sometimes when handling a full chimney of hot charcoal, you want to have some extra protection when you dump the coals into your pit. The gloves also come in handy when handling wood that you may have pre-heated or for adjusting your vents.
This example of gloves is rated for over 900°F for a short period of time. These would not be recommended grabbing food though, only for handling dry materials. They are made of a special high temp fabric, that would allow hot liquids to penetrate. These would be perfect for handling hot pieces of wood, moving the inlet vents, or picking up hot cast iron.
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Fire Poker
A fireplace poker tool is great for managing your fire. Many times you will need to adjust your charcoal or move your wood around to get a cleaner burning fire. This is can be a store bought fireplace tool, or can be something a little more hand made like mine.
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Digital BBQ Thermometer
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This last tool is essential for getting good BBQ. The thermometer that is installed in most offset smokers is placed in a way that doesn’t necessarily measure the temperature where your food is placed. These BBQ pits are known to have variability in temperature from side to side and top to bottom.
By getting a multi-probe digital BBQ thermometer, you can place one probe at grate level to measure the temperature of your pit and then have another probe to measure the internal temperature of your meat. Many of these now come with either Bluetooth or wireless features that transmit to a cell phone so you can monitor from a distance. They also have temperature alarms for too high or too low that can be set. Just understanding the cooking temperature inside the pit is half the battle to getting perfectly BBQed meat.
These are the 5 best tools I would recommend you have in your possession for your first BBQ cook. If you don’t have these or something similar yet, what are you waiting for? Seriously though, these tools are the staples of every time I cook on my smoker and I wouldn’t fire up my pit without them.
To Learn How to Run Your Offset Smoker, click on my article: How to Use an Offset Smoker Effectively – A Beginners Guide
