Project (ECB) Water Smoker W/Part 2 Mods

Alien BBQ · Last edited by Alien BBQ on Thu Sep 07 06 2:12 pm; edited 2 times in total

Project (ECB) Smoke N Grill

This project will is for all the people that has wanted to learn how to smoke but did not want to go out a drop $300 - $1200 on a back yard smoker. The cost of this project is under $50 and the product it will produce will be good.

First let me say that you get what you pay for. The ECB (el cheapo brinkman) water smoker is the #1 selling water smoker in the world. I and many other BBQ brethren have had one of these in there past. The metal is cheap, the parts many times don�t line up right, and the gauge is a piece of junk. However, it only cost $28 and is ready to go in about an hour (including the mods.) It will last you about two years and has been known to cook for 4 hours on one load of charcoal. The modifications I made are common and fairly easy to do. One disclaimer� This smoker is not designed to be placed on a wooden deck or near anything flammable. If you aren�t careful you will burn down your house.

Now the good points. It only cost $28 (not on sale) and is easy to mod. It has about 400 sq. inches of cooking surface and easily converts from a smoker, to a grill, to a steamer in seconds. It will cook a large turkey and a ham at the same time and will run for hours unattended. The bottom line is as a first smoker to learn on (if you only have $28) or as a back up for an offset, I would recommend this smoker.

When you pick this smoker up at the store you will first notice that it doesn�t weigh too much. The box neatly fits in the back of your vehicle and is nothing more than just a few parts to fit together. (I SHOULD REMARK THAT THEY DO NOT FIT TOGETHER WELL) My assistant had to bend handles that had holes drilled 1 inch off mark.

When it is all put together, it will look like this. (note that the legs are normally installed on the inside.)

The first mod is to install the legs on the outside of the cooker. This will allow you to easily pick up and remove the entire cooking chamber to check or change your charcoal.

Once you have completed this, the next step is to drill 3/8 inch holes in the coal pan to allow air to pass through and into the pan for better combustion.

Because I planned to have my pan sit on a ring, I placed the holes below the contact line in order to better control the amount of air going into the bottom of the charcoal pan. I choose a metal pipe ring to give the height to allow the charcoal pan to sit within the cooking chamber but not on the ground. (When you reverse the legs on the cooker, the original pan shelf no longer exist.

Finally, we replace the junky gauge that comes with the smoker with an adjustable one that reads temperature and not �warm, ideal, and hot�.

To set the ECB up, light a fire in the fire pan and let it burn to hot coals. The minion method will work great in this type of smoker also.

When you are ready to start cooking, pick up the entire smoker by the handles and slowly place over and down on to the pan.

You can check the fire through the door, but I would remove the entire cooker as described above to add coals or wood to the fire. The door however does make it easier to add water or beer to the water pan by using a cheap garden watering can.

One note on the temperature with this type of smoker, you control the temp with the type and amount of fuel you put in the charcoal pan. I filled the pan � up with lump and a couple pieces hickory. I reached temp in about 15 minutes and kept at 225 degrees for 4 hours. When the water dried up in the pan, the temp went to 240 degrees and stayed there until it ran out of enough coal to maintain 200+ degrees.

Here is the round two of the mods to the Project ECB,
I got rid of the ring and the original fire bowl that came with the ECB. I found a Smokey joe knockoff at Home Depot for $4.95 (They still have them) and used the parts to make the original mods even better.

After putting the base together, I made four clips to hold the fire bowl above the ash catcher.

As you can see, this allows for air to flow in between the two bowls. The fire bowl was made from the lid of the knockoff grill.

I drilled holes in the lid for air flow and used the original grate to keep the coals off the bottom.

I used the vent that came on the knockoff, and installed it on the ECB lid.

Finally, because the whole thing sat higher, I used three bricks to make a stand for the main cooking section.

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SDrees · Posted: Wed Feb 01 06 1:34 am Post subject:

I don't see how you can beat it for the price. Way to go!!!!
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zilla · Posted: Wed Feb 01 06 1:52 am Post subject:

Good Job! Thank you for taking the initiative to do this! Smile

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GIANT BBQ

adolpho · Posted: Thu Feb 02 06 3:41 am Post subject:

As always, awesome job Alien! I already posted on another subject how your mods make the ECB a very good smoker.
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Thomas P. · BBQ Pro Joined: 26 Jul 2005 Posts: 596 Location: Texas

Sweet, dude, all we need now are some pics of the food when it's done!!!!

Okay, not to be a buzz kill, but where does an average joe, like me, obtain the pipe ring to complete the mods?

ROCK ON!!!!
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bigabyte · Posted: Fri Feb 03 06 3:02 pm Post subject:

I'm seriously thinking about picking one of these up now. Thanks for the detailed mod instructions Alien. If not for the fact that I had to tinker around with my other Brinkmann, I probably wouldn't want to bother but the mod stuff is kinda fun and you just can't beat $28.

That pipe ring does look thick, is it steel? Do you think an aluminum pipe would suffice?
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sledgehammer03 · Posted: Fri Feb 03 06 3:29 pm Post subject:

Alien BBQ · Posted: Fri Feb 03 06 4:04 pm Post subject:

Sledge is right, go to your local junkyard and pick up a piece for pennies on the dollar. This one is steel, however just about anything will do. Before I found this piece, I had my eye on an iron flower pot stand which was the same height. It was $3 at Big Lots. After next weeks Pit Master University class I believe I am going to make a sheet metal ring with a base to replace the bottom legs. My thought is that I could fabricate something that works the same as the WSM base and would seal off the bottom of the smoker when you sat it down on the base. Any comments or ideas???

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rudyr · Posted: Sat Feb 04 06 4:43 am Post subject:

Find a local utility contracter in your area. They usually have pieces of water pipes and casing laying around.

Thomas P. · BBQ Pro Joined: 26 Jul 2005 Posts: 596 Location: Texas

Uhm...dude...pics of food? Do you actually cook on that thing or just look at it? Laughing

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Alien BBQ · Posted: Tue Feb 07 06 3:04 pm Post subject:

I have the Pit Master University classthis weekend andwill have photos. I am also retrofitting a ring on it so I can use my large wok for outdoor stirfry.
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Biegs B Que · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 16

Where was this on thursday. My friend was given one of these not too long ago and was having a party on Sunday so we decided to use it. None of us have any experience with smoking so I took it for a test run on firday and cooked for 20 on sunday. It has no problem smoking but it was way to hard to control the temp. It jumped up and down like a rabbit. Without the modifications there is ventilation and I knew this was going to be a problem to start but used it anyway. Thanks for the tips anyway, now it wont become a flower pot.

Alien BBQ · Posted: Wed Feb 08 06 2:47 am Post subject:

The key thing to remember with this smoker is that it is primarily a charcoal smoker. I have found that the Minion method works well with this smoker.
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adolpho · Posted: Wed Feb 08 06 5:07 am Post subject:

This is basically the only mod I do for better airflow in my ECB. It works great with the minion method. I got the charcoal grate from a cheap small dome bbq pit from Walmart. 15 small holes drilled in the bottom and I use a cake pan underneath to catch the ashes. I also use an oven thermometer inside the ECB. I don't have high spikes in temperature, it stays around 225-250 degrees. My only problem is when I dump my chimney of hot coals onto the unlit coals in the pan, a couple of strays fall to the side (such a long distance to drop them). I usually pick them up quickly and get them back in. If I used Alien's mods of putting the legs to the outside, it would be much easier to get the coals in the pan. Go the extra step guys, don't be lazy like me!!! Oh yeah...I always use my ECB on concrete, that's why my strays have never started a fire. Rolling Eyes

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Biegs B Que · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 16

thank you both for the tips. but i have to ask what the minion method is?

Alien BBQ · Posted: Thu Feb 09 06 6:34 am Post subject:

Adolpho,

That is exactly like the WSM mod Webber suggest (for a slightly higher fee) I guess great minds move in the same circles.

Biegs B Que,

I looked for the long drawn-out post on this but I could not find it, so here is the condensed version. Basically you take a mound of fresh charcoal (un-burnt) and pour a mound of lit charcoal on top. The lit charcoal will eventually burn down to the un-lit and catch it on fire. It takes about 6-20 hours to do this and it keeps a fairly constant temp.
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wnkt · Posted: Thu Mar 16 06 7:15 pm Post subject:

wnkt · Posted: Fri Mar 24 06 11:10 pm Post subject:

I had an Idea.....if you are going to all the trouble with building the box on the bottom.....why make it where you STILL have to lift the smoker off it to get to the fire......make the base the firebox itself, with maybe the box made into a drawerso ypu can pull it out and dump ashes easily

Heck......all a smoker is is a chimney with a place to put the meat

Alien BBQ · Posted: Sat Mar 25 06 1:53 am Post subject:

Good Idea. My assistant is currently building a 3000 sq inch double firebowl water smoker for me. He and I sat down and started thinking about size and convience and came up with a modular design that is 40x24x68 with twin fire bowls in the bottom and four racks the hold 750 sq inches of meat each. It should be done towards the early summer.
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wnkt · Posted: Sat Mar 25 06 3:59 am Post subject:

Could you tell me what the dimensions are for that ring of pipe you used to hold the firebowl?

I tried getting a clay flowerpot but couldnt find one that was wide enough but not so tall.

I just bought a "ECB" and was going to do this modification. I got the better thermometer ....sacrificed the one that came out of it Twisted Evil

so it would fit in that wide gaping hole in the lid