CraigC
Master Chef
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2011
- Messages
- 6,486
Just picked this up today, the Horizon 16 Classic. No more dime store, off set cookers! Along with the Egg and Weber I'm in pretty good shape.
There isn't anything at the bottom. It was made from a 1/4" thick, 16" diameter piece of pipe. It isn't a reverse flow like a Lang. The fire box is welded on and the opening into the cooking chamber is much lower than those bolt on ones (like the one in my back yard that will be in the bulk trash pickup this Thursday).
The reason those cheap units burn a lot of fuel is because they are made of really thin steel and are so porous, they leak like crazy. You can seal a lot of those spots with the right heat resistant material. The lids can be sealed with high heat gasket material like those kamado cookers use. You can also have a diffuser made that will help even out the temps from fire box end to cooler end. The diffuser also stops the direct heat from the fire box getting at the food on that end. I have been told that attaching a flexible, aluminum dryer exhaust "hose" to the stack on the inside and laying it across the grill grates back towards the firebox end, will sort of create a kind of reverse flow effect. Never tried it, but it sounds like it might work. I wouldn't use it above 250 F though.