Expert: John Langenfelder - 8/4/2009

Question
A friend of mine had a 55 gal barrel smoker with a offset fire box that he made but had issues with the heat  so I offered to take it off his hands for him.  the issue he and I are having is that the cooking chamber gets really hot near the box and  alot cooler on the opposite side and I can figure out  how to get even heat through the whole chamber ?

Answer
Joe,

Probably not going to be a lot of help here.  The majority of cookers with offsets are going to be hotter near the fire box.  That said here are a couple of thoughts:

More insulation (i.e. weld some metal in the fire box or the inside chamber) in the chamber or in the fire box
A "heat sinc" or baffle system to diffuse the heat through the cooker - most of your manufacturers use a baffle system to diffuse the heat.
A fan to help circulate the heat.  Check out BBQ guru.  They may be able to provide you with a fan to help circulate the heat.
Put a fire box inside the fire box to keep the heat away from the wall of the cook chamber.