PBX mods
Picked up a pbx at academy this spring for $160 ($199 less 20%). Noticed it burns a little hotter than I'd like for certain cuts/cooks. I did some mods to help keep the temperature in check. I did these mods specifically because I like to use the grate and I don't want those rebar bars in the way. First, I wanted to control how much charcoal is burning at any given time in the pbx charcoal basket. I am doing this with a straight line fuse. I took two pieces of 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/4 inch angle iron and cut them both about 15" long. I had to bevel the backs on all 4 ends so they fit the basket. Then, I bought two weber compact charcoal chimney starters. One I use as a charcoal starter, the other I removed the bottom inside grate so it's just a tube and it gets used as my freshly lit charcoal receiver. I light my charcoal, then dump it in the receiver. When I get everything situated, I pull out the receiver and the fuse is lit. In the photo above, i started with the lit side of the fuse closest to the bottom air intake so it's burning away from the intake. I've tried it the other way within burning towards the intake. Seems to burn a little hotter that way. I control airflow without the rebars using some food safe sous vide magnets I got from Amazon. If I leave the middle hole in the back open, this setup gets me 225 to 240 for about 6 hrs.