DIY $50 Concrete Kamado Smoker
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- Опубликовано: 13 янв 2020
- Build this concrete block kamado-style smoker (like the Green Egg) for $50 in 5 minutes with NO Tools. It produces amazing results!
Get most parts at your local hardware store. Get grate here:
www.amazon.com/shop/howtolou
Little did he know that in one year's time a 2x2 sheet of plywood would cost more than an entire stamped steel smoker.
LOL. About right!!
🌎 has gone crazy. But we can never go back home.
Lmao. Darn right bro
🤣🤣🤣
Thanks crooked Joe
This girl built this, by myself... I cooked a chicken for 5 1/5 hrs. It was moist, smokey and the family loved it! They ate it all! Thanks for such a nice idea. I am very happy with the design and the price. AND, it held the temperature the whole time cooking. 2 thumbs up and a snap!😁👍👍
Hells yea
How often did you have to monitor the temp? How often did you need to add charcoal, or adjust air vents? Just curious. Thanks!
Just built this today, really excited to try it. It’s worth mentioning that loading the materials to and from the car and then assembling them adds up to quite the work out.
A Green Egg or Kamado joe are way heavier! I needed help getting them off my truck.
Few beers mate does the job
Had you never touched a concrete block b4? I knew what a cinder block was when I was a lil boy. Wait till you see what a experienced roofer does with packs of shingles.
I built this today 🎉
Nice! Simplest smoker on RUclips, I am definitely making one of these. Good work 👍
Lou, this is the single most brilliant DIY barbecue project I have ever seen. Well done, Sir.
I’m definitely going for this project. Might put an old oven tray at bottom to easily clear ash. Great vid.
nothing like a practical straight to the point solution to a problem! thanks man, making one myself!
Did you make it? How was it?
Man that was Amazing ! Im definately gonna try this !
Thanks so much!! I’d been trying to design my cinder block smoker for a year, was gonna build one this summer, but divorce and selling the house ruined those plans, but two things I never considered were the ceramic tile for the diffuser and stacking the half blocks vertically, I didn’t think they’d be that sturdy on their side... I kept looking at ceramic and clay pottery stuff for my inserts...
It works really well.
Can the tile have toxic chemicals in it?
Just used this build for my Thanksgiving turkey. Turned our so good! Thank you
awesome.. great design, straight to the point and bonus "how to" recipe.. beautiful!
Thanks for the ideas rolling in my head ,, brilliant sir smoker !!!
Drones,DIY smoker,pottery wheel. Thumbing your nose at safety footwear. I'll sub!
Safety Third!
Literally giving me anxiety watching this 😟😟😟
This video is horribly underrated! This is wonderful thank you for this I'm going to try this project soon
Subscribed
SENSATIONAL I set mine up looks MINT can't wait to try it
Pure genius Lou!!🙌🏽
dude this is a total hack, thank you sir!
I love this genius 😍. Going to binge watch all his tonight
Gave this one a like for building an inexpensive cooker. Nice wood Chuck engineering
EXCELLENT work, sir!
Genius. I still love American made smokers but are heavy as heck and will be too expensive to ship overseas. This solves that problem as concrete blocks are cheap no matter what country you are in.
I think I'm gonna use this as my base plan, but make it bigger, and cement it all together.
Sounds good! Buy your grate first and design around that.
I read others saying sealing the holes would cause the mortar or concrete blocks to explode if the temp gets too high.
Thats what i was thinking
@@TheRainHarvester Only if you fire it up before the mortar is dry. I've used "Stove Cement" without any problems.
Pretty dang clever and simple. I have 2 excellent smokers but I think i am going to do this for the enjoyment of it
Simple im going to build one next week thanks for the video🙂
Excellent episode, thank you for sharing 😊
Lou! This is great for the merely interested prospective wannabe smoker! A great low barrier to entry to the whole practice. Well done!
Very nice!! Thanks for sharing
Wearing sandals while moving cinder blocks, now that’s living dangerously. Great video thank you
Great video Lou !!!.. Thank You !.
Thanks I'm going to use this
Thank you sir you are a legend. I need to try this
excellent! I've always wanted a smoker
Waiting for my grill to arrive for the pit. Thank you for sharing this idea. Will probably need tp put a paver stone on top to make sure the top doesn't blow off on windy days.
Do have a question. If I just wanted to use it as a grill for a cook would I put the grill where ghe deflector plate is or would I simply remove the ceramic plate?
You GODDAMN KING. From the easy build to the parts you found in your yard to help make it work. Will definitely be building one. The next one shows a dude welding a fifty gallon drum da fuck.
😂
Having been sent this in 2022, I initially overlooked the title and the date, so I was waiting for the punchline. I expected you to conclude that the materials still cost more than the KJ or BGE. Then, I realized when it was filmed. I still want to build one, though. Something like this would take church potlucks to the next level. 😁
Lol about right! Fortunately blocks didn’t go crazy like lumber and steel.
Pure genius, even I can build one of those.
Love the safety footwear!
Lol yeah. Don’t want to risk chippin those blocks on steel toed boots 😂
Great video Sir.
Will have to measure and see if a 18lb turkey will fit nice video !
I like this idea. Especially in a pinch for a temp solution. however, I suggest just referring to it as a vertical smoker instead of a kamado. A kamado is ceramic and egg shaped by definition if I have my info correct.
you had me at smoked pork and foosball club....sub'g!
Thank you! I have another blockbuster foosball video coming very soon!
I can totally make this!!
I’m totally doing this
Thanks mate. Sure beats forking out $100s of dollars while learning how to smoke meat.
Thank you I did it is very easy 🥳🥳
NICE SMOKER
great im going to put hinge on lid add drill holes in back for steel rods to vent just buy one with thread and put nut a on and adjust Hight as needed
At what temp should you be concerned with the glue from the OSB putting off harmful vapors? In my opinion I think I would buy a cookie sheet big enough to cover your top. No worries about the harmful stuff in the wood and not much more expensive! Smoke on man!
I did some google research. OSB can handle a steady 200 degrees for a full year without degradation. This means the glue is not vaporizing. Also, the lid is always open and there is upward and outward pressure from warm air and smoke rising, so it should never have a down draft. That said, I grabbed that OSB panel because it was already sitting in my garage. If I had to buy one, I would get real plywood or solid wood or, yeah, a cookie sheet like you said. Good comment!
@@HowToLou
What about using cement board? It might even be a bit cheaper than nice plywood.
Good idea! But some has white styrofoam pellets mixed in. Don’t get that kind. A 20x20 ceramic tile would be best. You might find something on clearance for cheap.
@@HowToLou what about a dome shaped Terra cotta pot with vent holes, a thermometer and a handle attached?
How about just using the lid off your grill? Might work and has vents
Have used this now several times and it's a lot of fun to play with. Was looking to make it a little bigger by basically doubling the plan. Could I just stack racks on the other side using bricks to add layers of capacity or would the firebox be to small to heat the added area? Should I put a water pan on the non fire side to help get a more even heat? Wasn't sure is a reverse heat flow could be set up with a better plan.
Yep just stack higher and add another rack. There is plenty of heat and smoke. Reverse flow is only useful in smokers with a side firebox, to get more even heating. The vertical smoker design automatically has perfectly even heating, so its not needed.
Awesome build! Should you put something on the inside to coat the bricks so they don't leach toxins when they warm up?
People have been building smokers out of concrete blocks for ... as long as Concrete blocks existed. Not sure what toxins you are worried about. Build a big fire and burn it out before your first smoke, if u want
Excellent
Dont go to texas guys. Will mess you up🤣. Im 75 yrs young. Threw a burger on grill/good to go. Moved to tx on a job 1980. Ate bbq. Wow. Feller at a fair. With big offset. Made butt sanwiches. Wanted to regurgitate and get another. Soooo gooood. Just pulled pork. Pickle. Onion on a bun. The smoke on the meat was mild and delish
Have had kettles. Electric smokers. Wsm. Etc. that sandwich haunted me all these years. Trying to create that flavor again. Just threw together a offset sumpblock smoker a few months ago. Oak wood only. Wife said its the best
This man should be working for NASA and the real proof that not all heroes wear a cape
I built this pretty much to spec, but I made a slightly elevated fire basket for airflow in the fire box. I'm considering taking it further and drilling holes into the cinderblock base for more airflow (this could also make it easier to clean the ash out as it falls into the cinderblock).
My question is, since no one seems to have an issue with airflow, do you think this may be a pointless or even detrimental modification?
It works REALLY well, as is, but you could certainly try other configurations. The Green Egg and KJ both have side air inlets, not holes in the bottom, and have sold well for years. Its really easy to clean ash in this Concrete Kamado, with a flat scoop shovel. Holes would make that harder.
In case anyone's wondering, for the first time I managed to smoke up a brisket, 9.5 hours, with great results.
You get PLENTY of airflow with just the front vent, though the unit still seems to "breathe" a bit since the blocks aren't cemented together. Once I got the coals set and the unit warmed up, it was pretty easy to adjust the temperature using the vent and the lid. Once the temp had stabilized I'd check it every 30 minutes or so and add a handful of charcoal and a hunk of wood if necessary. This naturally will start to raise the temp, but I found closing the vent to just a millimeter gave just enough oxygen to slowly ignite the fuel without spiking the temp outrageously.
Bottom line, it is very much possible to legitimately smoke a brisket with this setup. Thanks Lou.
Looks good! Thanks for NOT doing the long weird "Mmmmmmmm mmmm ummmm this is so goooood" drawn out noises after eating. It just sounds weird.
You got the point across without the fake noise. Lol
Thanks yeah, I hate that too. The bottom line is, you really can’t tell someone about taste over the Internet. You just have to look and see the tenderness and the smoke ring.
Thanks sir
What would be different about the set up for wood? He was worried about creosol. Is that a biproduct of a cooking with all wood?
Brilliant
Hello I really liked this video as I was already planning to make myself a smoker, is it okay if I ask for atleast the rough measurements on each of the three blocks/bricks u used for reference?
These are standard inch sizes in America. 8x8x16, 4x8x16, 7.5x3.5x2.25
@@HowToLou I really appreciate the reply, thank you!
I’m doing something similar but I put a small wooden smokehouse on top of some cinderblocks and a very small cylinder grill that I’ll be using as a firebox. I’m planning on adding another layer of cinderblocks. Right now the entire structure’s around 4-5 feet. I’m real new to this. I’ve grilled with family for years but I’ve never tried smoking before so I’m kinda learning on the go.
One question I have is if it’s normal to just cold smoke say some chicken or ribs for a while before throwing them in the grill to finish cooking? The reason being is so I won’t be outside all day smoking but also because I mainly just want the flavor from smoking and having more juicy and tender meat after grilling. Also being new to it, I don’t trust myself to be able to safely cook meat on a smoker without messing something up and giving the family food poisoning😂. But I am familiar with grilling so I’d rather just use the smokehouse to flavor and get better quality. Is that something typically done?
Rn the only renovations I’m planning on is installing another shelf at the bottom to slide in a junk tray to catch grease and whether to just flip a concrete block and cover it to control airflow or install a metal chimney from a rusted out metal grill we were about to toss out. Also I’ve heard some wood isn’t good for smoking but why is that? Is it just no/bad flavor or is some wood harmful and can poison the food. We’ve got a ton of branches we’ve collected that we’ve used in grilling so I’m more inclined to believe it’s just flavor. I have a charcoal starter chimney. Is that fine or is a pellet smoking tube better?
Any advice would be helpful I’m kinda flying blind and learning as I go at the moment😅.
You touched on something that few people realize. When you smoke, you are doing two distinct things, that just happen to be done together, but need not be. You are flavoring with smoke and cooking. In fact, the vast majority of the smoke flavor goes in BEFORE the cook. Raw meat absorbs flavor way better than cooked meat. Cold smoking is a perfect example of that. Yes, you can cold smoke, then cook anywhere you want. I do just that is this other video.
Amazing Brisket in 2 HOURS!!!
ruclips.net/video/XAUKMktGSzU/видео.html
well done
Materials for build
-4 reg concrete blocks
-4 bricks
-15 half concrete blocks
-black spray paint (optional)
-1 meat thermometer
-1 10x14 ceramic tile
-1 11x16 metal grate
-1 2x2 plywood
-(optional) a drill for meat thermometer
Necessity is the Mother of invention. :-)
This contraption really works and works well. Also did a butt like you showed; that was awesome. Happy meat smoking!!
That's pretty good. Almost as good as the shopping cart kamodo. Same thing, just put the blocks in guess what? Yes, set them blocks a nice deep old style super market grocery cart.
What kind of tile? I'm afraid to buy something meant for decor and it not withstanding the heat? What am I looking for?
Trying this right now on my first smoke in south America Argentina! Where can I send you a picture! Regards!
Awesome! HowToLou@gmail.com
hello, where can i find the block sizes? thanks for your idea. bless from Argentina! 🏆
The blocks sizes in inches are: Big 8x8x16, Small 4x8x16, Brick 7.5x3.5x2.25 🧱
Really brilliant and simple build! I only wish you didn't use aluminum to cook.
Why?
Wonderful Job , Mate. Good on you. keep coming.....
What if I can take out the bottom plate , and put it on the grill straight .... .... !!!!!!!
What do you reckon , Mate.....?????????
Thank you. The ceramic plate blocks direct flame heat and needs to be at least six inches away from the food.
An apocalyptic storm blew through and killed power for a month. Instead of tossing all the meat looked for a smoker for purchase. Then, youtube for a home build.
I've got all the materials on hand happily.
Super appreciate the food tip. Super excited I can share with friends who are helping to clear trees.
Thanks for the great build
I really like this idea. Just a couple of questions. Why don’t you use mesquite or other wood for smoke flavor? Why no water pan? My last smoker had a large metal bowl for water. Still think I’m going to make this. Thanks!
I always make my videos as simple as possible, so anyone can easily do them. Charcoal is easier for a beginner. If I were to use this, yes, I would probably use hickory wood. You could add water too. I never have done that in any of my smokes. There are tons of options, and each person will find what they like, over time. This video just gets them started cheap and quick.
@@HowToLou thanks so much for the quick reply! Off to find a brisket I can afford!
Try grass fed chuck. Its really good!
@@HowToLou thanks, I'll check it out!
Is there anything else you could use besides a ceramic tile?
Firebricks maybe. Not metal. You need to block direct heat.
Do you have an affiliate link for those sticks? I have not been able to find such a range of sizes in a single package?
Did you mean 🥩 steaks? You buy a pork shoulder and ask the butcher to cut it into 1 inch steaks.
If you meant the sticks I used to hold open the top, I sell those in all sizes 😁
Great concept! Question: Can these blocks release toxins when heated? Thanks!
People have been making concrete block smokers and grills, likely since concrete blocks existed. They are just made of concrete and contain no harmful chemicals that I am aware of.
@@HowToLou ,thanks for the feedback! I may be giving this a try!
Use concrete blocks made from Portland cement … aggregate and sand (as Lou used) and there are no concerns like fly ash … aggregate and sand blocks… the internet is full of overblown articles by folks that are re-quoting things whispered down the lane. Build this and enjoy.. don’t worry, the wood you smoke with will get you way before the blocks! (Sorry… I couldn’t help myself 😂 )
Having an issue with the tile cracking, am I doing something wrong?
Try porcelain tile. Its more heat resistant than ceramic. Mine does not crack.
This was badass. You think you could smoke a brisket with this thing?
Absolutely!! All you need to smoke is a constant 225 degrees and smoke. This is a very east and cost effective way to get both.
@@HowToLou Youre my hero dude! Cheers
Nice! But Id use a piece of metal for the lid that osb is full of formaldehyde
Can I cook pizza in this Kamado Smoker?
Want to know coz I'm building this too..
Absolutely! You should get a pizza stone to put on the top rack.
Only problem is you might have to rebuild it every so often depending how much you use it. But for 50 to100 dollars is not to bad.
My smoker is old filing cabinet I found on dumpster
I love this kind of movies!
Did you cut some blocks to fit (back or side blocks)?
No cuts at all.
Looks like something I am going to do. I don't think wood and paint is a good idea so Im going to use tile on top.
Wood and paint is safe at 225 degrees and smoke always rolling up and out. An aluminum cookie sheet or similar would make a good weatherproof top.
@@HowToLou Great DIY for sure, but to get that black bark on briskets you can easily raise the temp to 250 or even 300. Def doing a cookie sheet or something similar.
Hi lou can i use wood instead of charcoal??
You can use wood, but you need to let all the puffy white creosote smoke burn off and only smoke meat with the thin blue smoke.
When it's sliced like that, some people call it country ribs.
Yes! I sometimes do country-style boneless beef ribs. I like them since they are already cut up.
Simple , to the point concept and tutorial... no bull shit ... problem solved.
Its okay to just use regular chb's right?
Yes, Concrete Hollow Blocks
great
I wonder if hanging ribs would work... It should right?
Absolutely! You might want to throw in another course of blocks on top to give you more vertical space
Having trouble finding an 11 x 16 grate using that link.
Something like this should work and will last a lot longer.
Htanch SF8252 (2-Pack) 16 1/2" Stainless Steel Cooking Grates Grid for Kenmore 141.152270 141.152271 141.15337 141.153371 141.153372 141.153373 141.15401, Ellipse 2000LP 2000NG Vermont Beach Pro Grill www.amazon.com/dp/B07J5FHQ46/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_C9QV0CKYBPH82WJ8YHC6
Why put the pork back together?
Would it dry out otherwise?
Correct! Expose it for the smoke flavor. Enclose it for rest of cook to keep it moist.
How about a metal sheet pan from the kitchen for a lid!
Excellent idea!
Where did you get a 10 x 14 grill?
There is a link to all the parts in the video description
I used charcoal and not they’re lit and high flame. How do I turn it off so it only smokes?
Reduce air. That controls the burn.
@@HowToLou gotcha it worked like a charm ! Love the video!
I'd think about another cover than OSB! The chemicals, glue etc that is used to produce it are not dietary friendly lol...try a steel plat or a cookie sheet etc
Smoke and chemicals go up and out, not down to food, but yes OSB is not optimal
Needs some hickory and apple though
I didn’t see the thermometer linked in any of the comments. Can you share?
Search for “analog meat thermometer”. I picked mine up at the local hardware store.
@@HowToLou I was also considering doubling up the size of the smoker. What are your thoughts there?
Sure! It would be easiest to double the width so you have two cooking grates side by side and a wider tile.
So you’re gonna be selling the Komado?
I am not, just because it looks cool, and you can never have to many smokers! But honestly, this little concrete block one works just as well as the red one. I also have a pellet smoker and love that too.
Wood gives creosode? If I use oak wood, how can I avoid creosode?
Your fire gets just over 1000 degrees and burns off the creosote. You get a lower cook temperature because the ceramic plate blocks the high heat. People have smoke with wood all the time. You would know if you had creosote. It is extremely bitter and will give you a serious stomach ache.
@@HowToLou under 1000F gives creosote? I thought people used coals to smoke? Are coals under 1000 and giving off creosote?
In the burning process, wood starts to chemically break down at 500oF, producing volatile gases including creosote. These gases burn at about 1100'F. Your coals are over 1100. May I suggest you post your question in a smoking forum where thousands of people smoke with wood. The concrete Kamado is a smoker like any other.
@@HowToLou Thanks! Yeah I have a lot to learn!