"Matthew L. Martin" wrote:

phyteach wrote:
Greetings all,

I am having one heck of a time finding fire bricks to add to my
CBSS (Char-Broil Silver Smoker) for heat retention. Home Depot, Lowes,
and a slew of other local hardware stores do not carry them. Can I use
regular red clay bricks wrapped in aluminum foil? I am planning on
putting them in thebottom of the cooking chamber, so they shouldn't get
above 300 degrees or so. Will these bricks explode or anything?


Well, anytime you take something porous like a brick and heat it above
the boiling point of water it is possible to get an explosion. It is
unlikely, though. One way to sort this out is to heat some bricks over
300 in the cooker for a few hours. Any that are going to break will and
the rest will have all the moisture driven out of them. Wrap the whole
ones in foil after they cool and they should last for quite a while.

Refractory brick are formulated to take very high temperatures and wide
temperature swings. Regular bricks are fired at very high temperatures,
but are not happy with wide temperatures swings. They will break down
and crumble where a refractory brick will not. If all you are using them
for is thermal mass, you probably don't care if they turn, slowly, back
into clay.

Matthew

--
Thermodynamics and/or Golf for dummies: There is a game
You can't win
You can't break even
You can't get out of the game

Depending on where you are try Tractor Supply Co, or a place that sells
wood stoves, both should carry them. Also check "real" building /
masonry supply companies, they should have them as well.

Pete C.