So I tried out my fire basket set up yesterday that I posted about a few days ago.
I used.... (Frank's method from YouTube) charcoal chimneys and a few splits to get it going. Took about an hr or so to get it to 250 (I was shooting for 275) all vents full open fb door closed. So I threw more wood on closed the door and it would creep to 275 but would slowly come back down after a few minutes.
It looked like I needed more air flow so since I had my vents full open only thing I could do was slightly open my fb door for air. This seemed to help the fire grow and get temps up. So my thoughts are maybe I dont have enough air flow? bc closing the fb door seems to choke off the fire. So do I need a 3rd intake on my fb door maybe for more air flow? Or do I need a bigger fire to start with, I dont know what I missing. I didnt want to just keep throwing wood to it and have some huge fire and get out of hand. I know it's going to take a lot of practice figure it out but If any of you guys have so thoughts on what I should do I'd appreciate it!
Before I would add more intake vents I would play with the exhaust a little....when it gets to temp close the exhaust a little to see if you can hold more heat in. If that does not work I would have to say opening the door proves you need more air. What kind of wood were you using? Some wood burns hotter than others.
I was using oak and pecan, yeah I never even thought to touch the exhaust as thinking having it open would give it the best air draw but that makes sense.
That fire is plenty big, in my opinion. How old is your wood? I use pecan also and have real problems if my wood is over 3 years old. It puts out much less heat as it gets older.
Remember that fire doesn’t create much heat....it’s the coal. Burning faster (flames) just allows the coals to form faster.
275 is pretty hot to smoke at. Most smoker temp I aim for are in the 225-250 range. It sounds like your smoker was designed perfectly as it “wants” to settle at 250. I, personally, would be delighted and not change a thing.
I’m new to this as I’ve only ran my pit a few times sir far. I have found with mine that I need to have the stack only about half open to keep the temp up where I want it. I would give that a try before cutting another intake.
Dirtytires not sure exactly how old the wood is, just some stuff I grabbed from a guy locally think he said a few months. I know 250 is a really good temp just wanted to see if I could make it happen. I do a lot on my Weber kettle at 275 and have excellent results so that's what I'm familiar with was all. This is my first reverse flow and I know they're a different type of animal than other pit so I appreciate any advice I can get! I'll play around with the smokestack If you guys think that'll help. Keep the suggestions coming I did volunteer to smoke 2 briskets this Thursday for work so I've got to figure it out pretty quick haha!
If you want my thoughts I’ve been at this for about 8 years now. My opinion (and please no offence) Burn wood that is at least a year old. Older than that don’t make a difference. Maybe hickory and mesquite is different. I managed a 400 acre orchard I’ve got wood that is 10 years old it burns that same as 1 year old. But if the wood is green than it sucks to smoke with. Only wood that sucks is when the trees get crazy cold at a young age it will get real pithy when it is older and burn cold and fast. When I smoke I leave my smoke stack damper all the way open it never closes. To me that’s only to keep dust out when your not smoking. With that open all your temp control and flow is controlled by your firebox dampers. My first smoker had great draft I learned that smoker smoked better and more consistent if I would turn the smoker so the breeze was going diagonal into on of the FB dampers helped keep it steady. It was a 500 gallon RF smoker. My smoker was pointing a different direct every time I would smoke somthing. Of course not moving it during. My second smoker is a 140 gallon I don’t have to move it at all drafts a little better. I actually had to slow that draft down but not touching the stack damper.
I put two chimney full of coal about every 35-40 minutes and I keep two chunks of wood burning on it always roughly 2-3 inch diameter and 4 ish inches long, so when I walk by I just look in and see how the wood is burning. My coal is not fully lit at first I just dump it on the old coals hit it with a weed burner for a half a minute or so and let it go. I don’t get to much fluctuation. My dampers never move after the first hour of smoking once it has stabilized. My brisket i shoot for a 16 lb brisket I find as lean as I can and trim every ounce of fat off of it that my knife can cut I don’t leave a cap or anything. I I rub it down with olive oil and my rib mixture and smoke it for 6 hours double wrap it in foil and smoke it another 8-10 hours depending on how tender I want it.16 lb smoker for me will see a maximum of 14 people. 2 quarter inch slices per person. With the smoker at 230-240 degrees I find the thermometers on the doors don’t do me justice I watch them but not close. If I can hold my hand on cook chamber for 3-4 seconds before having to pull them by reflex the smoker is at the right temp. I’ll cook pizzas at 400 degrees fine.
Sorry this is long. Sorry to step on toes. This is what I learned, I learn something new very time I smoke something. You asked for thoughts.
I would invest in a digital thermometer and get a reading directly on the cooking surface. I learned that no matter how great the door therm is your not getting the most accurate temp and they are much more prone to outdoor temperature.
Yeah I had 2 in my pit when I did this burn Thermoworks smoke and my Maverick about 1in above grate level at either ends. Both were middle of the rack and read maybe 10 to 15 degrees higher at most compared to the door gauges. Same from end to end temp across maybe 15 degrees difference. I think alot of my dilemma is my lack of fire management skills so far being new to this. Maybe I let my coal bed die down too much before adding more wood at a certain point all that's possible. I know there's alot of factors that go into it, just wish I had more time to build fires and test this thing. I'm limited to pretty much one day on the weekends mostly so I'll eventually figure out. Just looking for you guys methods on how yall run these things so I really appreciate all the advice so far thanks!! [emoji109][emoji109][emoji109]
You can figure it out as long as you don't get discouraged. Get you a notebook and write down exactly what you're doing and what the response was and it'll help you with future cooks.
Well I Did my brisket cook yesterday 13lb and 15lb packers. Started at 3pm cooked em until each hit 160 wrapped in butcher paper then back on, 13lb finished at 1am 15lb at about 3:30am. Despite some bad wind the pit did alot better this time. I ended up grabbing 2bags of Western brand hickory splits from my local Walmart and man my fire was way more manageable this time. Started with the chimneys/splits like before and got up 275, maintained that with minor adjustments to my fb intakes. Stack was full open the whole time a split every 45 mins or so and as the cook went on temps only got better across the CC. The only bad thing was being done at 4am and trying to serve these things for 1130am lunch at my work. Held them in a cooler until it was time go to work then, put them in oven at work on 175 warm didnt let them drop below 155° internal. Long time to hold them but had no choice on how my timing played out. Guess they were good because all I got was some point end pieces I hid away to take home lol. Here's a few Q pics I had a coworker take. Thanks again for all the advice
I switched to hardwood lump charcoal from wallyworld (red bag)to build my fire with my splits. Then periodically add a couple chimneys as needed. The lump burns much hotter so you have to adjust for times/temps. I primarily cook whole hogs and found this mix to give me the most even hassle free coal bed. Of course this is my 2 pennies.
The guys here taught me to open the stack all the way when I started. Make adjustments with the intakes. Helps to keep your fire burning clean and reduces creosote. In my experience Wood only burns so hot. Adding a split or two here and there only maintains the temp. The only way to get a higher temp out of wood is to make a bigger fire. I found that the fastest way to bump up the temp without using a whole tree to make a fire is to add charcoal, especially lump, to your already burning fire.
I agree with Dirty T...lit is better, but not critical. If u don’t have time to start a fresh chimney, just toss a few handfuls of lump in there and close the door. Your temp will come in no time. I had to do the same thing on my last cook. No problems at all.
Sometimes something as simple as ''bad'' wood can cause major pains when it comes to temperature control.
