Learning generally boils down to "Repetition or the avoidance of pain", some people learn by doing, some by watching and some just have to pee on the electric fence.
Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right. Henry Ford
Well guys, today I had the time to fire up the BBQ and begin the seasoning process.
Started by filling the chamber up about 1/2 way with about 1/2 a bag of some Kingsford Blue that I had laying around for about 10 years. Just in case I bought some new bags of Kingsford Blue and a bag of Cowboy Lump as that was what was available at the local store and we were out shopping. Starting temperature was at 70 degrees.
Used a propane torch to get it going and then hooked up the CyberQ with a Pit Viper fan to bring it up to 275 degrees. Once it hit about 100 and the inside stopped sweating I coated the whole thing with vegetable oil and closed her up it took almost an hour to get to 275 but I had the cook chamber open for about 20 minutes. I have it keeping steady at 275 and the Pit Viper fan is running about 50%. Will try next time to see how long it will take to get up to temperature. If it is too slow I will get the larger fan or use some sort of forced air through the 2" ball valve.
Will see how long it lasts with this much charcoal in the chute. I will report back on how long the heat lasts cooking at 275. Next will be to clean the cook chamber after it cools down and then to do a test cook on it.
Starting Temp
Cyber Q
We have Smoke!!!
Looks at a piece of meat and wonders how many ways can I smoke that.
Started recording temperatures at 3:33pm and once I finished seasoning the cook chamber I closed the door 4:12pm and never opened it again. Once the smoker hit temperature of 275 degrees 4:58pm it held steady for 8.5 hours before it started to decline.
Then the temperature started to fall:
273 degrees in the first hour
262 by the second hour
246 degrees in the third hour
212 by the fourth hour
I shut it down after that.
Looks at a piece of meat and wonders how many ways can I smoke that.
Looks awesome! So 8+ hours on 10 lbs of charcoal? Not bad at all. I'm curious to see if running your blower in the 2" line will help get temps higher. I'm about to pull the trigger on this and wondering if I should just order the bigger blower. FYI thank you for all of the great pictures of your build.
Shortlived - I could program the temp higher and will do some more testing in the near future. Most of my cooks are at 275 and below so I wanted to see how it would perform as a first test. Since everything seems to check out I will turn up the heat. Would a larger fan work out? Probably but will see how this works out.
Looks at a piece of meat and wonders how many ways can I smoke that.
Today is the first cook and I am doing 20 chicken quarters. Took almost two hours to get it up to 300 degrees and after I put the chicken in it is taking forever to get back up to temp with the pit viper fan. I think I am going to order the larger fan and also the run it with duals to see if I can get it to get up to cooking temp faster and to return once the door is open.
Will post up pics when I am done cooking.
Looks at a piece of meat and wonders how many ways can I smoke that.
Had the probe in the meat and it wasn't reading properly. Showed 130 and after 1 hour of cooking I went out and probed it with my handheld and it was at 200
Well pulled them mighty quick and let them rest. While they look good and taste is okay, they cam off the bone well but was dry.
Will have to monitor the meat better and see what else I can do next time. Not bad for the first cook and can improve.
Tomorrow it is a ribeye roast testing out the rotisserie. Wife and I like our meat medium well so you won't like those pics
Looks at a piece of meat and wonders how many ways can I smoke that.
I decided to use my old ThermoPro TP08 and compare that to the CyberQ and the River Country Thermometer in the door. The Cyber Q reads 19-23 degrees higher than the other two. So I deceide to bumpp up the temperature up by 25 degrees
At the moment I am using the rotisserie function and cooking the Rib Roast and some baked potatoes.
Will see how it all comes out later.
Squiggle - The tip you gave me about opening up the side door helped get the temps back up quickly.
Pics and video to come later.
Looks at a piece of meat and wonders how many ways can I smoke that.