Found a solution to temp problem... BUT..

[Two Bears]

Below is from a post of mine that describes my temp problem that I was having with the clone.




So my first cook went pretty good. Now on the second cook as I type.
Lit it at 12:45 am put pork on at 2:45 temp was at 245F. 61 lbs
Put the beef on at 3:30am. 48lbs.
Since adding the last meat it has taken me just over an hour to get to temp again a whlie having to have the ash box door open.
I just shut the doorand am at 251 F.

WHY SUCH A HARD TIME GETTING TO TEMP?

this is a big clone but should not see this temp issue.

Running a guru with a 10 cfm fan
Valve is wide open.
Exhaust is 5.75" dia and is wide open. Tried closing it but lost temp so I opened it.

Using kingsford blue with hickory splits in the ash box.

Fire box is about 8.5 square

Ash box is 12 x 12

Temp just reached 251 and is now dropping to 244 and slowly dropping.

The fan runs for a while and then cycles off then starts up again
Any ideas?



So I started a cook Saturday - Got the smoker going and to temp rather quickly.
- Loaded the meat 8 pork butts and 2 beef clods.
-Temp was at 245 deg F.
- STARTED THE HICKORY SPLITS IN THE ASH BOX
- Temp started dropping slowly again as before.

So I started to wonder if the hickory fire in the ash box was the culprit.

I decided to let the hickory burn out and just let the charcoal cook alone.

Guess what - The temp came up and stabilized at the set temp on the GURU for the whole cook !!!


So now if this is the solution to the temp dropping - How can I get my hickory involved in the cook process without messing up the temperature in the smoker?

Next cook will be with Lump instead of charcoal but still want to use hickory in this smoker, some are putting wood in the heat transfer tube but replenishing that might be a pain and I am not wanting to open the door in this unit just to add wood.


Any ideas guys?

[The Czar]

When you're adding your splits… Are you just throwing them in and closing the door?

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[Gizmo]

It's doubtful your guru is able to get a handle on what's going on. What you described about the fan behavior would indicate it's timing out. In my experience the delay is too long on an RF for the way they're programmed at the factory. Set it aside for now and bring it back after you've determined the natural convective settings. I just think of the guru as cruise control for when I have to sleep or run an errand.

On Edgar I would run a charcoal fire that only had a top dressing of wood chunks or maybe a single split. I noticed when I added wood to my already stable charcoal fire that I had to crack the draft open just slightly to keep from drifting downward on the temp. Remember: Wood puts out less heat by volume than charcoal and when you add it to charcoal both fuels are forced to share the same oxygen supply - total temp output has to drop….

Try this:

Find the draft setting that is stable with a typical charcoal-only fire after enough time to stabilize - write that down.
Find a draft setting that allows your temp to creep upward slightly - Write that down.

After the temp has crept up about 20F higher than your target temp add your wood. Note how much temp drop you had.
Slowly adjust your draft until your temp just barely creeps upward - write that down.

Now you've got the 3 critical numbers you need as benchmarks when deciding what to do with the draft.
Should be much easier to handle knowing these numbers.

Don't determine these temps right after you add a bunch of 50F meat either. The work load while the cooker is catching up will really mess with your findings making it very hard to get a handle on temps. Let it come back up and stabilize first - or better yet, find your draft settings with nothing in the cooker.

Which brings up another good point - (getting sick of this aren't you?) If you keep notes on how many pounds of meat you add every time and next to that how much temp drop you got - you will have a chart of how much intentional "overshoot" you want based on how many pounds you're about to put on - VERY handy chart to have…. just look on the chart for the pounds and temp - run the cooker up to the correct overshoot temp and add the meat - drops your recovery time a lot! In our winters I add 10% to the overshoot to compensate for 20F air coming in the CC while I'm loading it - seems to work perty good...

jm2cw

[The Czar]

Thanks a lot Rick… You made my post look like I'm retarded… I didn't realize it was in RF we were dealing with… I guess I should've looked into it…

So I guess what I'm getting at is this… Rick is right and RF and a guru don't go together… It's too much volumetric air to try to compensate… You have to do it the old-fashioned way running a RF....
Which for some people it's good and some people don't like it… But it's just the way it is…

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[Gizmo]

Well I THOUGHT it was an RF … now you got me wondering ...

[KenV]

I thought this was a stumps clone. All you need to do with your wood is put it in the ash pan and as the charcoal burns small coals fall into the ashpan and smolder your wood so you get your smoke. No need to start your splits on fire in the Ashpan. I just use wood chunks about the size of my fist.

[Two Bears]

It is a gravity feed stumps clone

I do just add splits in the ash box and let it go from there but it always seems to ignite into a fire so I assume that is the way it worked.
I will try smaller amounts of wood and see how it works but some say that they throw larger sizes in there and some use small sizes.