Frustrated with Temps!!! Need some help


 
D

Dale Matlock

New member
I CAN NOT for the life of me get the temps above 180....

I have the Smokey Joe Silver, a IMUSA 32qt pot, drilled a tons of holes in the bottom....Put a good load of charcoal in there with about 20 fully lit briquets on top for a minion style.

I have both vents wide open top and bottom. I took my 12" teracotter saucer out as my heat diffuser and just put in a 8" aluminum pie tin. Granted it's a windy day here. I moved the smoker to the edge of my garage (yes I know about Carbon Monoxide...yes my garage door is open and I'm sitting outside enjoying beer) to get it out of the wind...Holding 178 via my Maverick ET-732. I don't freaking understand what I'm missing and am incredibly frustrated at the moment.

Any ideas????
 
Possibly the holes in the bottom of the pot are not allowing enough air flow. When I made my mini I simply cut the bottom out of the pot. You might want to either drill more or larger holes if that is your preferred design.
 
Here is a pic of the bottom of my pot and how many holes I have drilled in it.



I would think this should be more than enough



It looks nice....:rolleyes:
 
When I first built my mini I drilled a lot of holes like yours only bigger. Had the same problem you're having, so I cut the bottom out leaving about a half inch rim for support. That cured the problem. But with that said I'm at 5300 feet so the air is a little thinner here.
I just did some high heat chicken on it, took the water pan out so direct heat from the coals, no diffuser at all. Ran 375 for about 40 minuets.
 
I think your problem is putting a diffuser on top of the bottom with all the holes. The bottom with all the holes is your diffuser.
 
Bump.

Wonder if you could insert a piece of expand-a-metal (cut to size) over the bottom if you need support for something (after you remove the pot bottom)?
 
Rusty James said:
Bump.

Wonder if you could insert a piece of expand-a-metal (cut to size) over the bottom if you need support for something (after you remove the pot bottom)?
Click to expand...

You could, or cut a grill grate to fit. But there is no reason to put anything at the very bottom of the pot. Quite often for longer cooks I overfill the charcoal basket to the point that the fuel is above the bottom of the pot. If a diffuser is needed the steamer insert works great, or another diffuser can be set on the steamer insert. If one needs two racks, just set the rack right on the diffuser at the steamer insert level.

My very first pot I drilled a bunch of holes and had the same problems. All of my pots have the bottoms cut out of them. It's the only way to go.
 
CaseT said:
My very first pot I drilled a bunch of holes and had the same problems. All of my pots have the bottoms cut out of them. It's the only way to go.
Click to expand...
Case is the Jedi Master, he's made his mini's simply amazing.

I too struggled with heat, and I took a very simple approach. I increased my air volume by an additional 25 percent using a 1/4" drill bit and it took 1 minute (half that time was spent finding the damn drill bit)

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?55644-Need-Heat

All my fixes are not Jedi Master, but they work and require very little skill :)
 
Dale Matlock said:
I CAN NOT for the life of me get the temps above 180
Click to expand...
I forgot, there's one other thing you can do. Buy a new grate for your SJ

Swap the new grate with one of your old grates you're using for your mini and put the old grate on the SJ like you would if you were using it to BBQ

Put your pot (aka mini) on the grate on your SJ, and you'll get ample heat because the pot won't seal on the SJ, so you'll get tons of air in the SJ thus feed the fire and increase the heat to your mini

I'm here all day :)
 
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