16" claybase? Poor fuel economy?


 

danmarks

TVWBB Fan
Happy 4th, all.
I think some of you employ a 16" potbase? Do you include sand? I don't have any size but the 16" and i topped it off with sand. AFter 8 hrs of cooking, (12midnight to 8am morning) the tempe dropped to around 175. It was 185 at 2am and i opened up the bottom vents a bit so it went up nicely about 3am... I think around 4:30am it was up to 251 (my remote went off at 250) but I dont think it went up much higher after that. This was nearly a full ring with about 5 fist sized pcs of hardwood mixed in.

So I said about 8 to 8:30am I saw the temp at only 175. I opened the side door and pressed on the sad looking amt of remaining coals, they were almost all just hollow ashes...

i have a big 16" claypot and sand, foiled... this i thought would give me the utmost fuel economy over a 14" or a 12" right?

my second observation was, at 9am I refueled w/ 2 fist sized woodchunks, and about 30 new brickets (kingsford, same as what i started with) and added 4 racks of ribs to the bottom rack (about 8lbs total for the ribs) Temps hovered at around 210, 205 for awhile. I think I refueled again at 3pm, tossing in 2 more wood chunks, removing the ribs, adding a tray of beans (8+ lb shoulder from 12midnight is still on the top rack, at 160F).

from 3pm to 6:30pm I tried to jack up the temp of the wsm, all vents opened, about 1/3 to 1/2 ring of refuel... it seemed to remain at 205, 210 rather stubbornly.... I had to open the side door and wave in air and the temp would go up to 216 with much work... I left the door open after this... I wanted to get the pork shoulder to go to 190 internal temp but it wouldnt, it was stuck there at 160 for about 2hrs, and it had been cooking for about 18hrs.

about 6:30 I just removed the shoulder and left it wrapped in a cooler to 7pm, finish temp 170. Then i took it out, accidently grabbing the big bone, the bone fell out... the other bone in there also came out easily... the whole thing shredded fine actually... again I tested a few places w/ 2 diff. thermometers and it registered 170 final temp. Weird, that's too low to work eh?

Okay, so with about half a ring, I cant get wsm chamber temp at the top to go more than about 216. I was dying to see 225-250, but couldn't... i think with a full or 3/4 ring like during midnight to 3am could it have enough fuel to go that temp w/ a 16" clay + sand? That is, w/ 1/2 ring, 1/3 ring, a 16" clay + sand absorbs too much of the energy?

I was hoping any one could chime in on this? Course my other option is to pick up a 14" and use the weber metal bowl and test for myself.
 

 

Back
Top