Smoke from adding charcoal and emptying charcoal ash during long cooks


 

ColinS

New member
Hello all

When I start a cook and dump the hot coals into the WSM, I usually let the unlit coals ignite and burn for 30 minutes or so until the heavy smoke coming out of the unit has dissipated as I find the heavy smoke at the beginning gives the meat an undesirable smokey flavour. With that being said, on long cooks when I'm adding coal in four to five hours later, I'm in the same situation and having a lot of heavy smoke until the new coals are lit. Is there a way to avoid this heavy smoke and nasty flavour when new coal is being lit?

Other question. On long cooks when I'm adding coal after four to five hours, I'm left with a large amount of fine ash in the bottom of my WSM. I'm finding if I don't empty this ash, the airflow is poor and my cooker doesn't maintain a consistent temperature. Though by taking the unit apart I'm losing a lot of heat on the cook. Does anyone have any tips and tricks to combat the poor airflow and/or removing ash build-up without losing all the heat?

Thanks.
 
First step is to try to fire your WSM in a way that it burns long enough so as to not have to reload. In response to your question, a couple suggestions:

- If you know you're going to load charcoal, load small amounts throughout the cook which will lower the smoke from new charcoal greatly.
- Ash can be handled to some extent by tapping or lightly kicking the legs of the WSM, causing the ash to fall through.

Personally, I don't like those options and would take the unit apart - especially since it looks like you have a 14.5" WSM (easier to handle than a 22"). The amount of heat you will lose is better than the other outcomes from other methods. As you point out, adding charcoal causes smoke. It also disturbs the ash which flies up onto the food (think about the WSM airflow). This also happens when dealing with ash (stirring or kicking).

My preference would be to get as long as a cook as I could and then either reload (by taking the unit apart) or calling it a day and finishing in the oven. After 5 hours or so, you've got a good smoke base and the oven will work just fine. Lots of options. Only thing to do is experiment and decide for yourself. I would put most of my focus on finding a way to extend my burn time so as to avoid the problem entirely. Good luck!
 
First step is to try to fire your WSM in a way that it burns long enough so as to not have to reload
That's the bottom line. You can always light the charcoal before adding it, that would resolve your smoke issue, if you had to add, but again, it's best to have a enough not to run out
 
What size WSM are you using? I have an 18.5" and can easily get 12+ hours w/o having to reload at 225. A couple of things to try:

1) No water in the pan. I stopped using water a long time ago and haven't looked back. W/ a little practice temp management is easy, all the water does is eat up fuel. I don't bother to foil, sand, etc. just a quick rinse and wipe after each use.

2) Pack the ring full as possible. Make a small indent in the center. Then dump in about 10-15 hot coals.

3) Get the brinkman bowl (look on amazon) or similar diameter pizza pan. I found that the weber water bowl was sometimes a little too deep and would limit the amount of charcoal I could use. The brinkman pan or pizza pan allow for more charcoal. I've even thought about buying a second ring or some expanded steel to increase the height on my charcoal ring for extra long cooks.

4) Double check your thermometer. The lid gauges isn't super reliable. If you are running hot you will eat through more charcoal than expected. I run a regular cheap (not the fancy $$$ maverick) remote thermometer to the food grate to keep an eye on temps. Just still the probe through a potato or some other cheap tough vegetable so the tip sticks out and doesn't touch anything.
 
1) No water in the pan. I stopped using water a long time ago and haven't looked back. W/ a little practice temp management is easy

I'm still a novice at this but read such an abundance of posts here that I'm going to try a smoke without water, soon. A couple questions:

1. If on my 22.5 I'm accustom to temp tweaks via all 3 bottom vents when using water should I maintain that same method when not using water?
2. Do you still get 12 hours during winter months, in your case in MD? KBB?

Thanks!
 
Like Jerry said, if you find you need to add fuel (after 6-7-8 hours), just finish it in your (indoor) oven. Zero reason to continue it in the WSM as it's already got the smoke that you need.

And B: still use the bottom vents (very very rarely choke down the top vent, if ever).
 
Like said above try to run without reloading, my 18.5 I've gone 13 hours at 225. My long cooks with the mini at the 10 hour point I was getting enough ash to start slowing the air flow. I was using KBB but changed to Stubbs as it seemed to produce a lot less ash now I can go 10 hours+ with no problems.
No water for me in the bowl.
 
Thanks for your reply all.

Dr. Allan. I'll try not using water in the pan though I've found that when I run out of water, the temperature shoots up really high. I'll have to learn to manage the bottom three vents to maintain my 250F. I've found the thermometer on the top of the unit is about 25F above what the temperature is on the top grill. I have found the bowl on my 14" unit does interfere when I fill the ring full.

Rich. BTW, what is KBB and Stubbs? Are you cooking for 10+ hours without reloading charcoal? If so, how? I can only go about 5 hours with my 14" WSM. I'm sure part of it is that your 18" unit can hold much more coal than my 14" unit can.

Tim. I've also have a bag of Big Green Egg lump coal that I throw into my cooks with the Kingsford. What kind of natural briquette do you refer to? Does it give the same flavours as the Kingsford does?
 
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... I've found that when I run out of water, the temperature shoots up really high.
And this is why you're having to reload coals. You're running way above where you should, lit coal wise. The water is absorbing that excess heat to keep the resulting temperature in your cooking range. And because you are running excess heat, you're coals will burn out faster, the water pan will need refilling sooner and any slight upset will cause major temperature fluctuations.
 
You're running way above where you should, lit coal wise.

What am I doing incorrectly? Am I not lighting the unit correctly in the beginning? What I typically do is have a ring of coals around the perimeter of the metal ring and then add hot coals in the middle (minion method).
 
Suggest starting with a minimum number of lit coals and with vigilance, catching the temperature as it initially approaches your intended running temperature. Easing into it, if you will.

Running with water allows one to keep the "cooking" temperature within range while the heat given off by the lit coals varies over a wide range. It is that range that becomes the problem. If at the low end of that range, one gets longer burn times with minimum coal usage. If at the upper end of that range, one gets shorter burn times with maximum coal usage.

Water can absorb tremendous heat energy before changing state. It is this quality that causes this range to happen.
 
... catching the temperature as it initially approaches your intended running temperature.

Thanks Bob. From what I've read, leave the three bottom vents fully open until just before the desired temperature. I think next time I'll leave them open a pencil width and let the temperature of the smoker rise slower.
 
Thanks for the reply Randall. I saw a post last night that mentioned since my unit is on blocks above stone (non-combustible surface), I can take out the heat shield and not bother putting it on the bottom of the unit. What are your thoughts?
 
If your unit sits up on blocks above the surface, you shouldn't have an issue. If is sits closer, you "may" get some heat discoloration. If you like to tinker (which I do), I would mount it below just as a precaution. Also, if you ever take it with you camping, park, friends, etc. you'll have it set.
 
Tim. I've also have a bag of Big Green Egg lump coal that I throw into my cooks with the Kingsford. What kind of natural briquette do you refer to? Does it give the same flavours as the Kingsford does?

I don't use KBB ( Kingsford Blue Bag ) in my WSM's.:wsm:

BGE lump is just re-branded RO lump so save some cash and try to look for RO if you can. Natural briqs like Kingsford Professional , Stubbs ( like Rich mentioned ) or Trader Joes brand which is made by Rancher.
Ro makes a natural briq, hard to find tho.
Up in Canada you should find some sweet lump if you look around.

Tim
 
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My experience is very limited but I like to light the charcoal chimney inside the smoker and put just the lit coals on the coal rack then add a handful of coals every hour. This has worked well for me so far.
 
WalMart sells a pair of (flimsy looking) aluminum grates (very small openings) for a few bucks.

I put 1 on the grate before adding the ring to the base.

Most of the small burned coals don't fall through the grate to the bottom, only ash.

I foil my water pan and fill it halfway. At the end of my cook I clean my grates and let the gook drop into the water pan. I also scoop the cold ashes into it to absorb most (if not all) of the water. Then I fold the foil into a neat pillow that I slide into the charcoal bag then into the trash. Very tidy cleanup, less than 30 minutes.
 

 

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