About to order! Some questions


 
Thanks Mike.

Perhaps it does leak like a SOB.. What are you seeing that I should give attention to. How hot it began at, or something else?

What I did was pile some coals in the basket and then fire up 6-7 coals in a charcoal starter. I then put the ashed over hot coals in the middle of the unlit coals for the 'minion' style method. The fan ran at 100% until it got to temp and then it kept going about 20 degrees. I only had the water about 1/4 full. At that point I closed my top vent (was fully open) to be about 1/4 open and added more water. I was then maintaining temp. But as you see it only took little bumps from the fan. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Does any of this info help as to what I should try to achieve?

Thanks everyone!
 
Thanks. I have already high temp sealed each handle hole, etc. This week i will have the junctions and doors sealed. What should I be looking for to determine if it helped?
 
Build a big smokey fire and then close all your vents while the HM fan is blowing 100%... where you see the smoke pouring out is where your leaks are.
 
Running it up to the desired temp, with the top vent wide open, may have stoked too many coals. Once it hits 125-150, try closing the top vent down, and also set your initial temp to 200. Once it reaches that and overshoots but starts to plateau (probably around 220), change the set temp to the desired 225. That may help as well.
 
So I did a little smoke with a pork loin and tenderloin. This is after I have sealed the top and doors with lavalock gasket. This worked great but seems to have made my problem worse. Due to the design of the charcoal pan I was having trouble keeping heat. I believe the air I am injecting is forced under the pan and the only place it has to reach the coals is through the center which has 4 holes. It got so hot there that it warped the charcoal grate, it must have been a mini forge :p
I will update with more info. I am going to drill 1" holes into the bottom of the charcoal pan as there is grate above it for the charcoal to actually rest. This should hopefully increase my airflow and make my fan more productive.
 
Getting better now after my mods!
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