Cannot keep temperature up


 
B

Brenda Carroll

New member
We are new to this, but did a 3 kg pork loin sirloin in our 22.5" weber smoker. We filled smoker with as much charcoal as it could take and had it up to temperature and fully vented, but charcoal only lasted 4 hours before the temperature started dropping down to 150 degrees. We added more charcoal after noticing temperature going down but it never caught and we never got it back to temperature for the last 2 hours. Any ideas on what we did wrong? Does a 3kg pork sirloin roast be cooked for 6 hours or is 4 hours sufficient?
 
1. How many pounds of charcoal would you say you put in the first time?
2 What brand charcoal?
3. What temps were you maintaining?
4. What was the outside temp?
5. When you added charcoal, how much of the original charcoal was left?
 
sounds like you lite all the charcoal at one time. i dont know but for me i would have used the minion method of fire control.
did you use all three lowers full open? what temp was it at with full open and full burn on coals?
when you added the new coal did you add it raw or did you get it red hot first?:confused:
 
Hi Brenda and welcome aboard.

How did you light your charcoal? I fill my charcoal ring to the top then light it in 3 places with a high output propane torch.
How are you measuring your temperature? The WSM dome thermometer typically reads 25F-50F lower than your top grate temperature.
Make sure all the vents are fully open, including the top one.
If your charcoal was damp, it could explain it.
Periodically bang the legs with a piece of wood to knock the ashes down.
You can prop the door open a bit with a piece of wood to increase air flow.
Try stirring the charcoal up a bit.
If you really have a low temperature problem, you can light charcoal in a chimney starter and carefully add lit coals to the smoker.

Good luck!

Bob
 
Howdy neighbour. Brenda one other question, did you use the water pan if so how much did you put in it?

I have to wonder if as Brdprey suggests they lit the charcoal all at once, it was loosely packed and it burned out bringing three gallons of water to temperature??
 
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We put about 12 pounds of charcoal - the brand was Natures Hardwood grilling
We were maintaining 220 degrees for 3 hours and then it dropped to 185
It was a warm day - around 85 outside
When we added charcoal again about half was left
 
We lit charcoal with zip cubes in four different places
We are measuring the temperate by the thermostat on it.
We opened all the lower vents wide open and the top one less than half as the temperature kept dropping off.
Charcoal was not damp and we did trying stirring it
Thanks for the suggestion about banging the legs to knock the ashes down.
What is a chimney starter?
 
Howdy! We used the water pan - filled it half full with hot water. We don't pack the charcoal - just loosely pore in....thinking maybe if we switched brands to Royal Oak we might have better luck?
 
Right away Brenda you should always leave the top vent wide open. Control your temps with the bottom vents. Because of the size variation in charcoal I pack mine carefully and give it a sideways shake a few times so there are no air pockets. I use the smaller pieces for fill in. I've not seen your brand of Charcoal around me so I don't know but I do use Royal Oak and I like it. It often on sale at Candian Tire. Sometimes I combine it with Maple Leaf Briquettes, sometimes I just use the briquettes depending on the length of the cook and what I am cooking.
I would suggest you read up on the Minion method as mentioned but I'm more like Bob Mann I often just light my charcoal in two or three places and then as it comes about 20 degrees from my desired temp I start cutting back on the bottom vents until I get it levelled out. The meat is on as soon as I assemble the smoker.
 
It's unclear to me why you only got 4 hours out of 12 pds of charcoal cooking at 225 with all vents fully open. I've never cooked on a 22.5 but my 18.5 will go a long time with a smaller amount of coal at 225. I cooked a 9.75 butt at 240 a few weeks back for 11-12 hours and had plenty of coals remaining. The ambient temp was 80+.

If you had coals remaining and the temp was dropping, you could have damp charcoal. That's about the only thing I can think of. I'll link to a chimney starter at Amazon. If you decide to get one from Amazon be sure to go through the link on this website and Chris gets a little something to help maintain the site.

You can also google Minion Method or find some information on this site about it. Basically, it involves putting unlit charcoal on the charcoal grate and lighting a relatively few coals (I use about 8-10 in my 18.5 WSM, you'd probably want to go with around 15 or so in your 22.5) in the chimney starter. Once the coals get hot you place them in the center of the unlit coals, which are spread out on the grate. The coals burn from the center out and extend the amount of burn time you get from them. It also helps in not overshooting your target temp. You start adjusting the lower vents when you're within 30 degrees or so of the target.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WEOQV8/?tag=TVWB-20

http://virtualweberbullet.com/chimney.html

http://virtualweberbullet.com/fireup2.html#minion
 
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I agree with Gary. Lump charcoal likes to be crowded. If you're cooking at low temps and it's not packed well, you risk the fire going out which is what it seems like here. Most lump is not as dense as K either, so packing in as much as you can will get a longer cook without adding charcoal.
 
Gary S said:
Howdy neighbour. Brenda one other question, did you use the water pan if so how much did you put in it?

I have to wonder if as Brdprey suggests they lit the charcoal all at once, it was loosely packed and it burned out bringing three gallons of water to temperature??
Click to expand...

and i find that if you start with hot water , that helps too. and i usually fill the pan half way.
 
Gary Hodgin said:
It's unclear to me why you only got 4 hours out of 12 pds of charcoal cooking at 225 with all vents fully open. I've never cooked on a 22.5 but my 18.5 will go a long time with a smaller amount of coal at 225. I cooked a 9.75 butt at 240 a few weeks back for 11-12 hours and had plenty of coals remaining. The ambient temp was 80+.

and i would suggest that maybe your grate got clogged with ash after a few hours. this happened to me recently and i had to stir the coals to get the temp to come back up
Click to expand...
 
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