Coal burning more near fan ?

[Lennard Kong]

Question for you auto temp users,
since all the vents are blocked and only one is used for the fan, do the coals tend to burnout more closer to the fan ?

 

[Larry D.]

That's hard to say. I use a modified Minion Method to start the WSM - I don't pour the lit coals on top of the unlit. Instead, I leave a void at the side of the charcoal ring, facing the Stoker's fan, and pour the lit coals in there. So the fire naturally progresses from that side, toward the other side. I don't think it really matters if the charcoal nearest the fan burns first; as long as the intensity of the fire is right to maintain the temperature I want, it doesn't matter where the burning coals happen to be.

 

[johnbrisbin]

I tend to add the lit coals to the end away from the stoker (toward the cooker).

I don't think it matters much, if at all.

Consider that the whole Stoker idea is to provide much more fuel than you want to use, but to limit combustion by limiting the available air.

On a good day, you are going to get about the same amount of burning from the same amount of air without much dependency on where the fire is located in the box.

It is also worth noting that, at least in my case with a Char-Griller, the fire burns almost entirely off of the leaked air, not the Stoker running. I.e., the Stoker only runs for a few seconds out of every few tens of minutes.

In a cooker that seals better, it might run more often as the only supply of air. In an unmodified CG, it might also run more because of the heat loss that I avoid with gaskets and insulation.

In any case, the available air must limit combustion or the Stoker cannot regulate temperatures. Therefore, it probably does not matter much where the combustion is happening.