Controling Heat


 
C

Chet Kreidler

New member
Yesterday, I was smoking 4 slabs of pork ribs (St Louis Style) I had two on the bottom grate and two on top. After the temp. got to the 225 - 250 range I closed the bottom vents to 25%. About 1 1/2 hours in the Temp started to climb rapidly, in no time at all it was over 300. I was trying everything I could think of but being new to this I probably missed something and I was hoping to get some ideas for out there in the world of "done it all seen it all Bar-B-Quers". I tried closing the vents a little more I checked, just on the off chance that the water was empty but it was fine. My 22.5 inch WSM was in the sun but the day time temps were only in the mid 80s. There was slight occasional breezes but only about 8-10 mph. After about an hour of messing with this it started to go back down but still stayed in the 265-270 range. The ribs still came out fine just a lot sooner then I had planned... any thoughts?
 
This has happened to me in the past as well. First-off, don't hesitate to close all the bottom vents completely, but make sure you leave the top vent fully open the whole cook.

Are you using large chunks of smoke wood? Tennis-ball or large-fist sized? If so, it's possible your smoke wood flared up and caught fire. I've taken a sawzall to all my large chunks and rarely put anything bigger than about 1" x 2" in the pan.
 
Full sun and 25% can do that. Next time when you get 200 close to 15% and go from there. Its ok to close the top down to a sliver to lower temps then open back up. You can also run at 50% or more on the top if needed with no ill effects.
 
Yea, I have already been watching the sun movement in the back yard today to find a location that will keep it out of the sun next time.

I did close the bottom vents all the way for about 15 minutes but it didn't seem to change things and so I cracked them open again. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance.
 
I start closing my vents when it hits 200. I start with two open 100%, and one at 0%. Hits 200, I close one fully and one to 50% and go from there.
 
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