Did my first ATC cook yesterday, now some questions.

[Tom L]

First my set up: DigiQ DX with a 10 cfm fan on a WSM 22. I was attempting to do a high heat (350 degree) cook of 2 briskets at the same time. I used 20# of Kingford blue and pulled 40 coals for the chimney starter. Foiled but empty water pan.

One brisket was 10 lbs. and the other 13 lbs, so there was quite a bit of meat in the smoker.

I put the meat on, minion method start (40 coals spread over remaining 20 lbs. and brought the temp up to 300 manually and then put the guru on. Running at 100% it could only get to 320 but I wanted it and set it at 350. I ended up opening the other 2 bottom vents to get it up to 350 then I closed them and it held steady at 350 until I went to foil. Once the meat was foiled (7 minutes?), the guru would not bring the temp back to 350, only 320 even though the fan was running at 100%. I had to open up the other two bottom vents again to get it back to 350.

Where am I going wrong? Should I have used more than 40 to start the fire? Should I have gotten a 25 cfm fan? I bought this in order to tend to the kids and have one less thing to worry about but I'm sure it something to fix with my method. Anyone else doing heat heat in a 22 with ATC?

Any help is appreciated.
Tom

 

[James Jacobson]

I did my first smoke with an ATC (Aubers) last weekend, and I had issues similar to yours. The main problem (I discovered) is that if you try to "help" the ATC, you actually cause more problems. These devices are adaptive, so they are trying to figure out what they need to do to adjust the temp, and if you are also making changes (adding fuel, closing vents) then you are really screwing up the ATC's algorithms.

There are a couple of ways to improve the effectiveness of the ATC. One is to just let it work until it gets the temp where you want it. Be patient. If the temp is too hot, and your smoker is reasonably sealed, the temp will eventually come down. If the temp is too low, the ATC will eventually get the temp up; just let it work at it.

The other option is to manually get the smoker to the temp (or close to the temp) you want, either by closing vents or adding lit coals, and when it gets close to stable, kicking on the ATC and putting your meat on. You said you wanted 350, so maybe you needed to start with more lit coals.

I'm relatively new with these devices as well; just my initial observations.

JJ