Early temp spike...leave it alone?


 
A

Aaron Buys

TVWBB Member
So I'm in the midst of my second use of my new WSM and I'm doing the two chickens again (per this site.) The first time I failed to use enough fuel so this time I followed directions closely. I'm using briquettes as instructed but after seeing most of my charcoal with a nice coat of ash, adding my smoke wood, and putting the top on my temp climbs to well above 300 degrees. It sat there for 20 minutes so I backed all my lower vents to 50% open and the temp dropped to 215. Try as I might I can't bring it back up again even with opening up the vents. So a few questions: What is causing the big spike (the smoke wood?) Should I have left it alone and allow it to run that hot?

Thanks for any advice you can give!
 
Wish I knew the answer to your question, brother.

I've used my WSM a bunch of times now. A few with water, a few with the clay saucer (I prefer the saucer). Also done a few using the vents to control the temp and a few with the DigiQ DX from bbq guru. The auto temp controller is truly set and forget.

I monitor it infrequently, just in case 8^).

I've not had the spikes you speak of, but as far as bringing temp up... check for leaks is all I can think of.
 
As I read it, you waited until the coals were whited-over before assembling the smoker. Yes?

If so, could be just the initial spike. The WSM doesn't react immediately to adjustments.

Whether you should have made any adjustments would depend on what your target temp is/was.

"two chckens again"? In your other post you said you did ribs. ???

What chicken recipe are you using?

Did you observe it after making the vent adjustment to 50%?

Are you using water? If so, it's not going to heat up a lot until the water does.
 
its best to use the minion method. if all the coals are lit then its really hard to keep the temps low. also you should not wait for all the coals to get lit before turning the vents down. kinda like turning the air down as the temps are rising.
 
Ah, yes. Valid points guys. I didn't use the minion method on my first cook, and then I learned quickly how much better it works (for me, as I do a lot of butts/briskets for longer periods).
 
If you are following Chris A's beginners chicken methods, don't temp the cooker, just the chicken. If you want chicken skin to be anything close to crisp, you have to have high heat. Temp the cooker, if you like, to satisfy your curiosity, but leave it alone and let it cook and do its thing. That's the beauty of the WSM.
 
I had a somewhat similar issue last weekend when I used my WSM for the first time. I was doing Chris' recipe for "dinner-style" salmon. Didn't use the minion method, simply one chimney of charcoal. Let them burn in the chimney until I could see flames/red up to about 2/3 of the coals.

I never had the initial high heat that the recipe said would be likely to occur (300+, etc), it was pretty much just above 250 right away. I put on the fish and got to it.

My problem, was that the range said "200-250" (or was it 225-250?)....and anyway, it was at 255 so I thought I'd try to mess with it and get it perfect. Closed all the vents and it dropped too low, to maybe 175. Tried opening them all back up and the best I ever got was 220 or so. Which ended up being fine.

Anyway, the thing I learned was that this thing is not a digital oven...if it's close to the temp you want, leave it alone.

At least that's my thought
 
That, and the dome thermometers (from what I hear) are notoriously inaccurate. I know mine is about 30-40 degrees lower than it reads.

Since my WSM is quite new... do they warranty that, I wonder?
 
Originally posted by TravisH:
As I read it, you waited until the coals were whited-over before assembling the smoker. Yes?

If so, could be just the initial spike. The WSM doesn't react immediately to adjustments.

Whether you should have made any adjustments would depend on what your target temp is/was.

"two chckens again"? In your other post you said you did ribs. ???

What chicken recipe are you using?

Did you observe it after making the vent adjustment to 50%?

Are you using water? If so, it's not going to heat up a lot until the water does.
Click to expand...

I never did the ribs actually. We had bad weather that weekend so we scratched it. I used the chicken recipe on this site but I used water this time hoping the temp would stay more stable.

After I ran in during the cook to make this original post I went back outside to see the temp had come back up to a more acceptable range. I guess I wasn't being patient enough. =)

So how do you know when to let the coals go all out and when to use the minion method?
 
The standard method has, IMO, limited uses. Use it when looking for high heat quickly. The MM is good for all cooks to catch your temp range on the way up by adjusting vents when you are closing in on your desired temp range. If looking for higher heat using the MM, just keep all the vents wide open. You can also vary the MM by starting with more or less lit coals.
 
First take a beath and relax !!! Even at 220 it a cook and the temp a come up IF the vents are open and you have enough fuel and air ! ! Doing chicken I might take the lid off a few minutes to raise the temp some for the skin !

If your using water it will react slow IF your using a clay pot thing or a empty foiled pan it a react to changes MUCH faster !

Most folks have to come to the reality that the WSM is NOT a micro wave oven ! and it reacts to small changes over a period of like 20 to 30 minutes .
 
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