First Cook


 
G

Grant C

New member
Hey guys, just looking for some help in looking at my 1st cook. I have a 14.5" WSM that is sealed up very well. I fabbed up a microdamper with custom diffuser to connect to the WSM. I use a modified minion method. Initially the cook was very good but started having some issues around 4hrs, I was asleep, it leveled off again and then did the same about 6hrs in. I didn't change anything and it seemed to do pretty well until about 11hrs. I then added some unlit fuel, typical for this cook, and struggled to get it to level off after increasing the temp. I used stock settings until about 10 hrs in. I know use: 4, 0.009, 5 with fan at 0%/100%.

Overall I am pretty happy as I would have normally been awoken around 6hrs in. I was forced to pull the butts earlier than I would have liked but they turned out great anyway. Next time I will target 250f. I do plan to smoke a chuck roast today or tomorrow and will post that cook as well.

Thanks for any insight!

2022-03-19.png
 
Cooked a chuck roast on Sunday. Had a better experience. I ended up lowering max fan to 60% and that seemed to help some. I am still getting the oscillations which I cannot explain. After I pulled the meat I let the pit run until I woke up the next morning. Pretty happy with 12 hrs of cooking without adding fuel in the 14.5 WSM. I would not have been able to do that without the HM.2022-03-28.png
 
can you post a picture of your configuration page so we can see what all your settings are? Where did you place your pit probe in the smoker? I try to keep mine from being directly exposed to the coals. You can sometimes get flairs in your coal base that can spike the temp in the grill if your probe is over that section of coals that flares. If control gain is too high, it will oscillate.
 
Gary V said:
can you post a picture of your configuration page so we can see what all your settings are? Where did you place your pit probe in the smoker? I try to keep mine from being directly exposed to the coals. You can sometimes get flairs in your coal base that can spike the temp in the grill if your probe is over that section of coals that flares. If control gain is too high, it will oscillate.
Click to expand...
I try to put the probe as far towards center as possible. The 1st cook was with 2 12lb butts so that was pushing the limits of the cooker and the probe was farther outward. The 2nd cook was further towards center.
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Here is what my settings are. I use a ceramic cooker, so heat loss is not as big and issue as with the WSM cooker. I would lower the proportional down to around 3 and integral to about.0035. Raise your derivative up to 6. I also would set the fan "%min" to 20 to start. I have found that the narrow fan range worked better keeping the overshoots at bay when the fuel spikes in temp. Also, I have better luck with probe not sitting in middle of grill, Brian has some info on the GitHub page on test he performed on control probe placement. I have also seen where users of the WSM grills put an insulating jacket on them to keep heat loss at a minimum. When you get the tune correct, you might notice the damper opening and closing is doing most of the control and the fan kicks in when you need a little extra air to the coals. Are you using brickets or lump charcoal? Fuel might make a difference too.
 
Gary V said:
Here is what my settings are. I use a ceramic cooker, so heat loss is not as big and issue as with the WSM cooker. I would lower the proportional down to around 3 and integral to about.0035. Raise your derivative up to 6. I also would set the fan "%min" to 20 to start. I have found that the narrow fan range worked better keeping the overshoots at bay when the fuel spikes in temp. Also, I have better luck with probe not sitting in middle of grill, Brian has some info on the GitHub page on test he performed on control probe placement. I have also seen where users of the WSM grills put an insulating jacket on them to keep heat loss at a minimum. When you get the tune correct, you might notice the damper opening and closing is doing most of the control and the fan kicks in when you need a little extra air to the coals. Are you using brickets or lump charcoal? Fuel might make a difference too.
Click to expand...
Hey Gary, thanks for the insight. As far as the probe goes, it is never "in the center" simply not on the edge where the heat deflector isn't. It is hard with large cuts of meat but pretty simple with smaller. The last cook I did, looked even better than what I posted above. Need to get the image off the HM and I'll post it. It was a turkey breast and it has been the most consistent cook yet. For really 6+ hr cooks, I use brickets and shorter cooks high quality lump. Surprisingly, the lump did exceptionally well and lasted much longer than I thought.

I'm doing another turkey breast today so I'll post that cook with settings changes.
 
nice tune. Cannot ask for anything better. The reason I use lump over briquets is just what you found. It last longer for one thing, gives you a better smoke, and it has an even burn temp which helps keep your control more stable. I would switch over to lump for you next cook to see how your tune holds up. There are lots of good lump brands out there and here is a link to help you sort them out. I currently use Royal Oak Lump Charcoal. I get mine from Home Depot.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm
 
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