Heatermeter on UDS, my PID settings

[Seth R C]

Yeah, I try and minimize lid open time.. too long and it goes thermonuclear on me sometimes

 

[RalphTrimble]

Actually, the one thing I hate about the UDS is when you think you have a stable temp at start up, with nothing in it and then you have to lift the lid and put a couple of pork shoulders in and then the temp drops or if you leave the lid off to long, it then raises way above your set point. I still after 5 years with my uds, have not learned a good technique of closing the inlet and removing the lid and not screwing up the temperature.

How do you deliver the air into your UDS, is it just piped in the side? If so, with all that volume maybe something like the air burner concept that delivers the air more directly to the fire would help, cause it would be able to stoke the fire more rapidly in a case like when you put a couple shoulders in and the temp drops.

When I have to cook in a situation where lid opening is going to keep me on the edge of overshoot I make sure to start lid mode with the HM button before I open the lid so the blower wont ramp up briefly until auto lid mode kicks in, cause that gives it a head start toward overshoot. If I am doing a lot of basting and overshoot is inevitable I like to let a bit of the mop sauce hit the fire and help keep it in check, smells and tastes great too...

 

[John Bostwick]

How do you deliver the air into your UDS, is it just piped in the side? If so, with all that volume maybe something like the air burner concept that delivers the air more directly to the fire would help, cause it would be able to stoke the fire more rapidly in a case like when you put a couple shoulders in and the temp drops.

When I have to cook in a situation where lid opening is going to keep me on the edge of overshoot I make sure to start lid mode with the HM button before I open the lid so the blower wont ramp up briefly until auto lid mode kicks in, cause that gives it a head start toward overshoot. If I am doing a lot of basting and overshoot is inevitable I like to let a bit of the mop sauce hit the fire and help keep it in check, smells and tastes great too...

I have 5 inch 3/4 inch pipe going straight out, about a inch from the bottom of the barrel. Then I use a 90 angle pipe then ball valve and then another 5 inch pipe with the Rotodamper at the end of the pipe.

The UDS is like a big chimney starter and the longer you leave it open, the hotter it will get. I do use the lid detect to stop the blower or I just close the ball valve.

But even with the inlet closed completely and you have the lid open it will still get very hot with a minute or two.

You really don't want to stoke the coals very much at all, after you put the meat in, as it is better to let it slowly rise, since its easier to raise the temp then it is to lower the temp on a uds. And for the most part the lower temp only happens when you add quite a bit of meat, since it acts like a big heat sink.