Help with Low Temperature!!!


 
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Having used my WSM 2 times, I am still having problems getting the temperature up. Measuring from the top vent with a Taylor probe, my temp stays around 200-215, not much higher. During this time the bottom vents have been wide open the entire time, never have to close them to lower temperature. The only way for me to get temperature up to say 250-270 is to open side door. I am located in NW Florida, where it is hot, and humid. Ok, here are the details;

1. Using Minion Method to start charcoal (Kingsford) used chimney to start about 15-20 coals, after about 25 mins loaded onto 3/4 pile of unlit charcoal (btw do you have problems with your coals falling into the bottom of the bowl, through the holes in the sides of the bottom grid?)
2. Add hot water
3. Place meat on. (I have done both ribs and chicken)

From the forums it seems most people have problems keeping the temperature down. The only thing I could thing of is that the charcoal is humid (bought double bags from SAMS) Any ideas or suggestions would be most helpful. Heck, I may not even have a problem. BTW, my baby back ribs using the BRITU recipe were killer! Our guests raved on and on about how good they were.

Thanks,
Jim aldridge
 
Jim, I can't speak for anyone else, but when I'm doing chicken or ribs I just fill the charcoal ring with lit coals. Chicken usually is done in 2 hours or less and ribs up to about 8 hours. I have never had a problem with running out of heat before the cook is done and I usually put the fire out and re-use whats left later. The Minion method provides excellent fire management, but for me it is much better suited for the long cooks (12 or more hours) needed for butts and brisket. Maybe instead of 15 to 20 lit briquets you should bump the amount up by 5 and see how that works. One thing I've found since I starting using my WSM, is almost everything involved (fire management techniques, recipes, cook times, etc.) are merely starting points that must be adapted to suit your own conditions and tastes. One thing about this board that's really nice is there are very few new problems and someone has had a simular experience and can give you a direction to work in. Good Luck, Don
 
Jim
To stop the charcoal from falling thru grate wire the ring to the firegrate, keeps it in place and makes it easier to handle.
Your using a Sam's brand of charcoal?
There are many briquets out there that will burn cooler than Kingsford, try Kingsford and see if you have the same problem.
Jim
 
I would suspect your themometer first. How long did the ribs (back or spares) take?
 
Sam's Club sells Kingsford in a package containing 2 24# bags of charcoal. Here it costs about $10.98 I think.
I live in North Louisiana which isn't very different in temp. or humidity in N.W. Florida.
When I do ribs I start with about 3/4 ring of unlit and dump in about 1/2 chimney of lit.
Usually I run 2 vents closed and 1 vent openand maintain a very constant 250* at the dome. This is measured with a cheap thermo poked through the top vent.
This amount will usually burn for 7 or 8 hours.
Hope this helps.
Billy Gardner
 
Jim,
This may seem like a very strange idea but do try it. Close the bottom vents to about 1/3 open and check the temp. After an hour or so try 2/3 open and check it again.
You may be getting too much air flow thru the cooker and that can keep the temp down.
Jack
 
Jim...

2 things to try....

Add more lit coals if you are adding your meat on immediately. I have been using closer to 1/2 chimney, especially with large loads of meat.

Once you have added your lit coals, let the smoker come to temp before adding your meats.

Those meats have a way of soaking up all the heat from the coals....especially if they are still cold.
 
Jim,

Chris has a "Modifications" section on this website that includes information about modifying the charcoal grate. I fixed mine with a spare ECB grate. Fits right under the WSM grate.

Question: when you open the side door to get the temp up, does the temp fall again after you replace the door, or does that solve the problem?

Here's something else you could try: Reduce the amount of hot water in the pan at the start. The main purpose of the water pan is to act as a thermal mass that never gets much hotter than ~ 210 degrees. Reduce the mass, and you may be able to bump your temp up a bit. You can always add water, if needed.

Good luck, and remember: practice is good!

George
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jim Aldridge:
[qb]Having used my WSM 2 times, I am still having problems getting the temperature up. Measuring from the top vent with a Taylor probe, my temp stays around 200-215, not much higher. During this time the bottom vents have been wide open the entire time, never have to close them to lower temperature. The only way for me to get temperature up to say 250-270 is to open side door. [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I am a little leary of reading temperatures through the top vent. I've never found that they correlate all that well to the grate temps on my cooker. I've done some cooks with multiple thermometers all over the cooker. Early on, there are some pretty substantial temperature differences. Oddly enough, several hours into a cook when the meat is hotter, things tend to stabilize and all of the thermometers tend to read pretty much the same. I don't really know why that is.

It will take some time and experience to figure out fire control.

More air and/or more burning charcoal equals higher temps. Less air and/or less burning charcoal equals lower temps.

On my cooker (similar to, but larger than a WSM), I find that there will be one setting for bottom vents that I used to get the temperature rising and then a lower setting (usually about 25%) that will hold whatever temp I've reached for a while.

I would recommend cooking a few times with all of your charcal lit before trying the Minion method. I think it will give you a better "education" about how much lit charcoal you need in your cooker to achieve a given temperature and how long a given amount of charcoal will burn. You'll probably need a bigger fire on a calm day than on a breezy day. Wind tends to "fan the flames" and boost the temps. Cook that way a few times until you can start predicting the results and then try the Minion method.

I don't personally use the Minion method because I feel like I can taste a "charcoal" flavor in the outside of the meat that doesn't appeal to me. So, I'd rather burn up more charcoal and make sure it's all fully lit and glowing red hot before I put the meat on. But, a lot of people have great results with the Minion method so it's probably just me.
 
Webb,
It's not you.
The question is at what point do we have incomplete combustion occurring?
I've found that if I use the Minion method from 200 to 220 deg, I get that slightly bitter (charcaol?) taste in the meat. The lower the temp, the more bitter it is. At around 225 to 250, the fire is hot enough to burn off the nasties that cause the off-taste. That's why in my offset, I don't get a bitter flavor even when I replenish the fire with raw charcaol. The overall temp in the firebox is around 500 to 700 deg. In your bullet with a fewer amount of already hot coals, the overall fire ring temp is probably around 450 or so. With a Minion setup and 200 at the lid, I think the temp in the fire ring is around 300 or so. Not hot enough for complete combustion.
Complete combution is probably not an accurate term. I think complete combution would occurr at over 1000 deg and would give us no smoke flavoring at all. The yummy gasses seem to occurr at between 400 and 700 deg.
My buddies who cook with pellet cookers are always saying they don't get enough smoke flavor. I measured the fire in the little 4 inch fire pit at the bottom of a pellet cooker and the average temp was around 1000 deg. To get smoke flavor they have to go into "smoke" mode, which lowers the temp and allows the pellets to smolder a little.
You might try the minion again without letting the temp drop below 250 deg. Then see if the off-taste is gone.
 
The temp theory could be. I don't know.

I do know that the off-taste I get is exactly the same thing as that acrid smell when a gust of wind gives you a nice snootful of freshly lit charcoal. My own personal hunch is that the charcoal manufacturers put something in the outer layer of the briquettes -- perhaps a mold release agent, perhaps something to promote faster starting.

In any case, I'm OK without the Minion method. I got 12 hours from a single load of charcoal yesterday -- fully torched and glowing red hot before I closed her up and put the food on. I don't mind adding charcoal, hitting it with the propane, and getting it going again after 12 hours, if I have too.
 
MMuch thanks to everyone who replied. Some very good feedback. Things of note that I plan to try are:

1. let temp come to operating temp before placing meat on
2. use maybe half a chimney of charcoal to start fire
3. add less water in pan, maybe fill only half full
4. check calibration of probe (I did and it was right on 212 boiling water)
5. watch bottom effect of bottom vents on overall temp

See what happens!

Thanks again all for your help and information?.

r/Jim Aldridge
 
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