Help with newbie to charcoal kettle


 
J

James Smith CP

New member
Hi everyone!
Thanks for the site and all the awesome information. I've learned a lot by reading here so far, but in my first attempt at a charcoal grill in 20 years, I ran into a snag.

In an attempt to step up my game from a gasser with a smoker box, I purchased a One Touch Silver Weber Kettle. Today I did a trial run without food. I piled about 25-30 briquettes (kingsford blue) far on one side and lit 15 in a chimney. After 15 minutes or so I added the hot coals at the end of unlit pile, more or less "Minion-style" and topped with 2 ~4oz wood chunks. I then closed the grate and added a water pan on the grate above the coals and wood. I opened both vents 100% to get the temp moving upward quickly.

Within about 1 minute, white smoke was billowing out along the lid rim and the upper vent. Once the grate temp reached about 200 I dialed back the bottom vent to about 1/4" and the grate temp. settled around 230-240 or so but the white smoke kept billowing, now going on for at least 10 minutes. I lifted the lid and low and behold, the two wood chunks were engulfed in flames! I plucked them out with tongs and wrapped them in foil. Back on the coals wrapped in foil, the chunks continued to smolder and the billowing white smoke was gone, replaced by a nice calm smoke coming from the upper vent only.

Since huge amounts of white smoke is not a good thing, what did I do wrong? I've read about putting wood chunks on top of the charcoal pile without need for foil. Was it because I had the bottom vents on full and there was too much oxygen? Did I have too many lit coals?

Thanks for any pointers you can provide!
 
I think it was a little of both. Due to my location among the oak trees I start my fires with a Weber starting cube.
Unless I plan to cook direct I will line the edge of the kettle say 3" to 4" under my grill opening. I will start the fire at one
end only. I will put my wood about 2" from the lit coals then leave a gap of 2" for the next chunk. Depending on the length of
the cook chunks 3 and 4 will have the same gaps. When cooking indirect it helps to foil your charcoal grate with foil leaving
the portion where your snake will be open. This helps to control the fire by limiting the amount of oxygen. I will add the wood at 200*
and cut the vents to 1/8 open and bring the fire up slowly. It takes very little air to maintain 225* to 250*
Best of luck to you.
 
i'm with Tom. problem was a combination. too many lit coals+too much oxygen will result in high temps. 15 lit is way too many for a 30 unlit stack imo if you're wanting a l&s cook. now for the vents/temp. you don't want it to come up quickly. doing so can lead to runaway temps. you want it to come up slowly and even out. it's easier to add heat than to remove it, so you want to ease into your target temp and once stable, be able to hold it. bringing it up quick will negate that.
 
Do unlit coals put out white smoke when they ignite?
It sounds like my lit to unlit ratio needs to be tweaked. I'll also try to add wood after temp nears the target and vents are in the right spot instead of full open like I had.
 
Once your briquettes start burning off gradually and are somewhat heated before igniting they won't smoke nearly so much. Your wood chunks ignited due to the oxygen added when you lifted the lid, once they burn down a bit they will just give off a little smoke. For L&S my bottom vents are set less than 1/8 and my top vent is set about 1/4. I'm using lump charcoal and usually just ignite 3-4 chunks at one end with my welding torch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top