HELP!!!


 
C

chris comer

TVWBB Super Fan
Husband took off on a work errand, left our 10-yr old in charge (his first assist!) and his cell phone at home. Set temp is 270 -- actual is 315. Closed vents and secured door, which was open a little. Temp is slowly coming down. Anything else I can do to prevent turning 4 big butts to jerky before he returns in about 2 hours????!!! Started cooking about 10 hrs ago -- his first overnight. Afraid the battery may die on this thermometer from all the beeping -- although I may crush it first!!! THANKS!!!! - Jeri (down to 285 -- and I shut the beeping off, so the thermometer is safe.)
 
Sounds like you have it under control now. As long as the bottom vents are closed and the top vent is slightly open, you should be able to get the temp back down in no time at all.
 
OK -- we're good. Back under 270 -- now need to adjust back up a little. Assume I can open vents to accomplish that. All his recorded temps for the night are around 250-ish so will try to maintain that. His new toy -- I just enjoy the end product and make killer garlic bread to go with it. Thanks for listening! -- the wife
 
Yes you can definitely bring it back up by just adjusting the vents. You might start by adjusting one at a time until you can get it stabilized. Do you have a meat probe for monitoring the meat temp?
You may want to keep an eye on it, but if you are cooking more than one butt, your temp should be ok.
 
Nor would 315 mean jerky; just a shorter cook. Fear not.

If the top vent isn't open, open it. See what happens over the next 10 min. If falling or stable, crack the lower vents. (If rising, there is a lower leak.) You'll need to re-establish airflow in short order. At your elevation it is easy to choke the fire to none at all.
 
Good that you're back to your target. Make sure top vent is open. I'd suggest opening all three lower vents to half then note temps for 20 min. If you see them falling after 10 of those min, open 50% more. If stable over the 20 min, watch for another 10 min. If rising over those 20 min, close each just a little.

Your elevation is a key issue that most here don't share which is why I'm suggesting working all three lower vents. Air intake is critical--and harder for you to establish than for many of us. The door cracked open slightly, is often necessary to establish adequate cooktemps at your elevation. Don't go there--yet--until you see if you need all vents completely open. If you do and your temps are low or falling, you'll need to crack the door slightly.
 
Chris is back, quicker than I thought, so I'll dump it back on him to deal with!!! Yes, he does have a probe and a fancy remote RediChek theremometer setup that beeps and beeps and .... figured out how to shut that thing up quickly. The top vent was always a little open. Stabilized in the 240's. Thanks for your help!!! Have a great rest-of-the-weekend -- go call your moms!! -- Jeri
 
Well lets see. 36lbs of meat on about 10:30 last night. Couldn't get temp stabalized until about 1 -1:30 AM. Surprised it took so long. Temps were kind of all over the place last night anywhere between 230 - 260. And then the little incident this morning. So at approx. 14 hours the meat just read 160. I'll keep an eye on it the next hour and if there has not been a significant increase in internal temp I will have to resort to foil. 2:00 looks to be about the time I'll have to make a descision on foil.
The afternoon sun is working it's way toward the smoker and that always causes a jump in temps. It may be enough to get them over the hump. Thanks for the help this morning wife & son weren't sure what to do. That's why I had him "assisting" me on the overnighter. Hoping to teach him a little and get some quality time together.
 
don't hit the panic button, you may see your internal hit a plateau and it could stay there for a couple to a few hours, and then it will gradually rise once again. Enjoy the moments with your son, and he will become a great BBQ'er as well. That is definite quality time.
 
Damn, I board a plane and miss all the fun. Chris, how long did it take you to get to temp last night. You said it took awhile to stabalize, what was she doing?

From my smartphone, please excuse typos.
 
Larry, heck it took nearly 3 hours to get stable, if you can really call it that. Like I said temps were all over the place. I'm not sure that I'm sold on the clay saucer, seems when I use it I have problems coming to temp. Heck I'v even gone as far as preheating the saucer in the oven. I didn't do that last night however and it may have contributed to the issues. Seems to eat up my fuel also. Judging by what I read here I suspect that at altitude I might consume more fuel than some of you guys in the low-lands.
Couldn't belive that my wife actually got on the forum and started asking for help. She was surprised by the quick responses she got. I told her nobody ever wants to see a cook go bad, especially one with 36 lbs of meat. Things will turn out fine, I'm just starting to get uptight about internal meat temp now, and when or if to foil. The whole point of the overnighter was to not have to use foil.
Later.....Chris
 
You know Chris, this is exactly what I went through when I first got my WSM. Larry R, tried to explain to me how to do an overnighter, and I just struggled to get mine to maintain a steady temperature. I even went to the extent of taping my door shut with heat tape, and still struggled. I got lots of advice, and was very close to just saying the hell with it. Then I checked into a power draft system. When I got it, I set the temp for 225* at the lid and 190 for the meat. I put my butt (pork butt) on at 10:30 pm as well, and I went to bed. I had all of the bottom vents closed and the top was just barely opened. I woke up the next day at 5am and once got my eyes adjusted I decided to venture into the backyard and check in things. My pit temp was sitting right at 225* exactly where I set it the night before. It ended up being a 21 hour cook and I couldn't be happier. The only time I don't use the power draft system is when I am doing chicken, and that's only because I cook the chicken at a very high temp and it's not on there as long either. I have to be honest with you; I never thought I would take a chance on something like this, but I sure am glad I did. It's too easy... yet you still will enjoy the challenges of creating good BBQ for your friends and loved ones. Larry R. uses the Stoker while I am using the DigiQII. There are lots of people that don't use these systems and have tremendous success with their cooks, but since no two cookers are the same, it's a very good alternative especially for people like myself who don't have a lot of patience when it comes to adjusting vents and trying to stabilize temps.

Good luck with your cook(s)...
 
Ed, when I first ordered my WSM I also had been looking at the posts and website for BBQ Guru. However like I told the father in-law, after seeing the cost of the BBQ Guru I wasn't sure wether it was an accessory for the WSM or if the WSM was the accessory. I'll probably pick one up sometime in the future maybe for a birthday or christmas present. Who knows Fathers Day is right around the corner.
 
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