Keeping temps down in sun and warmer ambient temps ?


 
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Dave M..

TVWBB Member
Hey all - relatively new to this game, but have gotten 10 or 15 cooks in on my wsm. The problem is, all of my cooks have been in relative winter temps. I've had no problems at all maintaining temps up till this point. Last night I loaded the ring with stubbs briquettes, started about 3/4 of a chimney and dumped it on top minion method, and put on a pork butt when temps reached 225. I had a setpoint of 250, and the cyberq maintained that all night. Well, at 6am when the sun came out, the temps shot from 250 to 295....fan duty cycle zero...its not the cyberq making it hot - I assume it's the sun coming up. That said, what does one do at this point? I went down to take a look at the thing, and now my temps have spiked to 322!! Thoughts for a fire out of control/how to keep temps down?
 
If it's on wheels than move to a shady spot if ya have one, or use a big patio umbrella. Normally I just choke the vents back, you could even close the top one halfway if needed.
I don't use an ATC, but going into full sun will cause a significant spike as you already found out.
Good luck!

Tim
 
If it starts to spike with the vents mostly shut I just add a little more water to the pan. I have no idea what to do with an ATC other than to smoke in the shade or try posting your issue in the ATC forum.
 
Dave Russell said:
If it starts to spike with the vents mostly shut I just add a little more water to the pan. I have no idea what to do with an ATC other than to smoke in the shade or try posting your issue in the ATC forum.
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When the fan is off, it's the same as having all the bottom vents closed. It's been fully off for hrs. I may try dragging it into the shade a few feet away. Thanks
 
When using most atcs, you will be getting air in through the fan even if it isn't running so if you really want to shut it down, you will need to pull the fan and close the vent where the fan is. This sounds like a sun problem if you didn't open the cooker. I get temp spikes when I open to check the meat or glaze, etc.

I talked to Weber about the temp spike problem and they had no suggestions. Props to Harry Soo as I sent him an email about this and he replied quickly. Super, super guy!!!
 
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Thanks Jhoke you're correct - I was just meaning in terms of comparison...having the pit viper fan in there completely off is similar to having the vents closed..some, but not much gets in there. I'm not trying to shut it down, just trying to drop temps a bit. As an update, just since the last post, I went and dragged the thing under the cover of the back porch, and in just 15 mins now it's dropped from 322 to 305. Still not ideal.

How does one avoid this in the future, atc or not? As far as I can tell, this is not an atc issue. Did I light too full of a chimney on such a well packed ring and paid the piper when the sun came out? I mean it's like 50 degrees out..what's going to happen when it's summer and 80?
 
Did you close your top vent? Did you have water in the pan?

Water helps drop the temps. It takes a lot of heat energy to boil the water, so that heat isn't going to the meat or heating up the inside of the smoker. If you didn't have water in there already but had the pan in place, you could just pour in a gallon of water to bring your temps back under control.

I've had to run the WSM with all vents closed before, on warm sunny days. I couldn't believe the fire stayed lit with whatever air was leaking in around the door, but it did.

Oh, and 3/4 chimney is a lot. I've got a 22", and I only ever use 10-15 lit coals to start a minion method cook, even with a bag and a half of unlit loaded in the bottom.
 
ps, thanks JHoke - you reminded me that on the pit viper fan itself, there's a little tab that you can adjust to allow the fan full airflow, or slide it closed to limit flow. Even though the fan is not running at all, I just went down and slid it about 50% closed. Maybe that will help.
 
Dave Alvarado said:
Did you close your top vent? Did you have water in the pan?

Water helps drop the temps. It takes a lot of heat energy to boil the water, so that heat isn't going to the meat or heating up the inside of the smoker. If you didn't have water in there already but had the pan in place, you could just pour in a gallon of water to bring your temps back under control.

I've had to run the WSM with all vents closed before, on warm sunny days. I couldn't believe the fire stayed lit with whatever air was leaking in around the door, but it did.

Oh, and 3/4 chimney is a lot. I've got a 22", and I only ever use 10-15 lit coals to start a minion method cook, even with a bag and a half of unlit loaded in the bottom.
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I did not close my top vent. For some reason that always seemed like the ultimate no-no so I was trying other things first. Not sure why I had that in my head, but I'm still a beginner here.

I have a foiled clay saucer/no water in the pan so I don't think adding water is an option at this point.

Valuable info re the chimney - thank you...maybe I'm using too much. That said - the smoker was brought up to 250 and stayed there rock solid from 240am to 6am without varying more than 4 degrees. Things all went haywire when the sun came up!
 
WOW - talk about a beginner ! The good news - my smoker has NOT been operating at 300+ F. The bad news, I'm a moron and I didn't notice that my temp probe had fallen/was against the side of the smoker. I re clipped it on the grate and wow, 242f. LOL. Thanks for your help, sorry for wasting everyone's time. I knew something had to be wrong!
 
No worries, we all do stuff like that.

I use a foiled clay base and actually had to add water to it at a comp this last weekend to kill the temp spike so it can be done.

Not trying to hijack this thread but since we are on spikes, was wondering about getting rid of the clay base and just going to foiled pan. Anyone have an idea if just a foiled pan instead of foiled clay base would recover quicker from a temp spike. Kinda makes sense that the clay base would tend to hold the heat longer.
 
Hijack away - mine is back to business as usual, cyber-q holding temps within 5f or so in either direction. I must have bumped the grate temp probe with the lid.

Jhoke - it would make sense that less solid material that holds temp like the clay saucer 'should' allow for quicker reduction in temps...but I would imagine that's a double sided coin...as perhaps without the clay you would have spiked much higher and faster...?
 
Going to try it, but I think I will use several foil balls about tennis ball size in the pan covered by foil and see how that works. I already use foil rolled into long spacers under the clay base to create air space.
 
In hotter weather, I would close the Viper dampner to 50% and close the top vent to 50% too and see how that goes. With the dampner fully open, even with the fan off, a good amount of air is getting sucked through.
 
Scott C. said:
In hotter weather, I would close the Viper dampner to 50% and close the top vent to 50% too and see how that goes. With the dampner fully open, even with the fan off, a good amount of air is getting sucked through.
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Thanks Scott- will give that a shot if I can't keep temps down this summer.

Not to change topics too much - but what foods lend better to lower temps vs relatively higher? I've only ever smoked at 250. I wondered if ribs, shoulder, chicken might perhaps do better at 225, or 275? Thanks
 
Butts and brisket can be cooked well at just about any temp. Ribs tend to dry out if cooked too long and the chicken skin needs the higher temp.
 
Gosh, I'm the absolute last guy to offer cooking tips, but I do thicker and tougher meats low and slow 225 to 250. Chicken, tenderloins, etc, hotter for sure, 325 to 350. Ribs, somewhere in the middle ~275. I'm still sorting it out myself!
 
J Hoke said:
Not trying to hijack this thread but since we are on spikes, was wondering about getting rid of the clay base and just going to foiled pan. Anyone have an idea if just a foiled pan instead of foiled clay base would recover quicker from a temp spike. Kinda makes sense that the clay base would tend to hold the heat longer.
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IME it does.
Clay or sand will only absorb so much heat, and when they get to a certain point they start to release it.
If you're on the high side of 250 I found that lifting the lid for a prolonged period will cause a good spike which takes quite awhile to cool down compared to an empty foiled pan.
Edit: Duh.. I just made this connection.:) Think of a clay saucer like a CI pan, which has been known to retain heat compared to a regular thin metal pan.
Tim
 
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timothy said:
If it's on wheels than move to a shady spot if ya have one, or use a big patio umbrella. Normally I just choke the vents back, you could even close the top one halfway if needed.
I don't use an ATC, but going into full sun will cause a significant spike as you already found out.
Good luck!

Tim
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I don't have an ATC but I can tell you last summer my smoker hit 150 degrees sitting on the deck with nothing in it. My dome therm is pretty accurate. It's no worse than being in the wind only different. They have no insulation, they're black and when it's hot they will heat up especially if you keep your vents closed. I do so the hornets and wasps can't get in. For me, my deck faces SW so I get all of the afternoon and evening sun. It will be a factor for you to contend with.
 
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