Low Cooking Temp.

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Bought a WSM on July 3rd, armed with info from this forum, attempted back ribs. The ribs turned out great, but had to cook longer than anticipated due to low operating temps. I check the thermostat prior to use using the method listed on this site and it appeared accurate.

Put one full chimney, totally greyed over on bottom, one full unlit on top. Allowed to comletely grey over, almost an hour before putting ribs in cooker. Even with all the bottom vents fully open, temp never rised to above 235. Fresh Kingsford. What did I do wrong?
 
Usually on a new WSM the reverse is true-- it will cook hotter because shiny porcelain on the interior is reflecting heat back into the cooker, whereas after you get a soot layer built up on the inside, the excess heat is conducted out.

Was your top vent fully open? How/where were you measuring your temp? Was there a breeze? Was the cooker in shade or sun?
 
Top vent fully open, thermostat probe inserted through top vent, no breeze and full sun.
 
Hmm... Two chimneys of any size of fully lit Kingsford should have provided sufficent heat under those circumstances.

Length of thermometer stem sufficient to locate its tip far enough away from the vent itself? Water pan not sitting on top of charcoal ring by any chance? (It's been known to happen.)
 
No, the water pan was not sitting on top of the fire ring, as that was not how the instructions directed. The water pan was placed onthe bottom lip of the inside brackets.
 
Rick - was it a Weber chimney? Weber one is much larger than others. I have an old non-Weber type that doesn't compare to the Weber in size - that could be your problem- not enough charcoal.
 
Thanks David, yes it was a Weber chimney. There was a lot of hot charcol, just seemed like it was not getting enough oxygen to stay hot, even with all vents open.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Rick Browning:
[qb] No, the water pan was not sitting on top of the fire ring, as that was not how the instructions directed.[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>No offense intended there. As I said, two chimneys of any size and fully open vents should have easily put you over 300*, unless it's like 10* above zero outside. If the thermo tested accurate, then it's got to be something inhibiting the burning of the coals, or really absorbing the heat, like a large Boston butt. Even if you filled both grates with baby backs, at some point you should have been able to exceed 235. /infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif

Perhaps we should still suspect the thermo. Maybe it read boiling water OK. Maybe above some point, say 235, it's messed up. The question would then be what could be used to test it that exceeds 235*? Baked potato, maybe?
 
Doug, no offense taken and thanks for the help. I'm going to test the thermometer a little further.
 
Rick,

I agree with Doug, suspecting the thermometer. A few weeks ago, I smoked chicken wings. I wanted to smoke them at around 325 so the skin would be crisp.

20 Minutes after putting the lid on, the temperature thru the dome vent with a Taylor probe, measured only 175.

So I took the cooker apart, and placed the cooking rack directly over the coals to crisp the skin. Some burned a little, being that close to the coals. I then put the cooker back together to let the wings smoke a good while.

They turned out way overdone. Later I checked my probe in boiling water, and it read 175. It always worked fine up until then. Another probe I had went bad after only 5 low temperature uses.
 
Tested the thermometer again last night and it seems dead on with boiling water. I'm at a loss.
 
This is strange. How much meat was on the cooker? That bad boy should have still been pushing 300 after two chimneys even with the meat on. What was the state of the coals after the cook? All burnt or some leftovers?

Bob
 
4 slabs of ribs. Coals were still lit and burning when I took them off.
 
Hi Rick - Here's a few thoughts, take them for what they're worth (or not worth). How long did the ribs take to cook? Could your probe have been touching the meat? That would give you a false reading.
 
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