John Baldessari
New member
Hi all -- today gave lump charcoal a try in my WSM for the first time, and now have a couple questions. A little background:
Had a lot of difficulty w/ keeping the temperature up. I started off with a couple fully lit chimneys of the lump charcoal, and let the smoker burn for about an hour at around 250 F before adding any meat. After I added it, however, the temperature kept dropping, despite having the top and bottom vents opened all the way. Temperature hovered around 200 on the lid thermometer (was cooking ribs).
At the three hour mark, took top off the bottom, and discovered most of the lump charcoal was out -- (!!). Put the unlit charcoal back into a chimney and relit. After that turned the door upside-down and propped open slightly to get enough air to the fire to keep it burning up around 275 F. Whenever I shut the door however, the temps dropped and lump charcoal started going out again. Seems like it couldn't get enough air, even with all the regular vents (top and bottom) opened all the way -- ?? Charcoal brand was "Cowboy" lump charcoal, and seemed to be fine otherwise -- not wet or anything like that.
Anyways, was just curious if maybe lump charcoal normally doesn't work that well in the Webers. The owners manual recommends against it, IIRC. What are your thoughts -- does anybody else have this sort of trouble? How do you get it to burn hot? Or is it better just to stick with the Kingsford brickets in a WSM?
Had a lot of difficulty w/ keeping the temperature up. I started off with a couple fully lit chimneys of the lump charcoal, and let the smoker burn for about an hour at around 250 F before adding any meat. After I added it, however, the temperature kept dropping, despite having the top and bottom vents opened all the way. Temperature hovered around 200 on the lid thermometer (was cooking ribs).
At the three hour mark, took top off the bottom, and discovered most of the lump charcoal was out -- (!!). Put the unlit charcoal back into a chimney and relit. After that turned the door upside-down and propped open slightly to get enough air to the fire to keep it burning up around 275 F. Whenever I shut the door however, the temps dropped and lump charcoal started going out again. Seems like it couldn't get enough air, even with all the regular vents (top and bottom) opened all the way -- ?? Charcoal brand was "Cowboy" lump charcoal, and seemed to be fine otherwise -- not wet or anything like that.
Anyways, was just curious if maybe lump charcoal normally doesn't work that well in the Webers. The owners manual recommends against it, IIRC. What are your thoughts -- does anybody else have this sort of trouble? How do you get it to burn hot? Or is it better just to stick with the Kingsford brickets in a WSM?