New (to me) Summit Kamado E6 not fuel efficient on first overnight cook


 
M

Mark-S

New member
I recently purchased a used Summit Kamado E6. I'm coming from a Smokey Mountain 18. I've read about how efficient these cookers are and how very little charcoal they use, so I was really looking forward to seeing how much less charcoal it would use compared to my WSM. Last night I attempted my first overnight cook using some Jealous Devil Max XL Charcoal Briquets. According to the Kamado E6 user guide, you should be able to get 8-10 hours of cook time using only 35-45 briquettes. I filled up my Weber chimney to the top with the Jealous Devil briquettes, which should have been the equivalent of about 100 briquettes, and dumped them in. After getting the WSK up to temp at around 11:00 pm, I adjusted the bottom vent to the smoke setting and closed the vent to about 1/3 open. After it settled in around 235, I went to bed.

I woke up and checked on the grill temp, and it was reading 238. Impressive I thought. But after about another 30 minutes, temps started going down and continued to do so . I went outside and lifted up the deflector plate, and pretty much all of the charcoal was gone. I'm really confused at this point, because I'm not understanding how this is possible considering the amount of charcoal I put in (especially compared to the instructions), and how efficient the WSK is supposed to be. On my Smokey Mountain, I would still have a considerable amount of charcoal left in the morning after overnight smokes.

Any ideas as to why it used so much charcoal? I've never used the Jealous Devil briquettes before; do they burn quickly? I've used their lump in my WSM for a number of smokes, and even that lasted longer.

Thanks.
 
I don’t think a Weber chimney held anywhere near 100 briquettes of JD max, but I could be wrong.

I’ll defer to other users but on my one low and slow I just dumped the bag to fill up the whole lower section. Put in the heat diffuser and it had tons of charcoal left after 10 hours.

Good luck, we have a few really experienced users who I’m sure will chime in once the coffee hits.
 
JD briquettes don’t last as long as Kingsford in my experience. I prefer lump, but I feel like that burns slightly faster than Kingsford too.

Just curious if there is plenty of creosote buildup, which will help it seal over time.

Also, is the silver fan port plug tightly inserted (bottom right side of the bowl)?
 
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Bruno said:
I don’t think a Weber chimney held anywhere near 100 briquettes of JD max, but I could be wrong.

I’ll defer to other users but on my one low and slow I just dumped the bag to fill up the whole lower section. Put in the heat diffuser and it had tons of charcoal left after 10 hours.

Good luck, we have a few really experienced users who I’m sure will chime in once the coffee hits.
Click to expand...
Same. I fill the bottom, light a small area and it will go a long time leaving much not started.
 
How full was the bottom?
What were the temps during the night?
Not outside. The grill temps might have spiked a lot during the cook.
 
A full chimney of hot and ashed over coals might be the isssue. It will burn out quicker than adding ten hot coals to an unlit bed of charcoal. Minion method is more effective for long cooks.
 
Sorry, no pics. There was definitely not 100 briquettes, because Jealous Devil Max briquettes are larger than normal briquettes. But since the chimney is supposed to hold approximately 100 normal-sized briquettes, and I filled it up, it should have been the equivalent of 100. All of the charcoal went into the WSK unlit. I then lit some leftover Jealous Devil lump (1/6th of a chimney's worth), and spread that over the charcoal. This is what I normally do with my WSM as well.

Unfortunately, I don't have a way to monitor the pit temps after the fact. I use a Thermoworks Smoke X2, and it doesn't have historical information (and I wasn't awake).

The fan port is tight, although I do see smoke leak in the back (which seems to be a common issue) as well as where my probe wires run under the lid.

Thanks.
 
For 8-10 hrs they say to use 100 - 120 briquets. I find the WSK to be way more efficient than a 22 or 26 inch kettle. But you are comparing it to an 18" smokey mountain, and there is just a massive size difference. The difference in the primary grate is 88%. I would venture to say if the two grills where insulated exactly the same it would take around 25% more charcoal on the larger grill. I don't think you are going to see a ton of gain in efficiency if you are smoking a piece of meat that could fit on an 18 inch.
 
I have an 18" WSM and the WSK. To me the big savings in efficiency is in the winter where the wind and cold rob the WSM of heat and if it was raining or snowing. I find the WSK way better in that scenario.

But the 18" WSM is pretty darn efficient. I have done 12-hour cooks in winter with no wind and didn't need to add coals on the WSM. My go to low and slow briquette is still B&B orange bag, even though their quality has gone down under new ownership. I have gotten 18 hours on one full load of B&B on the WSK and I know the WSM can't do that, and they hold similar amounts of coals.

The grate space is 56% higher on the WSK, so more surface area to keep at temp, particularly when compared to the 18" WSM.

That's my 2 pennies anyway. If I only had one grill it would be the WSK hands down.
 
lol your both probably right, I was trying to use the surface area of the grate as rough metric of the total interior volume of the grill but the shape difference probably makes that comparison more than worthless. Todd has cooked on both so that's all that matters. I'm a mid-wit.
 
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