Poll: Do you light off your charcoal refills before adding to your WSM?


 
R

Rich_S

TVWBB Member
I've been using the Minion Method almost since I first started with my WSM. However, I have always been lighting off my refills before adding. I guess my rationale has been that with the existing coals almost completely gone after an overnight cook, that the new coals might not catch if I put them in unlit. After a discussion in another thread, it appears this might be unnecessary. What is everyone else doing?
 
Unlit here. I find that when the coals burn down, they always seem to be lit on one side more than the other. I put the unlit coals on the ulit side leading to the lit, so they start the slow burn the other direction. It continues the M.M. more or less.
Hope I explained that right.
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IMHO, adding to many lit coals will just change your grate temps making you play with vent settings more.
 
i just throw mine right in, unlit. Never have had a problem. Havent noticed off=flavor or problems liting.

Paul J.
 
Originally posted by Bob T.:
IMHO, adding to many lit coals will just change your grate temps making you play with vent settings more.
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I had been getting around the temp spike by adding water to the pan at the same time I added the charcoal. I will try with unlit next time.
 
I guess I'm the contrarian. The only time I add more charcoal is when the cooker temp is lower than I want and I can't get it to rise, even after dislodging ashes from the hot coals. In that case, I light 20 or more briquettes in the chimney and either place them through the access door using tongs, or if I'm feeling lucky, I lift off the middle cooking section with lid intact and dump/distribute in the charcoal chamber.

Sounds like I'm waiting longer than most to add more fuel.

Regards,
Chris
 
I'm kinda like Chris. I, too, wait until the temp has dropped lower than it should be, and then add in some freshly lit coals if I don't think the existing embers are going to make it thru to the end of a cook. While I'm lighting the new charcoal, I leave the access panel off to help add oxygen to the existing embers so as to get them glowing hot again. I guess I'm kinda cheap that way.
 
If I'm using lump I add it unlit. If I use briquettes I get them mostly white first in a stand-by grill then add. I keep the grill with some charcoal on the side lit and unlit and toss a few over to the lit side as I go.

Did two flank steaks and three halfcocked chickens yesterday. My most tender and moist chicken to date!

Aloha!

Greg Kemp
 
I usually only add coal if I cannot get my temps up. And then I almost always put unlit briquettes in through the access door.
 
I go with the flow, if i'm planning ahead (before bed) I'll add some un-lit lump to the burned out area's. If I'm not so conscientous, and wake up to a burned out ring and low temps, I'll torch light some chunks to quickly add heat.
 
I do both. Kind of like a mid-flow minion method. Reason is that if I'm adding charcoal, then it is because I have almost none left to burn, which means I can't ensure that the unlit coal will ignite.

So, I light up a few briquettes - 5-10 max. When ashed over, I mix in another 20 or so unlit and throw them in the smoker. It ensures I get a few more hours, which is all I ever have needed.

All that said, I haven't had to add any charcoal for quite some time. Even when I did 4 7-pound butts that took 19 hours, I could have gone another 3 hours+ on the same load of coal.
 
I'm with Mr. Kemp above. Lump seems to light OK when added unlit, but briquettes take a long time to catch, if they do at all.

As a suggestion for Tom O. - I have a 2' length of aluminum gutter that I use as a chute to put the charcoal where I want it -
 
I usually burn mine out unless I know I'm gonna grill in the next few of days, then I save it and sandwich it between fresh coals in the chimney.
 
I'm one of those guys who waits unitl he's past the point of no return, panics, and then adds half a chimney of lit charcoal. You an get half a chimney going really fast.

Griff
 
I infrequently have to add charcoal. Generally, if I think that I am going to run low (before it happens, based on the amount in the ring) I add unlit by simply throwing the Kingsford where I want it. This is in advance of the need so is just an ongoing MM. Like adamclyde, I rarely run low, thanks to the Guru.

Early in my BBQ career, I had problems and used lit to try to jack up the temp. I tried aluminum flashing to create a slide to get the hot coals into the cooker like Matt Watson. I determined on the first cook that the aluminum flashing was not standing up to the servic (when it burned out), so I wound up using the ballast cover out of a troffer (steel lay-in fluorescent light fixture) with a pair of Vise-grips to hold it.
 
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