Nice looking cook log. There is a way to have HM tell you the degrees per hour for the probes, but I am not sure where to find that or if it works in a recalled cook log or live only. (if someone knows, please chime in...)
I am studying how to make improvements in cold start times and recovery when adding meat, and the best place to locate the pit probe in my insulated cabinet smoker.
Here is a cook log for the entire duration of a ~160 lb cook. I have a case of trimmed brisket (5 pcs total), a case of boneless butts (60 lbs total) two packs of spare ribs (20 lbs, trimmed St Louis style, with tips on the side)
There are no probes in the meat until late in the afternoon... I am just monitoring the cabinet temps to learn how everything reacts while there is a big thermal load (lots of cold meat in the smoker)...
I did a baseline cook with a cold start and dampers open and that took about an hour.
The log below shows a 50% closure on the 3 stack pipes (to see how 50% damper would work).
The temperatures from highest to lowest are:
Fire, Drip Pan, Pit_rack4, pit_Rack6... using Pit_rack4 for temp control point.
A) Cold start ...40 minutes, an improvement !
B) Adding the first couple of briskets rack 2 and 3 left side
C) Going in and out of wireless range apparently hosed the wi-fi connection where I could not join the network, so I had to reboot e HM to recover. Added three more briskets on racks 4, 5 and 6. Pit temp was riding a bit high, so I updated one of the PID settings from 5 to 7, and bumped the set point to 250 to see how it would pull and settle.
Note: the critical temp in my smoker for the best cooking is the drip pan (Food1, Bright green trace). When the grease gets dripping, I want to have the drip pan temp around 300 degrees or less if possible to get some secondary smoke from meat juice, but no carbonizing stanky burrn smell.
D) Adding a pan full of butts on lower racks 2 and 3 right side. I lowered the Set Point back to 225 and cut the fan speed to 50% in an effort to see if I could lower the drip pan temps. Noticed the thermocouple temp could not possibly be right if the fan is blowing for any length of time... reseated TC, jiggled wires and eventually rebooted HM to recover. (probably noise related with my thermocouple amp board)
E) Adding the rest of the butts on racks 5 and 6. Note how the light green trace (Food2 on Rack6) takes a REALLY long time to get back up to temp with cold meat a few inches away. This is the effect of having a thermal load in the vicinity of the probe. Pit temp recovers, but it really depends on where I measure the pit temp because there are hot and cold spots everywhere when I start adding meat and cranking the heat. BTW... recovery was kind of slow, so I bumped the fan back up to 100%, you can see a slight improvement in the pit recovery time... 150 lb meat load is all in for the night. Nap time (~1:30 AM)
F) Wake up !! the fire is going out !! I really need to look into setting an alarm for this.
G) Got the fire going again, but the thermocouple temp was "flat lining" again. Had to reboot HM to recover.
H) No issues, just disconnected the controller and towed the trailer to the park where my BBQ event was being held. I have towed it hot before on a battery using my Megamometer controller, but did not have time to do battery hookup today.
I) trailer is all set up at the venue, power is on, temps recovering nicely. Looks like the pit temp may have dropped a bit during the 7 mile journey and being unplugged for 50 minutes.
J) Thermocouple temp still questionable. Rebooted HM again.
K) Added 20 lbs of ribs and spot checked temps on meat with a meat thermometer.
Note how the temp on the rack 6 probe is not hitting the pit temp. This is because the probe is in the center of the rack and kind of surrounded by pieces of meat, and not getting as much radiant heat form the sides of the cabinet.
L) Pulling out meats, smallest pieces first. Scraped down the drip pan, its really getting grungy with baked out drippings. Added 20 lbs pork loin to serve at church on Sunday.
M) I used the rack6 probe in one of the briskets, and let it ride up to 200 then started removing the last of the big briskets, butts and ribs as they hit the 6 hour mark. Dropped the pit temp to 225. note how the drip pan temps are more moderate as the meat load is decreasing....
Now to clean it all up.
