Post your live HeaterMeter Cooks


 
Got the Weber Kettle and SnS going with a 7lb Pork Shoulder

You can check out the status of the cook here http://bbq.tizzle.net/
Currently (9:45pm Central time) I'm in an overshoot from starting up but I expected that. I put a bunch of extra lit coals to start, seeing as it's only 35* outside.
 
First run on my HM.

My very first run, just fired it up... and its cold out. Here is my setup.

  • WSM 22.5"
  • Wind shield all the way around
  • Roto damper, no servo, it has not arrived yet
  • Minion method on the coals
  • 2 liters of hot water
  • Default PID settings

http://brisket.isasecret.com

  • 10:15 I noticed the fire went out, so I'm firing up some coals in the chimney starter.
  • 10:30 added hot coals
  • 10:42 put the shoulder on, put probe 1 into the meat
  • 11:10 the fan/temps seem pretty unstable, I adjusted the PID settings to 4,2,.01,15, as recommended here. http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?63040-PID-settings-for-a-WSM-22-5-quot
  • I also moved open lid detection to 15%, 6% was clearly too low, hey its cold out
  • 12:00 I think I figured out what happened. Initially the large pile of coals from the chimney provided a much bigger fire. This extra "pile" died out around 11:00 and then things got wonky because there is just a small ring of coals available now. Open lid detection was not helping either. It seems to be settling in nicely now around 225, with the new settings. I'll put my open lid detection back to 6%
  • 1:00 Temprature dropping added some coals again
  • 3:30 bumped the set temp to 250, adjusted the alarm on probe1 to 265
  • 4:40 added more coals, fire was burning out
  • 8:14 temperature dropping again, added some more coals, opened the top vent a hair
  • 12:00 took it off the smoker, dropped it in a crockpot to set and warm overnight

Here is my end graph
https://goo.gl/photos/5yZ2YaHvUDXr9JSm6

It seems to me I have a good setup, and I should actually just pile in the coals. Since my smoker is pretty well sealed up the fan does a nice jonb of controlling the heat.
 
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6 lbs of pork belly. 22.5" WSM, PID 4, 2, 0.01, 15, on at max only unchecked. All bottom dampers closed(except the fan) top vent wide open.

set temp 195, probe 1 and 2 pork belly, probe 3 ambient temp(not very accurate, its in the mid 60s)

http://brisket.isasecret.com
 
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Happy New Year everyone.....

I cooked a 10 lb brisket in a b_ball electric cooker this afternoon (mostly infrared heat)...

view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6czbofWF3TxZlNBTWpkazBFQ2M/view?usp=sharing

Ambient temp is reported as the Pit temp.
Electric heat only, fan not used.

Cook took only 4 hours. (!) I let it go to just over 200 using the Heatermeter probe in the biggest part of the meat. Temp was verified using a dial style thermometer in the other side of the brisket.

It did not have a smoke ring, but sure smelled good during the cook.
 
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Playing with my new toy, I have my HeaterMeter hooked up to my 18" WSM via an "air burner". Thanks Ralph Trimble for the advice on the air burner.

Testing it out on a beer butt chicken

All default settings

HeaterMeter
 
Nathan FA said:
Playing with my new toy, I have my HeaterMeter hooked up to my 18" WSM via an "air burner". Thanks Ralph Trimble for the advice on the air burner.

Testing it out on a beer butt chicken

All default settings

HeaterMeter
Click to expand...

Nice. Might want to try and seal up the WSM some more since the HM blower has been off most of the time, which means that it's not really controlling anything, it's spending most of the time just monitoring the temp.
 
Thanks. I do have it pretty well sealed up (still some leaking but I don't think it's possible to seal it up 100%), I have a gasket around the door and under the lid. I do have the top vent 100% open so I may be able to close it down to make sure there is not too much draft. I figure if it's not overshooting my target temp I'm probably good.
 
I missed the live cook, last I recall you were tuning the air burner holes for high-ish temps in the WSM... If you were cooking low and slow today and the HM is running at 0% output I would first try closing the top vent a bit so the HM starts to kick in, that way it can back down if you start to get overshoot. If closing the top vent doesn't make the HM tick up a bit then put a screw in a few of your air burner holes to close down the air path a bit, or swap out the pipes for ones with fewer/smaller holes.
 
I've got a 9ish pound (pre-trim) butt on now... but I keep losing temp and I'm getting a bit frustrated. This is only my 3rd or so cook with the HM/RD3 and probably only 8th or so on the Joe and it's been much the same story as the previous attempts. Anyone with advice? Thanks!!

http://smokin.dawgbytes.com
 
DavidAsman said:
I've got a 9ish pound (pre-trim) butt on now... but I keep losing temp and I'm getting a bit frustrated. This is only my 3rd or so cook with the HM/RD3 and probably only 8th or so on the Joe and it's been much the same story as the previous attempts. Anyone with advice? Thanks!!

http://smokin.dawgbytes.com
Click to expand...

Well...just solved part of the problem (at least for this cook): while the HM was running the fan at 100%, the RD3 was fully closed. Not sure how or why that was the case, but hopefully that'll get me up to temp again soon!
 
RalphTrimble said:
I missed the live cook, last I recall you were tuning the air burner holes for high-ish temps in the WSM... If you were cooking low and slow today and the HM is running at 0% output I would first try closing the top vent a bit so the HM starts to kick in, that way it can back down if you start to get overshoot. If closing the top vent doesn't make the HM tick up a bit then put a screw in a few of your air burner holes to close down the air path a bit, or swap out the pipes for ones with fewer/smaller holes.
Click to expand...

I closed the top vent and it made the fan run a bit more, max output was maybe 10%. I never went over temp so I'm happy with the holes for now. It is in the 20s outside so I may run into some issues holding a low temp once it heats up. I imagine at some point ill add some kind of damper servo even if it's not needed for my set up (can never have enough gadgets)

Thanks again
 
David, did you calibrate the servo so the RD3 is closed at 0% and fully open at 100%? The SPD numbers should be roughly 700-2100, it should be closed at 700 and opened at 2100 with inverted NOT selected. You can run it inverted if you want, it would just rotate the other way and you'd have to orient the damper disc the other way. I posted more detailed info about servo calibration in the RD thread fairly recently, check it out if your RD isn't opening/closing properly.
Seems like you have a handle on it though, whatever you did about a half hour ago set your pit flat on 250F...
 
RalphTrimble said:
David, did you calibrate the servo so the RD3 is closed at 0% and fully open at 100%? The SPD numbers should be roughly 700-2100, it should be closed at 700 and opened at 2100 with inverted NOT selected. You can run it inverted if you want, it would just rotate the other way and you'd have to orient the damper disc the other way. I posted more detailed info about servo calibration in the RD thread fairly recently, check it out if your RD isn't opening/closing properly.
Seems like you have a handle on it though, whatever you did about a half hour ago set your pit flat on 250F...
Click to expand...

I'm thinking there must be a flakey connection within the servo/cat5 punchdown which has been the root of my grief. For whatever reason, from about 8p-930p the fan was running with the closed damper. Double-tapping the "lid open" brought it back to fully open and as you point out, I can't complain about the results since.

As far as the settings: to get it to fully close, I had to drop the lower number to 320, but it does open & close fully and not inverted. I'll pull it apart before my next cook and see if I can sort out what might be loose, I suppose!
 
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