Sudden drop in temp question


 
G

Grant Narita

TVWBB Fan
Hello everyone,

Doing my 5th cook on my 18.5 WSM. No water in the pan, enough fuel, using the minion method. No wind, 75 degrees outside. Put one slab of beef ribs on the top grill. Was humming along around 277-280 about two hours into the cook, and suddenly the temp dropped 20 degrees in five minutes, and now is holding at 259. Is this common? I cannot understand what would cause the sudden drop. Didn't open the lid or anything. Any ideas? Thanks.
 
What type of fuel are you using? Briquettes or Lump? I had a similar situation, after 3-4 hours of starting the kbb (2-3 hours with meat on), temp drops suddenly. I think it may be due to ash build up.

Dave
 
Sometimes you will see temps go up and down a little but if you are holding at 20 degrees less, you might have some ash build up in one of your vents. You shouldn't after only 2 hours but who knows?
Look in the vents and see if you see a lot of ash in one of them. Only thing I can think of off hand but I'm sure others will chime in

ha, me and Dave were typing at the same time
 
i think its the ash build up as well. its happened to me few times and when i open the door and give it stir it usually comes back up.
 
I am using kings ford charcoal briquettes... I just checked for ash buildup but couldn't see anything.... Maybe it's just one of those things? I have my wireless probe in the small side vent for temp probes and it sits under the top grate, so maybe meat juice fell on it or something. Oh well...
 
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Maybe your probe was off at sometime. If you have an et -732 their probes are know to short out.
 
One of my tools that I use whenever I'm using my WSM is a rubber mallet. Every hour or so I lightly tap each of the legs a few times, in an effort to knock down any ash that may have accumulated. I notice that whenever I do that, the temp will bump up a few degrees.
 
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