Temp spike out of no where...


 
A

Andrew T

New member
I have a question for you guys regarding a smoke I did over the weekend.

I was cooking a brisket during the night and knew I was going to be getting low on charcoal before I added the ribs I planned on also smoking. While the brisket was wrapped in foil I took off the middle section of my 18.5in WSM and added some unlit coals. Now I know exposing the already lit coals to this much air can cause the temp to rise but that isn't the problem.

When I put the middle section back on the temp did rise but just marginally. I use an PitmasterIQ to control the airflow so things settled back to 250F where I wanted it. But 30-45 min later after I had added the two racks of ribs the temp all of a sudden was hitting 300-325F. I hadn't been opening the lid. The two bottom vents were closed with the only vent open being the one with the PitmasterIQ attached and the lid vent was partially closed. I don't have any leaks so I don't believe it was too much air getting to the fire.

I can't figure out why the temp would rise that high nearly 45 min after adding unlit coals. Anyone have any ideas or solutions to adding charcoal mid-way through a smoke?

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
How do you know the grate temp was that high?

When the temp went that high was the ique showing red?
 
Alan,
The 300-325 was the lid temp. Yes the ique was showing red. I ended up disconnecting the hose from the ique and putting the plastic cover over the opening on the attachment on the wsm to stop any airflow to help bring the temp down... Which ultimately worked. I'm just not sure why it happened or what I can do to prevent it.
 
I don't use and ATC so this is just a stab in the dark but it may be possible that when you popped the lid off to put on the ribs it sucked in additional air or it may just have been ash falling off and exposing the fresh briquettes which already had warmed up to the bed of hot and started the fresh burning all at once.
 
If the dome temp was 325 your grate temp was probably 25-50f higher.

You can't blame the ique as it knew how hot it was. My guess is the ique was working hard to keep the temp up as the fuel burned low, then you added new coals and the ique kept blowing hard and when they lit they were getting too much air and that caused the spike. If you are worried about temp spikes or need to bring the temp down close your top vent 1/3 to 1/2 closed. I only do this when there is a spike and return it to normal later. By closing the top vent some you empower the ique to have more control over the amount of air.
 
From my understanding the lid temp would actually be hotter than grate temp since heat rises. Could be wrong though.

Yeah I don't blame the ique. I did shut the lid vent a little more than half way and that did help. I'm just looking for solutions on preventing it from happening, not so much how to fix it.

Thanks for the feedback though.
 
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