Temps will not come up!


 
R

Russ Hazzon

TVWBB Pro
I've had my WSM18 for 10+ years. Last year I slowed down on the cooking due to other commitments. Slowly I've been trying to cook more and more as time permits. I'm no beginner with the WSM and never had a hard time bringing it up to temp, until last year. I'm doing everything the way I used to and no luck. I started with a full ring of Kingsford (original) and lit about 20 coals via the minion method. Pan was filled half-way with HOT water and four racks of spares went on. It's 75 degrees, sunny, with almost no wind at all. All of my vents are wide open and it sat at 216 and refused to come up. I removed the door to get the coals going and it went up to 230+, but is on the way back down again. I used to have to close all of my bottom vents to about 10% open to maintain 225, but now it is impossible. I cannot figure out for the life of me why. Has Kingsford changed that much over the past two years that it just won't burn hot? The WSM is so damn simple with the natural drafting and I cannot figure out why there is a problem. Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm at my wits end here!!!
 
I've read more than a few posts on K changing it's formula and they were negative. Sorry I'm no help to you Bud, cause I don't use it. Besides opening the door and stirring down the ash, have you tried cracking the lid or propping the door open?
That usually works for me when I get a stubborn cook.

Tim
 
Tim covered everything I can think of to help.
Never have problems with KBB myself.
Are the bags old, and maybe have drawn moisture?
 
Are you using rib racks or a foil pan or something that may be blocking the draft? Did you put a big cold hunk of meat on that is sucking up your heat? Those are the usual cast of characters when I deal with getting up to temp.
 
Bob Correll said:
Tim covered everything I can think of to help.
Never have problems with KBB myself.
Are the bags old, and maybe have drawn moisture?
Click to expand...

Thought that was the problem with a couple of bags from last year. Just picked up these bags the other day and having the same issue. I can't imagine I'm 3 for 3 here.
 
Dwain Pannell said:
Are you using rib racks or a foil pan or something that may be blocking the draft? Did you put a big cold hunk of meat on that is sucking up your heat? Those are the usual cast of characters when I deal with getting up to temp.
Click to expand...

Two rib racks and four racks of ribs. I'm used to the usual issues as I've done hundreds of cooks on this particular WSM. This is truly unusual. Vents wide open for six hours, coals stirred, temps will not go past 250. With all the vents wide open the fuel is being consumed quickly. I just don't get it.
 
Folks talk about how dependable Kbb is, but I've had the same issues before. Heck, I've had the coals die on the grill while I was still grilling. Not the best stuff, but I guess it works for most folks, most of the time. Harry Soo uses it, but then again, he has a Stoker.

If going on the cheap, I prefer Royal Oak house brands when they go on sale;last week at a local grocer for about .25/lb. Even if it doesn't burn too hot, at least it doesn't stink.
 
Normally use a grate thermo (ET-733), but have a lid thermo too. Both are on the money and the lid was about 15-25* hotter than the grate. Finally got up to 250* after about six hours. Vents remained wide open the entire time.
 
Try another round without water and see what happens. While it's not my favorite be a long shot, I use a lot of KBB simple because it's cheap (on sale)
Here was my Christmas turkey cook using a full chimney of unlit followed by a full chimney of lit on top. With all vents wide open, I had the opposite problem.


46087943-E9D2-4636-AFAD-3C05DB99D7F8.jpg
 
I have had the same problem the last two times I have cooked. The first time was on a new 14.5 WSM that I got for my birthday. I could not get the temps up for anything. I had to keep opening the door to get the heat up but when I put the door back on, the temps kept falling and this was with all vents open all the way. I finally got it up to around 250 but I like to cook my ribs around 275 so they were not as good as I like.

Two weeks ago I cooked some ribs using my two year old 18.5 WSM and had the same issues. It did eventually climb up and stayed between 250-300 but the temp control was nothing like it has been in the past. I used Kingsford on both cooks. I also used foiled water pans with no water in them. The charcoal was from last year but the partial bag was kept in the house and the new bag was kept in the shed. I bought quite a lot of the two pack deals of Kingsford last year so I hope it's not bad.

I'm supposed to cook a Brisket for a graduation party in about two weeks and am concerned about being able to get the temps up high enough so I'm not cooking forever.

Wayne
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top