This is one of my first longer cooks using Stokerlog. Stoker is on Primo XL, with a 5CFM blower. Aside from the craziness after hour 4, when I was opening the lid for various reasons, is there any useful information that you can glean from this Stokerlog that I can use to better the Stoker performance?
What Can You Tell From This Stokerlog?
- Thread starter D Arita
- Start date
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by D Arita:
This is one of my first longer cooks using Stokerlog. Stoker is on Primo XL, with a 5CFM blower. Aside from the craziness after hour 4, when I was opening the lid for various reasons, is there any useful information that you can glean from this Stokerlog that I can use to better the Stoker performance? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
This is one of my first longer cooks using Stokerlog. Stoker is on Primo XL, with a 5CFM blower. Aside from the craziness after hour 4, when I was opening the lid for various reasons, is there any useful information that you can glean from this Stokerlog that I can use to better the Stoker performance? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
LarryR
TVWBB Diamond Member
How many times did you open your cooker? When I do a high heat brisket cook I usually only have to open twice. Once to foil and a second time to test for doneness. It's hard to tell but do you use lid open or turn off for five minutes after opening? I do the later with pretty good results. The other thing that's throwing me is the very first drop in temp as she was ramping up. I don't see that in my cooks.
As long as the top was closed, the temp was really steady. Being my first brisket, I opened it several times to check for doneness. The first little spike was a quick open to check the bark. The second time, I actually turned off the Stoker, then turned it back on when done. I kept doing that as time went on and temps began to drift quite a bit.
I have tried the 5 minute pause, but 5 minutes seemed too long, temps really dipped and that really through things off. Seems like I got better recovery from just turning the unit off, then on when I was done. Someone else mentioned that they just remove the fan when they open the lid and I may try that next to see the effects.
Does startup seem pretty normal? Does it usually take that long to stabilize?
I have tried the 5 minute pause, but 5 minutes seemed too long, temps really dipped and that really through things off. Seems like I got better recovery from just turning the unit off, then on when I was done. Someone else mentioned that they just remove the fan when they open the lid and I may try that next to see the effects.
Does startup seem pretty normal? Does it usually take that long to stabilize?
Top vent was open about 1/2". I've been trying different things with the top vent to see if I could get more stable temps, so it's interesting you should see that. Next cook I'll used the meat probe. It's taken me a while to get this far using Stoker on Primo, so I wanted to keep it simple till I figured out how to get stable temps. I'm still wondering if it is the norm to take this long for temps to stabilize?
LarryR
TVWBB Diamond Member
I'd try closing your top vent down a bit more. I set my top vent (it's kind of a vent, more of a hat) open about 1/8 of a turn. I found this graph from a cook I did when I was still getting used to my new ceramic cooker. Notice the amount of fan action I was getting until I closed the top vent down to 1/8.
To your question of how long it took to stabilize, yes, based on my experience it does seem like your cooker took quite some time to stabilize.
To your question of how long it took to stabilize, yes, based on my experience it does seem like your cooker took quite some time to stabilize.
It is normal to get that drop after start up. What happens is that he fire overshoots and the stoker keeps the fan off. By the time the temp drops below target, it keeps blowing the air but the fire gets colder if it is near death. Then eventually it catches on.
A fix is to initially set your target lower. If you want 300 set it to 270. Once it achieves 270, then nudge it up to 300.
A fix is to initially set your target lower. If you want 300 set it to 270. Once it achieves 270, then nudge it up to 300.