English guy cant get it up !

[tommythis]

Evening chaps

I have had an ECB for years with mixed results and as result of reading comments on this forum i bought a new bullet smoker with vents and a temp guage , its a a Pro Q , not sure that  means anything to you but thats the name of the product imported into the UK.

Problem is even with all vents open i can't get it above 200 unless the water pan boils dry ! This was on a typical English summer's day 65 degrees , occasional rain and breezy !

I use Brickettes as i find lumpwwod charcoal burns hot then the temp drops of really quickly rather than giving a steady burn

Any suggestions  ?

Next smokin' session is saturday week when some friends are coming around to watch the England USA game in the World Cup . By the way it's called football not soccer

 

[flbobecu]

Something is defiantly not right. 

Are you filling the firering/bowl completely? 

What briquettes are you using? Even after initial start up, you are not getting temps of 200? Sounds silly, but does the water pan have a small hole in it? I cannot even imagine it drying up. I've cooked 6 hours without replacing a drop of water... 

 

[adiochiro3]

Had the same problem at first with my ECB using just charcoal briquettes and sawdust/chips.  Temps just were too low.  A friend of mine had the same unit & couldn't keep temps down; he was using straight seasoned fruit wood.  It turned out that the answer was somewhere in between our methods: I now start with coals and add the fruit wood on top of the coals once temps stabilize and I put the meat on the smoker.  Throughout the smoke, I add a few coals and firewood as needed to maintain proper temp & smoke levels, (usually about every 45 minutes).  It doesn't take long to learn how to manage your smoker this way.  It does require fairly constant attention, though.

Check out some of the ECB modifications on our forum -- some will probably translate to your new bullet smoker.  Ultimately, temp management is all about managing air flow on the intake side of the equation.

BTW, don't trust your factory thermometer; pick up one or two after market thermos to provide accurate readings.  And boil test those for accuracy before trusting them!

 

[tommythis]

Filling Charcoal bowl up ?  Full right up !

Water pan boiling dry ? : Believe it !

Regards

 

[flbobecu]

How are you lighting it?

 

[DanMcG]

Welcome Tommy. You mentioned a temp guage, has it been tested? easy to do with boiling water... fire up a pot of water to a boil and drop the thermo in it should read 100c. You need to remember that while you have water in the pan it will have trouble getting much above that temp because of the water is trying to maintaining 100c.

BUT, if it's boiling the pan dry,  you definetly are running hot enough.

A must do mod is get the coals off the bottom with a wire rake or something. you need to let air flow up thru the coals and it also lets the ash fall down thru to the bottom, and briq's produce a lot of ash.

Ask more questions and we'll have ya smoking like a pro by the weekend.

Cheers, Dan

 

[tommythis]

Thnaks chaps

Will test the thermomoter as suggested , i assume it unscrews ?

I'm using firelighters to light coals

The coals are held in a "cage" above the bottom of the smoker so they dont get choked with ash

Regards