Did a test burn in the UDS with the Weber lid today. Wanted to see if I had any major leaks and also wanted to give the wood stove gasket cement a chance to cure.
I used the rest of the Lazarri Mesquite Lump that I had. Not dissing the mesquite, I know a lot of you like it but it is a little strong for my tastes. Had about 2/3 of a basket full and fired it off this morning.
Not knowing what to expect, I took it up pretty slow and was pretty conservative with the air. It settled in at 240ish with just the valve about 1/2 way open. It wanted to creep up a little bit and slowly crept up to 280ish and stayed there for about 4 hours but the drum did not have any meat in it so I wasn't too worried about the temp creep. After 4 hours the temp started to drop a little so I "shook the can" and opened the valve a little bit. Started increasing the intake opening about 1/4 increments every 30 minutes or so to see what kind of range I could get.I was holding it at 240° to 250° for awhile then started taking it up. It is sitting at just over 315° at 2-1/3 open.
The wind was HOWLING today which was actually a good thing since I wanted to test for lid leaks. Looks like I may have gotten lucky with the fit. Other than the creep up in the beginning, the temp seemed real stable. It did not seesaw at all and hopefully with some meat on to act as a heat sink, I can keep it around 250° in the beginning.
My 8 year old daughter had the sidewalk chalk out and put up a little signage on the retaining wall . . .
You can see where the arrows are pointing here.
All in all a pretty encouraging test run. Hopefully I'll get some meat on it next week. I may paint it first though. I know the UDS is supposed to be ugly, but I may have to put a paint job on it at least to begin with. May not ever look clean again after I start cooking on it but at least it will have a start.
Dave
I used the rest of the Lazarri Mesquite Lump that I had. Not dissing the mesquite, I know a lot of you like it but it is a little strong for my tastes. Had about 2/3 of a basket full and fired it off this morning.
Not knowing what to expect, I took it up pretty slow and was pretty conservative with the air. It settled in at 240ish with just the valve about 1/2 way open. It wanted to creep up a little bit and slowly crept up to 280ish and stayed there for about 4 hours but the drum did not have any meat in it so I wasn't too worried about the temp creep. After 4 hours the temp started to drop a little so I "shook the can" and opened the valve a little bit. Started increasing the intake opening about 1/4 increments every 30 minutes or so to see what kind of range I could get.I was holding it at 240° to 250° for awhile then started taking it up. It is sitting at just over 315° at 2-1/3 open.
The wind was HOWLING today which was actually a good thing since I wanted to test for lid leaks. Looks like I may have gotten lucky with the fit. Other than the creep up in the beginning, the temp seemed real stable. It did not seesaw at all and hopefully with some meat on to act as a heat sink, I can keep it around 250° in the beginning.
My 8 year old daughter had the sidewalk chalk out and put up a little signage on the retaining wall . . .
You can see where the arrows are pointing here.
All in all a pretty encouraging test run. Hopefully I'll get some meat on it next week. I may paint it first though. I know the UDS is supposed to be ugly, but I may have to put a paint job on it at least to begin with. May not ever look clean again after I start cooking on it but at least it will have a start.
Dave
