couldnt keep temp down

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nklcolt1911

Fire Starter
Original poster
Sep 24, 2013
69
10
MN
i did a small flat over the weekend and aside from it cooking way faster than i have ever heard of in the last hour of the cook i couldnt keep the temps down, anyone have any tips for when its creeping up to high a way to get it to drop again?
 
 
If it was all shut then you have some serious serious leaking.    I'd tend to think the therms are off but would want to see pics of the drums intake/exhaust, fire basket plus how you're setting up the fire basket.
i tested the therms in boiling water, they are good, i have 3 3/4" intakes one with a ball valve, fire basket it 13" dia and 12" tall in 3" legs, lid is a weber kettle, i just dont see a good way that much air can get in, i use the minion method to get coals going, only thing i can think of is i used too big a piece of apple wood.
 
 
i tested the therms in boiling water, they are good, i have 3 3/4" intakes one with a ball valve, fire basket it 13" dia and 12" tall in 3" legs, lid is a weber kettle, i just dont see a good way that much air can get in, i use the minion method to get coals going, only thing i can think of is i used too big a piece of apple wood.
A good sealed drum can shut down to basically cool to the touch in less than an hour so it kind of surprises me to hear you closed off the intakes and the temperature still rose.  

Minion as in side to side burn or like the soup can method with a hole made for the hot coals in the middle of the basket?
 
 
A good sealed drum can shut down to basically cool to the touch in less than an hour so it kind of surprises me to hear you closed off the intakes and the temperature still rose.  

Minion as in side to side burn or like the soup can method with a hole made for the hot coals in the middle of the basket?
minion as in i dump lit coals on top of the fire basket, im also surprised, i need to dump the fire basket into the donor weber to snuff out the coals
 
Pictures of your set up would help. Weber lid sounds like a good leak source.

How many lit coals did you dump into the unliit charcoal? Chimney full? Half chimney full?

UDS doesn't take much to get it going. If you used to much you'd be hard pressed to get the temps down.
 
Pictures of your set up would help. Weber lid sounds like a good leak source.

How many lit coals did you dump into the unliit charcoal? Chimney full? Half chimney full?

UDS doesn't take much to get it going. If you used to much you'd be hard pressed to get the temps down.
i did a build post a year ago, should be in my history, i dump as many coals in the chimney as it takes to cover the cone in the bottom, so its not a lot
 
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