Okay, I'm going to tell on myself & my age-deteriorating brain to explain how I discovered the effectiveness of an ECB mod. I put all of the mod's on that I found through the forum and they got my ECB perking right along at about 225+- a few degrees. Then a couple of smokes back I discovered the temperature at the thermometer in the lid had dropped to around 200. Yesterday I did a pork butt and towards the end it was dropping enough that I had to pull the can and look at the charcoal pan. I had not had any problem with dropping temp's before!?!? "Gee, I wonder why I have quite a bit of ash blocking the holes in the pan (also part of the mod)".
Wait, the expanded metal grate is gone!
I had thrown the grate out when I had emptied the dead ashes before. But besides that, I had done a smoke session since then and it didn't even occur to me that the grate was gone. I had to do a 20 minute rush job on a new grate to get the pork putt saved. It did turn out great; relief since it was my first.
The combo of holes drilled in the pan, plus an ash grate made a minimum of a 20 degree difference.
The combo of holes drilled in the pan, plus an ash grate made a minimum of a 20 degree difference.