Fire not getting as hot

[cansmoke]

Last two nights I've had issues getting fire hot. Dome temp gets to 300 and then slow crawl to 350F. It's a charcoal unit and not recall an issue like this. Normally I grill during week and I get enough heat and flame to get GBD on food. Now I've been dumping wood chips direct on to the coals to get fire going.

I use Royal charcoal which is usually all I can get.

Suggestions or just possibly a dud bag.

 

[Hamdrew]

What unit?? Is it clean/empty, i.e. not too much ash/charcoal dust choking out the fire?

What kind of charcoal unit?? In any case, the easiest way to get a hotter fire is starting with more lit coals.

 

[Buckeye02]

Last two nights I've had issues getting fire hot. Dome temp gets to 300 and then slow crawl to 350F. It's a charcoal unit and not recall an issue like this. Normally I grill during week and I get enough heat and flame to get GBD on food. Now I've been dumping wood chips direct on to the coals to get fire going.

I use Royal charcoal which is usually all I can get.

Suggestions or just possibly a dud bag.

Weird timing. I was talking to a friend of mine who has a 22" kettle and was using royal for a snake method this past weekend and with everything wide open and 15 lit briquettes to start it he couldn't get above 200°. He had to add a chimney of lit on the opposite side to maintain 250° and said he had to keep adding to the pile throughout his rib cook.

 

[cansmoke]

Last two nights I've had issues getting fire hot. Dome temp gets to 300 and then slow crawl to 350F. It's a charcoal unit and not recall an issue like this. Normally I grill during week and I get enough heat and flame to get GBD on food. Now I've been dumping wood chips direct on to the coals to get fire going.

I use Royal charcoal which is usually all I can get.

Suggestions or just possibly a dud bag.

What unit?? Is it clean/empty, i.e. not too much ash/charcoal dust choking out the fire?

What kind of charcoal unit?? In any case, the easiest way to get a hotter fire is starting with more lit coals.

I've got an Oki Joe offset. I clean out ash. While I close the lid as I've always done because this has built up heat and smoke.
I opened lid and no difference.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Remove and clean out the exhaust stack. I have a Highland and it did the exact same thing after a couple of years of use. The exhaust stack, which is probably too small anyway, will build up soot/ash and restrict air flow. When I cleaned mine out, I had a difficult time keeping the temps down.

 

[cansmoke]

After this afternoons attempted cook, I think wind was a bigger factor than I realised..