having trouble with my first smoke! temps

[tndawg123]

I have two bung holes in my drum. The 2" bung has a chrome muffler cover for a stack and the small bung has a thermometer dropped in it. I also have an oven temp gauge on the center of the rack. the ball valve is almost closed and there is 10# of chunk charcoal and about 5 chunks of hickory. Temp staying around 300-350 and won't come down. The chunks have also lost that beautiful "think blue smoke" they had earlier. Any suggestions? It's been burning for 2.5 hours and the meat is begging to go on.

Thanks,

TNDawg123

 

[uncle_lar]

Im not an expert on drums but it sounds to me like you may have put too big a load or charcoal in. Im sure a few of the UDS experts will chime in here any moment

 

[solaryellow]

I had the same problem with the first test fire of my UDS. I put way too many hot coals in to begin with and it took a few hours to get it under countrol. How much did you start off with?

 

[tndawg123]

I had a 10# bag. It was my understanding that it didn't matter how much coal was in there b/c the airtemp was controlling the burn. Otherwise i would never get a 12 hour cooktime without adding coal. Am I wrong?

Also I think I may be getting air through the small bung b/c the thermo is just dropped in. I have closed the ball vavle to see. I will be adding a mounted thermo when I can find one with a longer probe.

 

[solaryellow]

Nope, you are correct. I can get about 24 hours from roughly 8lbs of lump in my charcoal basket. But I also only use a half dozen or so hot coals to get it started. Any more than that and the temp is hard to get under control.

 

[coffee_junkie]

Did you light all 10 lbs? or are you using the minion method?

 

[tndawg123]

Not sure what the minion method is, but no I put a weed torch on the top of the coals and got them red hot and then i left it with the top off for a little bit. Once i was sure it was burning i covered and started trying to get temp down. I just put a thermo in hood with the small probe. It is sitting directly above the center. For now it is giving me the same readings as the one on the grate. I hope to have this tweeked soon. Any suggestions for the future are greatly appreaciated.

 

[ddave]

Big mistake right there, sir.

If you use a weed burner to start, start just a small section until they ash over. Then put the lid on and leave all the intakes open. Then monitor the temp climb. As the temp comes up, close off the intakes and try to catch the temp on the way up. It's pretty difficult to get the temp to come down in a drum. It's very easy to get it to come up.

For instance on mine I put the first cap on when the temp hits 175° or so. I put the second cap on at 200° and close the ball valve about 1/2 way at 225°. It usually settles in around 240°.

You don't want the lid off any more absolutely necessary with a drum.

Dave

 

[tndawg123]

Today was good practice. The temps were eratic, but learned alot. I now have the temp on teh oven thermo (sitting on grate) at 230. The thermo in top of hood reads substantially lower at about 160. I didn't think the temp would vary that much. Next time i will bring temp up instead of down, but i'm not sure if I will be able to maintain the 230 temps. seems like 250 and good smoke or drops way down. All suggestions welcome as I will be practicing again tomorrow.

 

[ddave]

Then let it run at 250°. It's not going to hurt anything. Besides, if you can hold 250° with it empty, when you throw a big ol' brisket on there or some good sized butts or even a few racks of ribs you'll have a heat sink and something to disturb the airflow so your temp will probably be right in the zone.

They always run hotter empty than loaded.

Don't fight the drum. Let it find its sweet spot and let it roll.

Dave

 

[tndawg123]

Thanks. I thought i had worked out the drum so this time it had a pork butt and a spare rib on it. They did not turn out well. I will have to mess with the temps and use less coal next time.

 

[tndawg123]

I will search the forum for some tips on how to best use the smoker. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rickw]

I found the best way to light a drum is to take 10 or so coals and get them red hot in a charcoal chimney. Dump them in the middle of the full coal basket. Once your temp gauge hits 170-180 shut down one intake. When it reaches the 200F mark shut down the second intake. Now when it reaches 225F shut the ball valve down half way and see where it settles in, ya might have to tweak it a bit.

You have to make sure you have a good therm to control your temps. An oven therm inside the drum will not work. Get yourself a good dial therm and mount it on the side. Also remember the middle of the drum will run about 50 degrees hotter than the sides.

 

[tndawg123]

I have a dial therm mounted through the top. Do i need one on the side with a longer probe?

 

[rickw]

I suspect the therm through the small hole of the lid is not giving you a true reading. Also did you check that therm to see if it reads true?

 

[tndawg123]

I drilled a hole in the lid and mounted a new therm (decided the probe through the bung was not working). The probe is not very long. When there is no food on the grate it gave me the same reading as the oven therm sitting on the grate. Once the food is added it's much lower. 250 on the center of the grate and 170-180 on the top therm. I would like to put a therm through the side, but can't find one with a longer probe. Also worried that the longer probe would get in the way. I'm open for suggestions.

 

[rickw]

What I did was; I mounted a dial therm with a 4" probe on the side my drum. I run it at 200F knowing it is 50 degrees hotter at middle grate.

Check this site and look at model Tel Tru BBQ 300-wrz-4[font=&quot].




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[tndawg123]

Great. Thank you. Is it really 50 degrees hotter in the center with a 4" probe? That seems dramatic. Did you mount the probe directly under where the food grate sits?

 

[ddave]

The side therm is a great idea. That's what mine has as well. The problem is using a side therm with a short stem when warming up. The temp diff from side to center is about 40° to 50° after the drum has been running awhile. Otherwise the side therm reads much lower. I use a digital therm with the probe poked through a block of wood sitting on the grate to track the warming up process. I have a small hole drilled through the side of the drum for the probe wire to pass through.

You can also use a deep fry thermo with a 12" stem mounted on the side of the drum. Here's a thread I did on that. I had it on there for awhile but liked the look of the Teltru better so I put the Teltru back on.

Dave

 

[rickw]

Good point Dave.