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Yupp skewer mods really all you need. I’ve used this thing a lot since April and tried most of the available charcoal in my area I can say surprisingly I’ve had the best luck with the cheap bags of Ridges briquettes from Lowe’s . For some reason it last the longest and burns down to nothing.
I have the ridged and royal oak from walmart I picked up back in the spring was 8.88 for 2 18lb bags. I haven't tried lump yet maybe when I do my 1st steaks on this thing i will use lump but for low and slow cooks like ribs, butts, briskets etc. Im probably just going to run the cheap stuff and add wood chunks in the charcoal hopper as well as the ash bin.
 
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Mine doesn't burn too much fuel, longest cook I've done so far was 8 hours and while I topped it off, it never ran out.

Just got done cooking burnt ends, supposed to take them to a friend's later, might eat them all before then though 😂
 
Just cleaned out my ash bin and this is all I'm getting after doing the grate mod. Anyone else as cheap as I am and put this right back in the hopper? This is royal oak that less than 5 bucks for a 18lb bag but I still can bring my self to waste fuel lol
 

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Just cleaned out my ash bin and this is all I'm getting after doing the grate mod. Anyone else as cheap as I am and put this right back in the hopper? This is royal oak that less than 5 bucks for a 18lb bag but I still can bring my self to waste fuel lol
I can't believe your still getting that much after the mod. I did mine with the Walmart 4 pack flat skewers and using Royal Oak i was getting nothing but ashes. I had to pull one of the skewer off because I was not getting any embers to light the chunks I threw in the bin. Did a pork butt last night stood a split straight up and down in the hopper surrounded by RO and a couple of chunks in the ash bin ever now and then. The butt had medium smoke throughout the cook and was perfect to my taste
 
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Help me understand what you mean?
The metal right at the lower walls of the Fire Box will burn out.
Don't let that bum ya.
I got around 40 cooks out of my 560 before I burned them through.
The Kit is heavy 12 gauge Stainless Steel and costs $100.
Takes around an hour or less to switch them out.
You will be glad you did.
I will look back and bring up the links.
The man that makes them has a video showing the mod.
 
Just cleaned out my ash bin and this is all I'm getting after doing the grate mod. Anyone else as cheap as I am and put this right back in the hopper? This is royal oak that less than 5 bucks for a 18lb bag but I still can bring my self to waste fuel lol
Before I did the Grate Mod I would screen out the bigger pieces and run them back through.
No reason to waste and it got good coals in the ash bucket for my chunks and chips.
After the Mod it is pretty much clean ash.
 
Yes I'm familiar with the kit but didn't think it related to the fuel consumption? The shaft liner right? The one Will describes.
I did the grate mod using a Pop-up stake and a broken Phillips screw driver. It reduced my ashes to mainly just dust.

I think that sometimes fuel consumption is related to how the pit is breathing (up to & including the Fire Box). I have found when I have put a lot of small fuel in the stack (from ash bucket screen & small chunk down to dust) that by the time that level burns down to the fire box that I cannot reach upper temps. I think it is because not enough oxygen is circulating around the burning fuel... like it is choking.
The next cook after that I used all briquets and it went right up to 780'...
Breathing good like a locomotive.
I have tried to keep track of fuel consumption but I have found that there are too many Apples & Oranges... not to mention Bananas and Melons.
I just get my Double Bags of Briquets at Home Depot and my Mesquite Chucks at Smart & Final for a good price.
I smoke mostly with Apple wood and Pecan.
Any more I don't use any chips on some things because I get a light smoke taste with no chips at all.
I will usually get three cooks out of a bag of briquets with a little Mesquite.
 
I can't believe your still getting that much after the mod. I did mine with the Walmart 4 pack flat skewers and using Royal Oak i was getting nothing but ashes. I had to pull one of the skewer off because I was not getting any embers to light the chunks I threw in the bin. Did a pork butt last night stood a split straight up and down in the hopper surrounded by RO and a couple of chunks in the ash bin ever now and then. The butt had medium smoke throughout the cook and was perfect to my taste
There might be that much because I have been putting up burnt peices back in the hopper sobi don't waste fuel. But I'm thinking ill just start running unburnt fuel in the 560 and use the peices on the kettle mixed in with new charcoal.
 
I’m not sure if I’m annoyed or impressed but I started a 16.25# brisket last night around 7pm and the thing was done by 9Am cooking on average around 235. Looking at a graph of the cook this thing plowed throw the low temp stall and hung out at 180 for 2 hours before being done. I wasn’t expecting it to be done untill atleast noon. Went through about 16# of ridge charcoal mixed with some lump and post oak
 
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I’m not sure if I’m annoyed or impressed but I started a 16.25# brisket last night around 7pm and the thing was done by 9Am cooking on average around 235. Looking at a graph of the cook this thing plowed throw the low temp stall and hung out at 180 for 2 hours before being done. I wasn’t expecting it to be done untill atleast noon. Went through about 16# of ridge charcoal mixed with some lump and post oak
I did a 14lb last night too that I didn't wake up in time and the fire went out pit was 120deg meat was still hot had 7 hours of cooking and good bark so i wrapped it and finished in the oven. It had dropped to 137 internal by the time i had it wrapped. It climbed to 188 in no time and took about 2 hours for to get to 200. But finished cook around 1230pm started las light around 1130
 
I’m not sure if I’m annoyed or impressed but I started a 16.25# brisket last night around 7pm and the thing was done by 9Am cooking on average around 235. Looking at a graph of the cook this thing plowed throw the low temp stall and hung out at 180 for 2 hours before being done. I wasn’t expecting it to be done untill atleast noon. Went through about 16# of ridge charcoal mixed with some lump and post oak
I cooked two brisket around 14 pounds each one
Start 11:00 pm was ready by 9:30 am
 
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