should I preheat charcoals and save them for later use?

[onemanshow83]

I have a small water smoker and im trying to figure out how to keep the watersmoker going for a long period of time. The problem is I don't want to add fresh charcoals to the fire. Is it wise to heat some until the charcoal turns white and then later on when I grill I can add those charcoals to the charcoals im already using?

 

[bluewhisper]

Welcome to the board! Yup, good guess, many people do exactly that.  BTW if you haven't heard of lump charcoal, try some of that.

 

[wade]

As BlueWhisper says, you can pre-light them and add them. Without knowing which "water smoker" you have makes it difficult to advise if this is the most appropriate way of extending your burn. Is it like a small WSM or like a Brinkmann? A photo would help. Also what temperature are you trying to smoke at? 

If you are cooking at low-and-slow temperatures then you may find that simply changing the way you burn your fuel (e.g. changing to use the Minion method) could be more effective and give you more stable cooking temperatures.

Let us have some more detail and we may be able to expand further.

 

[416bigbore]

 To the SMF 83,

I don't know much about your water smoker set-up and how they work? I do all cold smoke and If I don't have any of my good hard wood chunks to use at the time. I will use original plain Kingsford briquettes and throw a few in at a time to keep things going.

I make sure they are plain old briquettes with no chemical on them to help start them like a match light brand would have on them. That way you don't mess up your product from the chemical burning off in your smoker and getting onto your meat. 

I am toying around with building my own charcoal oven to make my own char because of the benefits of char over using plain hardwood. Just something different I was wanting to try.

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF!

Please go to the "Roll Call" section & introduce yourself.

Add some info like what smoker you have & where you are located.

Then when asking questions it will be much easier to answer.

Al