Temperature Woes

[wesleycb]

Hi guys, I'm a newbie to the smoking game and its AWESOME! The only trouble I have now it's major troubles with maintaining temperature constant, or even getting it up for that matter. I have a UDS smoker and once I put the charcoal basket in, it goes right up to about 230F, but 15 minutes in, it sinks down to just below 200F, any tips?

 

[noboundaries]

Hey WesleyCB, welcome to SMF.  Be sure to stop in over at Roll Call so folks can give you a proper welcome.

Sounds like your temp issue is air flow, particularly the exhaust.  If a fire can't breath it can't burn as hot as you want.  You can have all the air inlets open but should the exhaust be inadequate to allow flow through, the available oxygen will be diminished significantly inside the UDS. 

 

[wesleycb]

Hey Noboundaries. Thanks for the advice, I only have 2 tiny 15mm exhausts on the lid as I thought too much smoke would escape if I went any bigger. I'll make the holes bigger today and give it a go again! Thanks a million!!

 

[dannylang]

you may want to check your temp guage, if it is a bio metal guage, it may be off by a lot. so check you temp.guage.

dannylang