UDS extra intake holes???

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cmwr

Fire Starter
Original poster
Sep 2, 2012
42
10
Villisca Iowa
I am using my UDS for the first time today. I am smoking an injected chicken. I half filled my basket with briquets and started approximately 10 briquets in my chimney. At 3 15 I dumped my chimney into my basket and put on my rack, my bird, and the lid. I have been monitoring the temp below the grate since I started. With all three intakes wide open and full chimney open (12" 2" diameter chimney) It took about 30 minutes or so to reach 299 degrees. It then started slowly dropping till it was around 295 degrees. It is a brisk 50 degree day today in southern Iowa. It seemed to hover around 295 degrees give or take a couple degrees. I decided to remove the lid and peek inside which of course created a massive updraft. I put the lid back on and lo and behold I had an instant temp spike just like I knew it would. It rapidly climbed to 300+ degrees and now approximately 7 minutes later it is around 311 degrees. I am not sure yet whether my UDS can maintain this temp or if it is gonna drop back down to around 295 degrees and stay there.

So my question is has anyone added more than 3  intakes to a UDS? I am wondering if my standard 3 intakes are enough flow to hold a 300+ degree temp for a chicken in cooler weather.
 
I  buuilt mine on a budget lol I cut 4 rectangles with a hand grinder, equidistance apart and use fridge magnets to adjust air flow thru the holesn works great those fridge magnets are cheap lol
 
Update. It was hovering around 311-312 degrees and as an experiment I removed the 3/4" bung hole cap from the lid to see what extra exhaust might do. After a couple minutes it started rapidly climbing till it got in the 330s then it slowed down. It is currently at 344 and hovering around that temp. So I am not sure if it is more intakes it needs or more exhaust. I was confident having a 12" chimney in the 2" bung hole was plenty of exhaust but it appears as if opening the smaller bung hole has helped a bunch.
 
 
Last edited:
I drilled another 1" intake hole while it was smoking. With 4 open intakes and both exhausts open I was able to get the temps up around 385 or so. I closed the small exhaust hole and capped both intakes. I now have valve full open and my drilled hole (I will get a close nipple and cap this weekend) open and seem to be maintaining around 350. It fluctuates 10 degrees here and there. I think in the future i will open all 4 intakes and both exhausts to get temp up quicker. I spent an hour and a half trying to get temp up to 350 range.
 
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