Why are my temps so low! Char-griller Pro w/ Sidebox

[venture]

You have something weird going on there.  If you have a coal basket, at summer temps you should be fighting to keep that down to 250.  Please post more pics and give us info about your ambients.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[cliffcarter]

Hey everyone,

First post here, so go easy on me, haha!

I have 1 vent from the smoke box to the main chamber wide open at all times.  I feel maybe I'm losing heat between the two, but I haven't read anything about insulating the seam.  I can provide any extra info needed, but I need help!  

What could I be doing wrong?

Quote:

... There is a vent between the firebox and the smoke chamber? It should be a hole about the size and shape of a football.

There is a knockout in the wall of the main chamber where the SFB attaches, did you remove it?

 

[mintee]

Knockout!!!  %#$^@^!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm such an a-hole!  I just finished about 45 minutes of dremeling and rescrewed it all together.  Every time someone said something about a "foot ball size hole" I thought they meant the diameter of the hole.  

Well, here's pics of the problem, and faux solution, but I think I might go take it apart again and just get rid of the knockouts (on both the FSB and the Cooking chamber, right?)

Go ahead and laugh at me.  I deserve it. :(

 

[cliffcarter]

Not gonna laugh at ya, I think this is a fairly common problem, you just had the guts to admit it. I think your problem is solved. Good Luck.

 

[venture]

Still not right.  You need to remove the firebox and knock out that entire football shaped piece.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[mintee]

Still not right.  You need to remove the firebox and knock out that entire football shaped piece.

Good luck and good smoking.

Ya, I've since taken it apart again and ran thru about 10 cut blades on my little dremel, so it's the way it supposed to be.  I got about 12 chicken quarters on there right now and it's holding steady at 225F for about an hour now.  

I tested the vent/chimney wide open and I got up to 325F so BINGO!

 

[venture]

Sounds like you are on your way. 

Next time just knock that thing out with a hammer and save your blades.  LOL

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[erodinamik]

I'm in no position to comment on your error.  When I first opened the box and read the instructions I was very hesitant to punch a big hole in the side of my brand new rig.  Glad you got it figured out though.  When I did mine I used a punch and a hammer and the football hole was made to be punched out like that, no dremeling required.

 

[meateater]

Smoke on!

 

[mintee]

Funny, the FSB knockout knocked out very easy, but the main chamber knockout was more like a guideline than anything.  There was proof there was a few easy weld spots, but them metal was still competely a 1 piece.  I didn't wanna risk bending it up, so the dremel it was.

 

[solna905]

I may be wrong but I dont think that there should be a vent between firebox and smoker.  There should be a cutout where the vent is. It is kind of football shaped.  The vent is only if the grill is used without the firebox. I saw one assembled without removing the cutout but my instructions say to remove it.

 

[jirodriguez]

Funny, the FSB knockout knocked out very easy, but the main chamber knockout was more like a guideline than anything.  There was proof there was a few easy weld spots, but them metal was still competely a 1 piece.  I didn't wanna risk bending it up, so the dremel it was.

When I had mine I found using the cutting blade on the dremel to cut the spot welds, then using a cold chisel and hammer worked great, but I also had cut a length of 2x4 that I used to brace the inside of the main chamber because the metal was so flimsy.

Glad to hear you got the temps issue figured out!

 

[dodgefan67]

great thread! i have the same issue about temps on the exact same char-griller. going to be making the mods to it soon. i have the football hole between the SFB and main chamber out but i need the chimney vent, charcoal box, and extra thermometers added. will work on that and see if my temps go up

but at the same time, they way mine is now, gets up to about 250 from time to time, doesnt always stay that high, but the food does get cooked, so its been ok, but i do leak A LOT of smoke out this thing

 

[venture]

Well, the insert doesn't need to be cut out.  As others have mentioned, it will benefit from some reinforcement before it is knocked out.  A little common sense goes a long way here.  Just banging away on that can bend things that will cause problems later.

I was luckier than some, cause mine required no sealing around the firebox.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[alelover]

I used some high temp RTV around where the SFB meets the cook chamber. A lot of heat can be lost there.

 

[terry colwell]

What a great theard,,, loved the photo of the inside...lol. I have the same grill and was wondering why you where having such a hard time getting the temp up. I have done NO mods to mine and at grate level with just one chimney starter full of regular charcoal my temps will be around 250 or 300 with just everything shut as normal.About the only thing that I do different is I put my charcoal on the cast iron grates instead of the down on the slide out tray (which I think is worthless other then for cleaning anyway) . If you put the charcoal right next to the FOOTBALL sized opening your temps will most likely go over 300 easly. and once you start throwing wood chuncks on it 400 is not hard to hit either, so watch it when you add wood. I have started moving the charcoal to the far side by the door , or just move the meat towards the vent either or. I will add about 12 to 15 pieaces of fuel every hour or so, and i move the old around so the ash build up drops down to the pan.. And thats about all I have done..

 

[tommy012175]

I see its been a while since anyone responded to this post but hopefully I get some help. I can not get mine up to temps at all.

I installed duct, flipped charcoal tray over, lined in foil, raised charcoal, and installed 2 new thermometers on front.

New thermometers on front will never go over 160. But my temp gun and digital says its over 225 most time on grate.

Here some pics of temps after 2 hrs today.

 

[tommy012175]

Other pics

Left side

image.jpg

• tommy012175
• Apr 19, 2013

Right side

image.jpg

• tommy012175
• Apr 19, 2013

 

[kaz souder]

What size of dryer vent hose did you use? All I can find is 4"

 

[dirkdigglier]

I cannot begin to describe the royal pain in the butt that this issue has caused me. I have tried doing a lot of things differently to get the Char-griller up to temp and have even shy'd away from smoking meat and have been just direct grilling because of this issue (don't judge). I am glad I found this forum post but what really pisses me off now is that it is from like five years ago! Why are they still selling these unmodded if its such a problem??? Why not make it better? Because its not very usable OEM for smoking, trust me I've tried! I wish I would have know this before I started using this thing, I don't mind modding it, sounds like fun actually but......it is used I don't see how I am going to get any RTV to stick to it now. Thank you so much for solving  this for me! Now I am off t o email Char-Griller a piece of my mind!