Here's a step-by-step of what I did for those wanting to stick burn in a 18.5"
1) Start a half-full chimney of charcoal.
2) Don't dare use whole splits. Cut these down into 3rds, something about 2" or so thickness. Length can be 8-12". Place a couple peices on the hot charcoal and let the temp spike to about 350 or so.
3) Use a small wedge of wood and keep the lid adjar. Keep all vents open 100%. You will be managing heat primarily by stiring the firebox
and with how the firebox door is mounted. Do not install the firebox door properly (don't stick the bottom end first and seal it). The firebox door will hold on with the lever however you want to mount it. Typically, I mounted mine to where there's a 2-3" gap all the way down on the right side. This allowed me to see the firebox, but also allowed for increased airflow.
4) Once the splits have started a clean burn throw meat on right away. No need to wait for anything.
5) Use a digital probe. I'd almost say this is a must, because relying on the lid's guage is not good enough. It's less accurate in a stick burning scenario because it's too slow to respond. With a digital probe (such as a
Meater) you get instant temp monitoring. You need to be able to instantely see the moment the temp starts to rise and fall. Seconds count here.
6) Use a temp range of 250-300 to assure you're getting proper airflow and clean burn. As soon as the temp starts to fall from 300 (and it will do so quickly, within a couple minutes) you need to be prepared to take action. Have a split in mind ready that you want to use and have a gameplan for when it falls closer to 250. Don't let it fall under 250F.
7) Keep splits located on firering inside of cooker so it gets pre-heated. Be aware that these could catch fire. If it does, just remove it and let it die and place it back in during an opportune time. Whenever you add a split, it should instantly catch, or near-instantaly. In most cases, my splits instantely caught fire, which told me I was doing something right. Sometimes I would leave the firebox door completely open until I was happy with what I saw inside (for a minute or so) then I would install it adjar. There was only one time in the 3 hour cook that I had to torch a split to light (it took like, 2 seconds of torching too). Not bad--I blame the grate for this though.
8) I personally put about a half gallon of hot water in the water pain just to help keep things consistant. I want to say that I used about 2ish splits max for a 3 hour cook. It was 25F outside with some light wind.
9) Definitely get another grate to cross-hatch. A lot of tending will be moving the small coals around, and there's nothing more annoying to when they fall through the grate.
