Breaking in my new toy!

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dewetha

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Aug 21, 2011
737
16
Chicago - south Burbs
I have wanted a new charcoal grill. i wanted to grill and smoke and was about resolved to get a big weber kettle. Then my good neighbor brings home a Vision Komodo grill he purchased at Costco. Stand, shelves, grill cover and even a free pizza stone. All for 399.  I said lets go get me one! Like a said, a good neighbor!

I loaded it up,4 or 5 lbs worth of crappy cowboy lump and had it ride at 675 for 45mins or so. sweet! Brought the temps down added a few chunks of apple

Tossed on a beer can chicken and a half rack or ribs. The beer can chicken was just rubbed with Olive oil and rubbed with some grillmates applewood rub. The ribs I soaked in Guinness for an hour, coated with eh same rub just to use up the last of it. spritzing with apple Juice every 30 mins or so. it ridding just under 300. right where i want the chicken cook to be at.

this grill kicks ass! I need to rig up a heat deflector but I have feeling my masterbuitl Xl will be regulated to big qty cooks. The smell of this food coming off the grill is making so hungry. I give it the complete run down over the next few weeks. Burgers, hot dogs, turkey breast, brisket , butt, everything I can.

Need to make sure it’s really broken in J

But I just can’t say enough on how good the food smells compared to my weber gas and even my smoker. I’ll be eating in an hour or so. so far away





this pic doesn't really show the golden brown color. need to learn to take better pictures :)

 
Last edited:
for today's trial run, no food just to see how long it will burn.

loaded it up and had it run wide open to get the coals all good and white and hot. trying to control the smoke factor from charcoal.

it took about 2 hrs to get down to the 250 range from 500 but now there is little to no smoke from the charcoal heat source.

it's been running 5 hrs at 250. can't wait to see how long it can burn so i can do a brisket soon.

next test will be dumping the least amount of charcoal to get a 5-7 burn. fun with charcoal world! 

now to stark trying to get TBS :)
 
good looking unit... but I'm confused a little... why are we heating it up screaming hot and then trying to bring temps down ? thinking the minion method would work better.. longer cook time.. continues smoke... lower temps for brisket.... I don't know... maybe I missed something
 
good looking unit... but I'm confused a little... why are we heating it up screaming hot and then trying to bring temps down ? thinking the minion method would work better.. longer cook time.. continues smoke... lower temps for brisket.... I don't know... maybe I missed something
I did the minion over the weekend. I noticed a little too much billowing smoke. i nave not really smoked with charcoal, grilled yes. but i have seen reference to the fact that charcoal can impart a heavy taste when not hot enough. given how very little i have the vents open to keep 225-250, I want to see if this helps or not taste. the food i made was a little too much IMO.

kind of an experiment and kicking the tires on what this thing can do. learn its' in and outs before really get going.
 
the billowing white smoke will dissipate and turn into TBS once it gets up to 225` and settle's there and everything gets all warmed up... thinking you just didn't give it enough time to settle in.... yes, the vent (intake) will be closed down some (maybe half or less opened) once you reached 225`
 
this is how much the grill is open:

whats going at 5hr in is 225 and no visible smoke. i added a split of pecan to see what happens. the coal are about 50 pct or more gone


settled in at 255 and smoking along for hours


top vent open . just double it to see what happens. would like to have the smoke evacuating the chamber at a good rate


half of 4 holes has it holding for many hours

 
you wanna open that top vent all the way and leave it open.... control heat with intake vent... do you by any chance have a maverick thermometer (or one that is known to be correct) so you can check temps at grate level ? Factory therms like that are usually not very accurate... is there any way you can take it out and calibrate it with boiling water ?
 
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you wanna open that top vent all the way and leave it open.... control heat with intake vent... do you by any chance have a maverick thermometer (or one that is known to be correct) so you can check temps at grate level ? Factory therms like that are usually not very accurate... is there any way you can take it out and calibrate it with boiling water ?
I have a maverick and used for half the time to see the temp dif at great level and top level. i measured at top level and it was spot on. the low temps with indirect heat are very close. direct heat(like this run) is a 50 deg diff as one would expect as the probe was closer to the fire :)

to leave the top vent open would cause too much heat, especially with the big load of charcoal i used. in that picture above the vent is very wide compared to when there was a lot of charcoal at the start of the burn. in the bottom picture you can see it letting very little air any less and i would choke it out and it would draft. the draft on this thing is excellent as today we had low wind movement. these things are so efficient that the standard wide open vent of Offset cookers may not apply. it's a appears to be like a chimney effect. the air is sucked in and draft rapidly upward.

the other day i took warm coals, about 150  opened up the vents all the way open and had the coals back up to 400 at grate level in about 15 mins.

my next run will be with far less charcoal to see what vent combinations it will require to get 225 and burn for 5-6 hrs.

but i just check at after 10 hrs at 225ish. it dropped to 200. i opened up the bottom vent so twice as many holes are letting in air and the top is wide open to see what i can do to get 225 back. going to see how long they burn! 

this is all very exciting as i look forward to an over night cook where I set it and go to bed for 8hrs! I know it can't be this easy all the time as it summer. warm days always are easier to keep temp running. it's the fall and spring when the temps can swing 20 or 30 degress during the day. that this may be a little harder to control
 
after 10hrs of sustained 225 heat last night at about 10:30 it dropped to 200. at 8:30 am it running about 190. it wont get hotter but the coals burn for ever! doing a turkey breast today. goit o jsut add i chimney full to about 2 lbs fresh unlit coals.  its a small chimney model. more fun! maybe a few pics
 
Your issue related to oversmoking is a result of your closed exhaust ports. You were bathing the food in that stuff. It needs to fly by instead. You have to leave it all the way open and control your fuel temps/combustion rate with the intake vent.
 
Remmy700P would be correct..keep the exhaust vent open and use the intake to control the temp..i have the BGE...took a bit of messing with but i can now set the temp at 225 and keep it there for 12 hours if needed
 
i need to work on the amount of coal i need. I keep cutting my load of charcoal in half and it still too much heat for too long! pretty soon i will be down to for lumps. LOL
 
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