20lbs of lump 11hrs?

[zug]

Hey guys I am still pretty new at the longer burns but I have had the pit running all day going on 12hrs now. My question is is it normal to use 20lbs of Royal lump for an 11hrs burn and I am using a basket? I did add a baffle to the smoker this week is it possible I baffled it to much and now I am not getting good heat transfer or does this sound normal?

Zug

 

[sumosmoke]

That does sound a bit much for an 11 hour smoke. I'm currently using a 10lb bag of Royal Oak lump hardwood on 2 butt's that are in the smoker, and won't be close to cracking open another bag.

It sounds as if airflow circulation isn't good within the smoker and the flames are dying out, and you're adding more hot ones to keep the fire going. As long as there's some type of circulation within the smoker, the fire will burn at a slow and low temp that we all aim to achieve when smoking things over a long period of time.

Others will be along shortly to provide additional information, and may ask some questions to ya to help identify the issue, and then you can work on fixin' it

 

[meandmytwodogs]

I don't think that's too far off. I fired up this morning too and it took me half a bag just to get the smoker up to temp. I seared my brisket so that took another chunk of a bag but I went from seven bags to four bags ( i used 30 lbs) Did an 11.71 brisket and a 9.5 butt for father-in-law's day. Done and pulled now. Gettin the recipe for soflaquers sauce to dress the pig. It's all good.

Dave

 

[downstatesmoker]

I'm curious about this, because I use close to 20# of charcoal in those time frames, sometimes more. Meat and Zug, what is your method for getting the charcoal started and how often do you add (roughly).

Sun, what about you?

I usually start the grill with a chimney full of hot coals then end up adding every hour or so. The other method I have heard about on here is to add 2 chimneys of cold charcoal to the smoker then about 1/2 a chimney of hot coals on top of that and that the fire will keep going for a long period of time. I have not tried this yet, though am planning to on my next long smoke.

Just wonder if that has anything to do with the amount of coal being used.

Just a thought.

 

[zug]

What I did was filled my charcoal basket up 3/4 of the way of cold then added a chimmey about half full of hot. After that burns down I move all the hot coal to the side and refill with cold, it will drop the temp to about 200 for 15mins but this is how i did it.

Here are a few pic of what I made today

Zug

 

[doctor phreak]

zug nice looking grub..excellent bark....i use a maybe a 10-15 lb bag of charcoal when i smoke for 12hrs+ ....i start it with 2 chimneys of cold briquettes and then dump a chimney full of hot coals on top of that and let that burn down..plus add my wood to smoke..

 

[tn_bbq]

Hard to say, but it's possible. How many hours were you getting prior to adding that baffle?

Some other things to consider are: the efficiency of your smoker, weather conditions, amount of food you are smoking.

Regarding starting a fire. I prefer to use the Minion method. I'll fill my smoker with unlit coal and add just a few lit coals (maybe half a chimney).

 

[watermelonslim]

I go thru about 10 pounds of Royal Oak lump in about 6 hours (on my Chargriller), so 20 pounds for 11 hours seems about right to me...

 

[capt dan]

It depends on what kind of smoker you have, and weather /wind conditions. 20 lbs is not out of hand for a horizontal w/sfb, but it a bit much for an ECB or UDS.

 

[zug]

I do have a horizonal but I think some of my problem was I used flashing to baffle the fire box and as the day went on the bowed down covering the amount of heat that could get though.

Zug

 

[watermelonslim]

You'll have to keep us posted. Your results seem normal to me, so if you figure out how to get better results, I'd be interested in learning what I can do to improve mine as well...

 

[husker-q]

I get roughly 7-8 hrs out of a 10 lb bag of lump on my CGP w SFB