hello friends. i have just purchased a new brinkmann vertical smoker. this is the first smoker i have purchased so this is a learning experence. the smoker i have is the double door with the round coal and water pans its also got two cooking trays. i started cureing it (i beleive thats the right term). now this is where my problem has come in. i followed the directions and sprayed the inside lightly with cooking spray. i used the quick light charcoal which i found out later was probably not the best to use. i did not use any wood or water. when i first started the fire the temp rose to around 350-400 .within the hour it droped to 130-150 and i could not get it to come back up. i read a few posts from other people with the same problems and i drilled about 6 or 8 holes in the coal pan and tried again still the same results. i noticed that the pan does sit above the vents so i just sat the pan on the bottom of the smoker and opened them all the way up and still no improvements. from what i have read i need to keep it around 225 to cook most things. what else can i do? will it be different if i use wood with the coal? also its about 60 degrees here in tn. any advice would be greatly appreciated. thank you in advance justin
