Well, I decided to smoke a couple of butts today. Last night I got the smoker cleaned up and ready to go. While I was doing that I decided to raise the charcoal basket a little higher in the firebox. My thinking was that it would put it closer to the level of the opening to the smoke chamber and therefore would let more heat into the chamber.
NOT SO! I could barely get the temp to 200 degrees no matter how much charcoal and wood I put in. Couldn't figure out what the problem was. Then it occurs to me that the only thing that has changed since the last smoke was raising the basket. So, I pulled the basket out, (not easy to do with a fire going in it) and set it back down to where it was before. Within 10 minutes, the temps started going up. I was finally happy with it.
Sadly, it didn't last long. The wind started to pick up, not a lot, just a light breeze. Now I had heard that the wind can affect temps, but I always thought it meant WIND, not a breeze. Temps started falling again. I moved that smoker all over the place, facing every direction and nothing helped. Finally I moved it behind the garage and managed to cut the wind down quite a bit. Temps came back up within fifteen minutes and have been holding steady for two hours now. And that is 6 1/2 hours into the smoke. Needless to say, it has put me a bit behind on my plans.
So, lesson #1: Don't bother to raise the charcoal basket higher than the bottom of the smoke chamber opening.
Lesson #2: Build a wind break. It really does make a difference no matter how much the wind blows.
Hopefully, I will have some Q-View later on to show off a succesful smoke.
NOT SO! I could barely get the temp to 200 degrees no matter how much charcoal and wood I put in. Couldn't figure out what the problem was. Then it occurs to me that the only thing that has changed since the last smoke was raising the basket. So, I pulled the basket out, (not easy to do with a fire going in it) and set it back down to where it was before. Within 10 minutes, the temps started going up. I was finally happy with it.
Sadly, it didn't last long. The wind started to pick up, not a lot, just a light breeze. Now I had heard that the wind can affect temps, but I always thought it meant WIND, not a breeze. Temps started falling again. I moved that smoker all over the place, facing every direction and nothing helped. Finally I moved it behind the garage and managed to cut the wind down quite a bit. Temps came back up within fifteen minutes and have been holding steady for two hours now. And that is 6 1/2 hours into the smoke. Needless to say, it has put me a bit behind on my plans.
So, lesson #1: Don't bother to raise the charcoal basket higher than the bottom of the smoke chamber opening.
Lesson #2: Build a wind break. It really does make a difference no matter how much the wind blows.
Hopefully, I will have some Q-View later on to show off a succesful smoke.