Need Help!! Smoker wont heat up enough

[bstordahl]

I have a chargriller with a side box. I have completed a few of the mods. Extended the exhaust, have an expanded metal tray for lump charcoal, reversed the drip pan for a smoke baffel. I hope firing it up for the spring and hoping to smoke a pork shoulder tomorrow. So today I was going to see if I could practice maintaining heat. It's been about an hour and I only have 120 degress. I have my intake and exhaust all the way open and using lump charcoal. I also have a cast iron pan with water in it to help maintain heat. It's about 36 degrees here. Does anyboy have any advise how I can get the heat up?

thanks

 

[5lakes]

Hi from another Minnesotan!

We're at 34 right now. I've got a Char Griller Super Pro with SFB. How much charcoal are you using? Mine is stable right now at 230 after about 3 hours. I filled my charcoal box with about 15 lbs. I'm really hoping it lasts a bit longer. Just put some trout in about 1/2 an hour ago.

Also how big is the baffle? If it's too large, you might need to cut it down some. Mine extends about 10 inches into the cooking chamber.

Check this thread to see what mine looks like:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=90942
Also, scroll down a ways in this one:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=90844

Good luck!,

Jerry

 

[bstordahl]

Maybe I'm not using enough charcoal. I only have two fire starter chims work charcoal. My exhaust extension extends to about 1" about the grates. I will try to load it up with more charcoal.

thanks,

 

[rbranstner]

How is your smoker coming today? You getting those temps up or not? If not bring you meat over to my house I will have the UDS fired up this afternoon. I can start it earlier for your butt if you want. Maybe we can try some more of the sausage from last weekend as well. Let me know.

 

[fourthwind]

Where is your water pan? If it's too close to the opening between the firebox and the smoke chamber, it will disturb the airflow. Seen this happen with my offset.

 

[bstordahl]

I think I am getting to work better today. I built a larger fire today, I moved my water pan to be more centered in the smoker. I am even running a little hot right now but I have a pork shoulder and a venison backstrap on. After this smoke I am going to remove my upside down barrel charcoal tray that comes with the grill and replace it with sheet metal baffel and tunning plate, like yours Jerry. I have very different temps between the two ends. Well 1 hour in and it's going pretty good for my first true smoke with this char griller. I forgot my camera at work so I wont have any q-view this time. RBranstner I will save some for you to try this week.

I will keep you posted thanks for you help guys!!

Bryce

 

[richtee]

You did remove the metal knockout between the firebox and the chamber, right? Or it has been. This has been an issue a few times. Just askin'.

 

[rbranstner]

I just talked to BSTORDAHL and he said he does have that knockout removed. He seems to be holding temps pretty good around 230. But it looks like he is having issues with the fire box side being lower temp than the other side of the smoker. He will fix that with some mods soon. It looks like he just wasn't using enough lump/charcoal and wasn't getting his chimney going good enough when he was starting his fire. Hopefully he is all set. He is very happy to have his smoker going. Now we can have some cook offs. haha

 

[cromag]

15 lbs?? WOW I just seasoned mine and I maintained 225 for about 2 hrs then it dropped off but I was using 2 chimney worth and I'm glad I seen this post. Do you add 15 lbs to your basket then add a couple lit chimneys to the top of that?

 

[jrichv]

I'm having the same issues with my CharGriller with SFB.

I have made the following mods:
Vent - extended down to grate level, on the end opposite the SFB;
Three tuning plates added;
Two thermos installed at grate level;
Charcoal basket replaced with a charbroil shaker basket held up off the floor of the SFB with two threaded rods.

I started a full Weber chimney of Kingsford briquets this past weekend, and when it was full-on blazing, dumped it into my charcoal basket - air intake and vent both wide open. Added 1 stick of pecan after 20 minutes. Temps were just barely touching 200 degrees (I calibrated thermos before installation), and I could not get them higher no matter what I tried? They were both reading the same exact temps - so that is a bonus, I guess?

Luckily, it was only a test burn - and I only had bologna and sausages cooking. If it had been a brisket or pork butts, I would have had to have pulled an all-nighter.

I've got a couple of mods left to tweak - I'm going to extend my vent stack to the end of the smoke chamber by the SFB, in an attempt to make it a semi-reverse flow; I'm going to add another tuning plate and eliminate any and all gaps between them down the length of the smoke chamber.

Any other suggestions anyone can come up with will be greatly appreciated!

 

[timtimmay]

I'm always surprised when I read of folks having problems getting temps up on the smokin pro with sfb. Mine always runs a nice 240 about 1/3 open on the intake.

Two main potential problems:
1. Not knocking out the two football shaped pieces of metal.
2. Trusting the thermometer (factory thermometer has the coil in the lid behind a tiny bit of glass so it doesn't really measure chamber temp)

Three mods necessary:
1. Stack extension (with dryer vent easiest) so heat doesn't just go up and out.
2. Flip charcoal tray, put on highest setting on right, let sit directly on the bottom on the left, scooch over to be right against the firebox side.
3. Charcoal basket so air can flow under the coals.

I have some other mods that aren't so necessary, but those are the essentials with this unit. Mine runs at 240 for quite a while 1/3 open.

 

[jrichv]

Consider yourself blessed that yours gets up to temp and stays there. Your listing of mods is helpful - thank you.

I would love to be able to "control" my temps with air flow adjustments... I have nothing to control, as I am always struggling with getting up to ANY usable temperature.

I am going to redo the vent stack mod to make it a reverse flow, tweak my baffle and tuning plate mods, and give it another go - hopefully this weekend.

 

[caveman]

I don't know why you would have to knock out both of the "Football Looking Plates." I only did the one on the right side, as I am right handed & was loading from the right the whole time.


What I did was light maybe half a chimney at a time. Wait an hour or so & light another chimney. Since lump burns hotter, that is what I used. Charcoal burns longer but not hotter. Maybe that will help until you upgrade or find a different method that works for you.

 

[olewarthog]

These are pics from a previous smoke, but I used the same method on Saturday. I cooked spares, ABTs & moinks. I cooked between 235-250 for 6 hours & reloaded once. I had no problems getting temps up to 250. In fact, a few times I had to throttle it back to keep it from going over 250. I used blue bag Kingsford & about 6-8 hickory chunks.

I filled my basket with unlit charcaol & lumps like this:

I then fired up about 2/3 of a chimney on a gas burner. I did not wait for all the coals to ash over. Just got them burning good and dumped them in the open corner.

I'm not using any water pans, tuning plates, etc. I set the cooking grates from the SFB inside the main chamber & set the inverted charcoal tray on top to act as a baffle. By adjusting the gap at the SFB end, I can balance out left & right side temps within 10*.

I opened the ash drawer about an inch after I put the lit charcoal in to bring the chamber up to temp quickly. When the MC hit 210, I closed the drawer & closed the side vent down to about 1/4" open. It settled in at about 240. It ran between 235-245 for almost 3 hours before it began to drop. I shook out the ash & raked the remaining lit coals to the left & reloaded the basket with unlit charcoal. I opened the side vent back all the way & had the MC temp back near 240 in about 15 mins. I had to close the side vent down completely a couple of times during the cook to keep the temps below 250.

 

[timtimmay]

I never noticed that there was a football on the left side of the chamber, I'll have to check that out tommorow. What I'm referring to on by both of the football plates is one on the smokin pro, and one on the SFB.

Warthog, I'm curious how old that shaker basket is? The metal seems small enough on them that I was reluctant to use it for a charcoal basket. I'm wondering how it does after a few long smokes. I built one from exanded metal instead. The shaker basket would have been eaiser though.

 

[olewarthog]

I've had my CG for a little over a year now. I do have to bump the basket to get the ash to fall thru before I reload it. I saw pics once where someone had cut out several pieces on the bottom to make bigger spaces. I may do this one day. For now, however, it works just fine.

 

[hdsmoke]

Mine really holds temps well too for what it is. I have the stack extended, charcoal basket and smoke with the tray flipped. No other mods. I fill my basket with lump and some chunks then try to make enough room on the right side of the basket for a half chimney of lit lump then put a chunk or 2 on the hot coals. Run everything wide open while i go get my meat and supplioes (20 mins?) come back down and should be over 200. Close intakes half way. At 225-240 i close more, usually down to 1/4" or even 1/8" gap or so. Sometimes during the smoke i get too hot and shut her down completely and even open main door to bleed off heat. But that usually doesnt happen anymore. Once i leared to make SMALL adjustments and wait for the effect. Not opening all the way when you start to drop 10 degs! if you have a basket full of charcoal and cant get hot enough try cracking either the load door or ash door for a bit. mine will shoot over 300 when i do that.

 

[timtimmay]

Pretty darn similar to my experience with the unit. I wish I could go get meat and be back in 20 min!