# Adding a split to your fire...how often?



## brnhornt (Sep 6, 2018)

Hi All!  Quick question...I've been cooking on my homebuilt offset (120 gallon air compressor tank) for a year now and I'm curious about other folks' experiences.  My splits are usually 4 inches long and 1 to 2 inches thick...and I'm adding one around every 20 minutes or so.  I always leave the stack wide open...and once I get up to temp I pretty much never touch the intake vents (usually set at 5/8")  Once I see the grate temps (digital therms on the left and right side) drop to around 230, I add one or two splits (log cabin style)...the temp will usually climb up to around 270....and then ever so slowly drop back down.  Once I see around 230...in go the next two warmed splits.  Two things...A...I know to not try and chase digital therms since they're so accurate and fast.  B...the end results let you know how your doing and I've been very pleased with what has come out of this beast.  

I'm just curious if there is a better method of fire management that I can or should consider.  One reason is coal bed management.  In my last long smoke (12 pork shoulders) I had to fire a chimney of charcoal briquettes and basically rebuild the fire.  It seems like my fire isn't creating enough of it's own coal bed to replenish itself.  I don't think this is _that _big of a deal...but curious if that's normal for others.

Thanks!
Kevin


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## gmh313 (Sep 6, 2018)

What's your ideal cooking temp? Also Can you post a few photos of your smoker so we have a better idea what we're all talking about?

on a stick burner the active fire is more valuable than the coal bed. My fire grate is rebar spaced 1" apart, about 8" off the bottom of the fire chamber. once the logs break up they drop to the bottom. the Coals Still help with the heat management but move far away from the active fire to prevent snuffing it out and allows tons of air flow

I add a stick about every 25-45 minutes depending on weather and quality of firewood. My cookers sweet spot is 275 and can maintain that for several hours without fluctuation when feeding appropriately.

I had a digital thermometer set on my cook grate (previous smoker not my avatar) and it made me so nervous about the cook that I threw it out. Personally, I look at thermometers as a means of approximation. If the thermostats on the outside of your smoker are reasonably accurate that's all that matters as they're just there to help control. The difference between a smoker at 250 and 260 really isn't that big of a deal, the temperature of the meat is the only real factor, and of course knowing the hotter the temp the faster the cook.

Hope this helps!


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## brnhornt (Sep 6, 2018)

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/greetings-compressor-tank-build.262988/page-7

This post/page shows some decent shots.

Seems like my smoker likes it around 250-270.  I've tried to run hotter but talk about fuel consumption!  I honestly haven't tried to go too much lower.

I have a couple of teltrue thermos mounted on the outside, but made a mistake of buying the shorter stems...thinking that I wouldn't lose cooking grate space as I would with the longer ones.  Grate temps will show 240....but the teltrues are showing 180.  

Glad to hear that you'll add a stick at 25 minutes...but no way am I making it 45 minutes unless maybe it's a blazing hot sunny day :)


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## gmh313 (Sep 6, 2018)

Beautiful smoker! Great job on the build.

I think most of my ability to get 45 minutes is from firing full sized logs and having so much thermal mass (the whole cooker is just over 2000#). Seems like everything is okay on your end fire wise, I'd just get longer stemmed thermostats if you can.


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## brnhornt (Sep 6, 2018)

Thanks!

Yeah...I'd like to...but I'm casually waiting to see if anyone wants to buy the ones I have before investing another 80 bucks in therms :)


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## gmh313 (Sep 6, 2018)

I hear you on that! The colors on mine are starting to fade and part of me wants to buy new ones, but the "adult" in me is saying the $60 is betters spent on meat..or firewood..or my electric bill..


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