Today was test-burn day!
So this morning, I drug it out of the shop (had to put a couple boards under the back wheels to level it up) and poured some lump charcoal in the V-basket...then lit a chimney full. When that was red-hot, I poured that over the coal in the basket.
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Started with 3 small splits of hickory.
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As it burned and came up to temps, I kept the dampers wide open, and kept plenty of fuel in the FB - wanted to see how high the temps would go in the CC. Turns out, it was pretty easy to get it up to near *350. After closing the dampers down some, it became clear I only needed 1 or 2 splits in the V-basket at a time to maintain temps in the cooking range - which for me is usually *250-*275.
And I have to say, I'm a fan of the V-basket! Seems to make it easier to get a hot coal bed going, and easy to maintain that coal bed over time.
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I put a couple of probes in the CC - one on the middle rack (probe 1) and one on the top rack (probe 2). This screen shot is during the climb up to *350. I was happy to see even temps from bottom to top.
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After adjusting the dampers, I got it to settle into a temp range of *250-*290...which is right where I like to cook.
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It stayed in that range for over 2 hours.
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After dialing it in to the "sweet spot" for a couple hours, I was happy with the test, and closed all dampers to begin shutting down.
I was also happy to see that the dial thermometers in the door were pretty consistent - although it seemed that for most of the test, they both showed maybe *10 lower than my Inkbird probes. My experience with analog thermometers...that seems pretty good to me.
Bottom Thermometer:
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Top thermometer:
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I'm not gonna lie - I was happy and proud to see Thin Blue Smoke rolling out of the stack!
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Conclusions:
I consider this test burn a smashing success! The airflow was spot-on...it drew like a charm! It was very easy to get it nice and hot (*350), and also easy to bring it back under control in the nice cooking range of *250-*290. My first estimate is that it'll be fairly fuel-efficient as well. Seems like it's gonna need 1 or 2 small/medium splits every 45 minutes to an hour to maintain a nice temp and a nice coal bed.
Up next: I want to build a fire in the CC coal basket and see how that draws and performs. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get that done - we've got some storms moving in late this afternoon.
Definitely one step closer to Jim cookin' on it!
Hopefully I'll have another update tomorrow...thanks for checking in!
Red