Humphrey's Heat Question
 

Happy Thanksgiving all. I bought a Humphrey's Pint and after an initial break-in I am doing my first cook (ribs and chicken). Here's the problem. I waited for nearly two hours for it to get up to 250 degrees, and it's slow in returning to temp after the door is opened (30+ minutes). I''m using a combination of lump and briquette charcoal, about 2/3rds full. Does anyone have any comments on how quickly there's warms up or returns to temp? Any advice for tweaking or improving the learning curve? The ball valve was fully open during the warm-up, and the unit holds great at 275 as long as I don't have to open the door.

I have a Long Weekender. I start mine with a small chimney which I light in the cook chamber until ashed over. This cuts a ton of time off getting the cooker up to temp. Usually only takes a few min to recover from having the door open but I do try to get in and out pretty quickly.

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A lot of people heat up the inside of cabinet smokers with a weed burner, to speed the process.

A weed burner?

I figured out that if I leave the firebox door open while mine is heating up, it will get hotter much quicker.

Cuts the time at least in half

How much lit charcoal are you starting with? Not certain on your recovery times. I don't have a Humphrey's but I do have an IVC that is considerably larger than your and I'm usually to 275 in 45 minutes or less, quicker if I use a weed burner. My recovery times when opening the doors is usually 3 or 4 minutes less if I'm just taking a peek.

Same with mine that is about the size of a DEB. Sounds like you need more lit charcoal at startup and/or more oxygen.

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You have good answers for starting it up now for recovery. Get four fire bricks and cover with foil and put in the bottom of the pit. Also get a fan system to run it with. With a fan I can have my Pint to temp in 35 to 45 minutes and recovery after opening the door is 10 to 15 minutes.

I learned on my LSG IVC to take a propane torch and light several briquettes in the corner on the basket for about 1 minute. Leave the door open for 10 minutes. Shut the door and then I am up to temp in no time. If I shut the door right away then it take much longer.

As to door open recover time, it is within a few minutes on my LSG, not sure why yours is so much longer.

I have a lsg large insulated cabinet and if it is really cold and I want to decrease startup time, I will light a small amount of charcoal and put it in a small foil pan in the firebox the night before and let it come up to temperature overnight. I keep the vent and exhaust slightly open, just enough to keep the fire going. In the morning, I take the foil pan of charcoal out and fill it as normal. The smoker is around 150 to 200 degrees and starts up much easier.

For your first cook, I'm guessing like mentioned above. You need to start with more hot coals. 1/2 chimney would be a good start.
One reason for the 2 hrs to come back to temp. When you added the cold meat. The cooker temp will drop due to the mass of cold meat. 50* at least.
Depending on your cooker etc. It can take 1+ hrs to get back to your required temp. While that cold mass of meat starts to warm/heat up.
That is one reason why some folks are always chasing temps. They never give their adjustments enough time to settle in.

When I first got my Humphrey's Down East Beast (larger version of the pint) I had a minor issue with coming to temperature, but it would only take about 60 minutes. I switched to lump and I had no problems.



I also found that in the extreme cold of winter; Start the fire in the firebox (with door open as suggested by Sir Porkalot) and add hot water to the water pan to help things move along.


Lastly I don't rely on the thermometer it came with. Although it is a good dial thermometer, I don't feel the stem is long enough (but that's my opinion). Instead, I use a digital thermometer with a probe further into the cooking chamber.


As others have said, I do know of others who warm the cooking chamber with a weed burner torch. That's a lot of metal in the cooking chamber to try and heat up in cold winter weather.


As far as recovery time, Ebijack is correct, when put a load of meat in, it will appear as if there is a long recovery time, bottom line is that the meat is absorbing the heat (heat is exchanged quicker) until the meat comes to temperature. If you are concerned about the drop in temperature drop from meat, maybe invest in a PID like the BBQ Guru Digi-Q DX-II. I purchased one just for peace of mind on long overnight cooks.


Remember; if the door is open, you're looking not cooking

Thanks to pharp and everyone else for the advice. I started it up again today (because there's always a reason to smoke) and added more lit charcoal, dispersed it more than just in a corner, and opened up the back damper too. I'm not sure the latter will affect the heat much, but there it is. Outdoor temp are in the 40's, so not too bad to work in. Started all that 1/2 hour ago and the temp is at 150 and climbing much better than yesterday. I will say this, it was nice of Nicole Humphrey, as all of you, to contact me yesterday as it was a holiday. Today: a 14 lb spatchcocked turkey.