Klose Charcoal Basket - Time Trial

I don’t have a Klose – I have a Tucker Cooker and I use the fuse burn. The principle is the same IMHO.

I don’t have any pictures but when I set my fuse burn up I use Chef’s Select charcoal and I add a layer about half full all around the fuse track. Then I add cherry wood chunks about 2” square. I add the wood chunks right after the first turn and about 5 inches apart. I then fill the rest of the fuse to the top. It takes roughly 20 lbs of charcoal packed tight. I then go to the front or start of the fuse and remove 10 -15 pieces of charcoal and start them in my chimney starter. When ashed over I pour them back in the spot I took them out of.
Saturday with outside temps hitting 90 I got over 6 hours at 230 degrees. It took one hour to come to temp. At our last comp it was 10 pm and 68 degrees outside and it took 1.5 hours to get to temp and I got almost 5 hours out of it. I leave all vents open until the temp gets to 190 then I close the vents and let the Guru walk it up to 230.

I find the smaller wood chunks buried do not ignite but smolder – when I laid them on top they just burst into flame and my fire took off. When I laid sticks they did the same thing – they caught fire and messed up the controlled burn of the charcoal.

I find using the smaller chunks buried in the charcoal helps control my fire.

This is a good thread! Making offsets run on charcoal is NOT easy and it's good that someone is experimenting and posting their results. To me information like this is well worth the cost of a subscription to the forum!:clap2:

GREAT POST!! I don't own a Klose, but I'm learning great stuff about managing a fire. Keep us posted and keep including the pics!!

Thanks!:clap2:

Man do y'all make me appreciate my Stumps and Auber even more. :tongue:

Man do y'all make me appreciate my Stumps and Auber even more. :tongue:

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Your point is well taken …
At the end of the day off set smokers in general are not the most efficient way to cook. Considering you are moving heat sideways when it naturally wants to rise.

Very informative and educational post!

Thanks!

I have heard of people having success when packing the coal in tightly, ie. stacking each briquette by hand. I've never tried because I'm too lazy.

I have one of those baskets for my Klose. I've gotten a few hours at around 250 or so out of it, but I hardly ever use the basket anymore. I just use splits and luckily I have other cookers I can use when I want to go a more set-and-forget route.

You do have to catch the temp on the way up. If I remember correctly I would close down the intake around 25 degrees shy of where I want to land. I can't remember how much I shut it down though - at least down to 25% open I think. I always leave the exhaust all the way open.

The only time I use the basket now is if I'm doing a short cook and need more capacity than I have on my verticals, i.e. I did about 4 trays of pig candy and didn't feel like farking with the fire - so it came in really handy for that. It'd be good for a chicken cook or a high heat rib cook as well I think. I made another basket out of expanded metal, just a dumb ole cube with no top. I have burned through that one first and then stick in the Klose basket after and had an extended cook that way - but like I said, it's been a long time since I've used charcoal in the Klose.

Looks like a success!