My UDS and I are complete failures!!!

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How does your lid fit?

Ok, it has to be running too hot. The thermometer your using has to be off. Fire it up exaclty like before, Get a digital thermometer lay the probe on the grate nothing in there. No meat at all, I bet you get over 350° with 2-1/2 open. I have cooked for more than 14 hours and never made that kind of charcoal out of a butt...

Your arrangement of vents looks fine, quite normal, the thermoemeter is about right for a side reading setup, bear in mind, it will read different from the center of the grate. The basket looks okay as well, I see nothing wrong with the UDS itself. I am gonna guess you are not managing the fire right.

I do use lump in my UDS, it can burn out funny if not stacked right, you can't just dump it in. Some guys do, my UDS doesn't like that. It likes the lump stacked in sort of flat and tightish. I light 8 to 10 medium sized lump chunks until fully lit, dump on top and set two vents open. As the UDS approaches my goal heat, I shut one vent down by half and wait an hour to see what happens. Once stable, 1 to 2 hours later, add the meat, the temp will drop. I leave the vents alone for an hour, then adjust if temperature has not come back up. Small adjustments.

If your trying to use that side mounted therm. to regulate your heat, I can guarantee your center of grate temp. is atleast 50-100° hotter. Get a digital from wal-mart about $12-$18. It will save you alot of meat cost.. How much have you already lost in meat?

Way too hot. That therm has to be way off. I can get mine to cruise around 225 with only one bottom vent open. Test that therm in some boiling water.

Yep, it looks like you fired up all of the lump at the same time.

Minion method is your friend. Once mastered, that huge arse basket should burn for over 24 hours.

When using a UDS, fill up the basket with unlit coals (well maybe in your basket's case, 2/3 full) with your wood chunks buried at varying depths within the unlit coals.

Start 10-12 briqs, or briq sized pieces of lump in your chimney starter. When they are completely ashed over, dump them on top of the basket of unlit coals/chunks. Wait for cooker to stabilize at desired temp. I like to start cooking @ 250. And when I say stabilize, I mean thin blue to invisible smoke.

It usually takes 15-30 minutes max for this to happen. LEAVE ALL intakes open till 25 degrees below target cooking temp, then close off all except one. When target temp is reached, close off the remaining open intake to 1/2 to 3/4. This should get you close to what you are seeking.

If you do that, your problems will be solved.

BTW, if your PVC exhaust pipe melted, it must have been raging. Possibly raging enough to kill your thermometer.

Also, do a test run ( no meat) and see if you can put out the fire by closing all of your vents. If not, you have a leak.

Thats it, the therm is not going far enough in the drum to give you a useable temp reading. Other then that, that's a nice and clean looking setup.

pwa

Get a 12" deep fryer thermometer.That will get you an accurate center of the drum reading. I had up to 100* demp. difference between a 2 1/2 " and a 12" thermometer. Yes,both were calibrated in boiling water at 212*.

As we all have said, your drum looks right! but the issue is your temp gauge is lying to you. with 2-1/2 inlets open your temp has to be more than 250°. Trust us only use 1 to 1-1/2 open inlets after initial start up.... and get a digital therm....

I have a real good friend that lives in Belton,Tx. If your still having issue's the next time I'm down there I could swing by and give you some pointers. We can't have a Texican not knowing how to make some damn good Que now can we?

El Ropo said:

Yep, it looks like you fired up all of the lump at the same time.

Minion method is your friend. Once mastered, that huge arse basket should burn for over 24 hours.

When using a UDS, fill up the basket with unlit coals (well maybe in your basket's case, 2/3 full) with your wood chunks buried at varying depths within the unlit coals.

Start 10-12 briqs, or briq sized pieces of lump in your chimney starter. When they are completely ashed over, dump them on top of the basket of unlit coals/chunks. Wait for cooker to stabilize at desired temp. I like to start cooking @ 250. And when I say stabilize, I mean thin blue to invisible smoke.

It usually takes 15-30 minutes max for this to happen. LEAVE ALL intakes open till 25 degrees below target cooking temp, then close off all except one. When target temp is reached, close off the remaining open intake to 1/2 to 3/4. This should get you close to what you are seeking.

If you do that, your problems will be solved.

BTW, if your PVC exhaust pipe melted, it must have been raging. Possibly raging enough to kill your thermometer.

Click to expand...

:thumb:

And, I'm not a fan of tall narrow baskets. I prefer shorter, larger diameter baskets. I built one basket this way and it it's harder to control the heat IMO.

Looks like you are getting lots of help here and you will soon get it figured out. With that said, one day you are going to look back on this and be able to laugh about it. You should print that pork butt picture and hang it on your garage somewhere just so you can see how far you will have come.

Here is the way I start my UDS using RO lump. I have an elcheapo brand chimney starter & only have about two layers of charcoal covering the bottom. I start it using the side burner on my gas grill. When it is all burning, I pour it in the center of the unlit charcoal in my basket & lower it into my UDS. I then put my grates in place & close the lid. I have all 3 of my 3/4" bottom vents open. When my internal temp hits around 180*, I cap one vent. At 200*, I cap the second. At 220*, I close the ball valve about half & it will settle in between 240-250*. At 250*, I only have the ball valve open between 1/4-1/2 depending on wind, temp, etc. Once temps over shoot your target point & your fire mass gets too big, it is hard to bring the temps back down. Also, my drum reacts very slowly to changes in vent settings, so be sure to give it 15-25 mins after opening/closing a vent to be sure what the final effect will be.

A leaky lid can be a problem. I had leaks around my lid & would see temps creep up during a long cook. I could close all bottom vents & still run 230*. Try loosely rolling some heavy duty foil & place it around the lip of your drum. Put your lid on slowly & press down gently. This will help seal most of the air leaks around your lid & let you know if that is a problem or not.

If you're still running into trouble, create some kind of diffuser, to offset all that heat.

+1 to everything above...being relatively new to UDS I can only add...DONT GIVE UP...it took me half doz or so cooks to dial in mine but i garunatee (sp) it will be worth it

Glad its figured out!! :clap: I always use digital thermometer, never did trust a dial type.

pwa

Catch the temps going up so that you don't have to work your way back down while cooking as mentioned. If your side thermo is one that can be adjusted calibrate it to the digital then you will know where you're cooking at. Or, when it settles in see what the diff is between the 2 thermos and just know you have to add 100 degrees or whatever the diff is between the two.