I ran my UDS for the first time this weekend. I put 1 full webber charcoal chimney full of Kingsford in my basket. I piled it up around the outside edge of the 13" diameter basket to get a Minion method going. Then, I put 1/2 lit charcoal to fill up the middle. I put it in my UDS, and had temps at 200d nearly instantly. I close the vents and then slowly opened them as the temps steadied. It then chugged along around 240.
But, after about 5 hours, the temps started to fall off. I opened it up and saw that I still had a lot of charcoal around the edges, but the charcoal in the middle had all burned up. I shook the basket and knocked the coals into the middle and all was good - other then all the black smoke it made.
Is there a preferred way to start the coals? I think this next time I'm going to skip putting the charcoal in the middle.