Thanks Bryan,
Last weekend I did Ribs on Saturday and a butt on Monday. The smoker has the original thermometer (which I forgot to check & calibrate...) and I'm also using a Maverick ET732.
4:30am: Because it was a large butt, I wanted to use only Lump Charcoal. All I had was a bag of Good One, but the pieces were so small I had to build piece by piece the charcoal on the grate because I felt if I just dumped and spread it the fire would choke from lack of oxygen. I didn't have fire starters so I used paper towels moistened with cooking oil (works good to start a chimney) in the fire pan beneath the charcoal to start the fire. About 30 minutes later I had a good bed of coals so I closed the smoke & fire boxes, closed the lower spinners to about 2 turns, left the damper open all the way and closed the top spinner to about 2 turns. In about 30 minutes the smoker thermometer and the ET732 read about 240 with very little smoke coming out, so I put the 7.5lb butt on. I adjusted damper to the 11:00 position (as best I could, it's not holding position very well) and kept an eye on the smoker for the next 30 minutes to see what the temps would do. They seemed stable so I decided to take a nap. About 2 hours later the high temp alarm of the 732 went off at 260, and when I got outside there was smoke billowing out of the smoker and temps were racing skyward as if someone had opened up the fire box and let a rush of oxygen in.
So I spent the next 30-45 minutes lowering the temps by adjusting the spinners, as well as checking the firebox. About 90 minutes later the temps are beginning to drop below 235, so I checked the firebox and see that it needs more fuel. I wasn't sure if I wanted to put unlit charcoal on because I didn't want the smoke, so I started up the lump charcoal in chimney and threw that on (as well as with some unlit charcoal).
From this point forward I felt like I was constantly chasing temperatures, as well as having to feed the fire again later in the afternoon.
This is only my 3rd use of the Open Range. The 1st one was with KB & lump charcoal only, and was to see what could learn about the "behavior" of the smoker, as well as to re-season it after a cleaning and wiping down with vegetable oil. The 2nd one was for a lot shorter duration, with a single rack of ribs, which while there was some temp chasing there as well, it wasn't as bad as with the butt.
My thoughts / observations
1) The fire & temp control is a lot different than with a UDS or Weber kettle
2) There doesn't seem to be that much of a difference in volume (to heat) between the UDS and the Open Range, yet I went through 4 times as much fuel. That doesn't make sense...
3) The user manual and aceofhearts website both say to start the fire from the bottom, yet with the UDS it's just the opposite, and it seems the UDS burned longer with a lot less fuel
4) Waiting until all of the coals are 90-95% hot seems to be wasting fuel
5) The built in thermometer is in the top right of the smoke box, my 732 probe is above the grate on the left side. What is the maximum temp difference I should see between the two? Also need to verify / calibrate or replace the built-in thermometer
6) Need to figure out how to adjust the damper so it stays in position (other than a ball of foil between the arm and the eyebrow)
David…