I need UDS heat.

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LiveSimple

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This week I will be doing my second smoke ever on my UDS. On my first try I used an 8 lb bag of charcoal (lit with the minion method) and a few chunks of hickory. My temp stayed at a steady 195 and occasionally 210 after I had to open the lid and turn stuff. I ended up having to finish my butt and brisket off in the oven. I would really like to get my heat up to 235 to get a bEtter carmelization and breakdown of meat.
Before I result to drilling holes in the smoker is there anything else I can do to get my heat up and keep it there?
 
You're supposed to have exhaust holes in the lid of your UDS for specifically this purpose.
There's a schematic on this website for drilling out eight holes I believe it is in the lid of the UDS, which you can then cap off with several different things.
Some people use simple heavy duty foil, some people use marbles, some use ball berrings.. whatever you choose though, you do need to drill some exhaust holes to create a.. breeze? Not quite the word I'm looking for, but close.
 
To create a draft, which is pretty important to have. Exhaust removes air and creates a draft which pulls in more air to allow burn. Intake and exhaust must be balanced and appropriately sized for the drum.
 
You need to tell us the set up you have. Intake and exhaust. Is the chacoal basket 3 Inches from the bottom ?
 
Good advice all around. Temp problems in a UDS come down to one thing. Airflow.
 
Ya know, I have the opposite issue (it's not an issue) with my UDS. I put the Weber lid on it, I have 3 1" intakes, 2 with ball valves. I cooked a pork butt for 10 hours at 225 until the internal temp was 195, then 4 hours later I cooked 2 turkey breasts for 4.5 hours, again at 225. I did this with 1 20 lb bag of kingsford with a tiny bit of mesquite chips mixed in.
This beast ran for 36 hours at 225 with just a little airflow tweaking. I couldn't believe it.
Soooo, airflow ihas got to be the key!!!
 
Sometimes mine runs too hot, I've had it above 300 while seasoning it, so I guess I have the opposite. Like all said above, AIRFLOW in and out. It'd be nice to see some pics like Norcoredneck suggested.
 
if the temp only goes up when you remove the lid, i would say you don't have enough air coming in. I'll assume you have some sort of exhaust in place; as long as you have a few square inches or more of exhaust area, it should be good.
 
jumping in here as I just obtained my drum yesterday and plan on starting to build a UDS in the next couple of days.

intake, seems a lot of people use 4 3/4" holes. I was going to use a single 1 1/2' hole which has the same intake area.

I would like to use one exhaust. 2" okay? does the exhaust need to be bigger, smaller, or same size as the intake?

Does the exhuast need to be on top? Can it be on the side? I think this is a stupid question as it needs to be at hte highest point, correct? the reason I'm asking is because I was thinking about making a "chimmney" and don't want that on my lid

thanks
 
The intake should be the main adjusting point for maintaining temps. You need adequate exhaust space, but intake is really the key and the ability to adjust it by small amounts. a 1.5" intake below the level of the firegrate with a ballcock type of valve for adjustment should be perfect. a 2"-4" chiminey should be great, even with no means to adjust it. A damper on the exhaust is veluable to shut down/reign in a fire that has gotten way too hot. The exhaust does not need to be in the lid, but should be above the level of the highest grate and the top of any food that will be cooked on that grate. I've found that for my uses these things have been what has worked well.
 
Norcoredneck said:
We need pics.
Click to expand...


Yup. Pics needed.

I agree with all. Sounds like airflow.
I recently changed my fire"box" from a sort of bucket about 10" diameter with holes drilled into it to a full 16" diameter "pan" with 6" tall sides all out of expanded metal. My ability to crank the temps up DRASTICALLY improved. I attributed this to the "breathability" of the coals. I had trouble getting the drum up above 300 before, and this past weekend, the thing was up to 400 with only 2 out of 3 lower vents open.

So, I agree......AIRFLOW.



Still......need pics.
 
My uds has the lid of a weber grill so it has the standard opening on top. Outside of that it has 3 3/4 inch pipes that connect at the bottom with elbow joints and run alongside the smoker like smoke stacks. Working from an iPhone now. I'll get pics tomorrow.
 
LiveSimple said:
Outside of that it has 3 3/4 inch pipes that connect at the bottom with elbow joints and run alongside the smoker like smoke stacks.
Click to expand...

This may be part of the problem... you may have too much resistance to the airflow with the verticle parts of the intake pipe. Plus, if they are right next to the drum, they may be heating up and causing a reversal of airflow though the intake.

My suggestion, ditch everything but the nipple going into the drum on all but one intake (you can put a valve on this one). Then fire it up and see what happens. My suspision is that you'll see the temps you are looking for.

Good luck!
 
The fire pan is another area of interest. It must be quite "open" and permmit free flow of air through it, and the inlet holes should be below (lower than, not necessarily underneath) the bottom of the fire basket. As Wampus described, I also got allot better heat and control of temps when I switched to one made out of diamond mesh.
 
I agree the problem is airflow. The obvious solution is to increase it. And, of course, do so at the point of combustion. There are options on how to do this.

I have been advocating a different approach than the typical 3 or 4 holes controlled by ball valves and the like. That approach is illustrated in my slide show: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/album.php?albumid=64

It is base upon 2 requirements which are:

1. ability to burn all-wood
2. ability to reach high temps for making pizza & grilling​

The first slide shows another feature for reaching high temps: forced air. With a strong enough fan, you can make a UDS into a furnace.
 
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