UDS - How low can you go?

I think it would depend on the charcoal being used. If you use briquettes you could hold a lower temp longer and cleaner, I say cleaner because in process of making lump or natural not all the would gets carbonized like in a briquette which means that lump may have particles not carbonized and would ignite and produce smoke as it burns.

Lump will also varies in BTU’s per pound and varies in wood types per bag often lump bags contain a lot of useless carbon dust from the factory which means it will produce more dust that will fill in the gaps between the large pieces and decrease the air flow to larger pieces so temp will fluctuate more on a long burn. I use lump but always dump it out to get rid of the dust before I put it in my basket.

So after saying all that I really don’t know :wacko:

I've run 18 hours on one fire basket of Royal Oak and BGE lump at 225 -250.
Didn't notice any dirty burning.

Did a brisket last weekend, put a full bag of Kingsford in the basket, had about half left at 12 hours.

I have done jerky @ 150 with lump and no issues.

I smoked some cheese on mine a couple of years ago.
I used only 2-3 unlit briquettes, 1 chunk of wood and 1 lit briquette to keep the temps below 100. It was a hot summer day and even with that I was able to keep the temps down significantly.


I think it all just depends on how much coals you're burning at one time.

Ambient air temp.

You can go as low as you want depending on how you light your fire and manage your fuel.

Wampus said:

I smoked some cheese on mine a couple of years ago.
I used only 2-3 unlit briquettes, 1 chunk of wood and 1 lit briquette to keep the temps below 100. It was a hot summer day and even with that I was able to keep the temps down significantly.


I think it all just depends on how much coals you're burning at one time.

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What he ^^ said

I smoked some sausage last summer on my drum w/ Kingsford Comp and was able to hold 160'ish for an hour or two w/o issue before going up the ladder.

I just smoked some venison sausage on mine. I had no trouble getting it settled at 150, with lump. Maintained for 3+ hours, then bumped it to 180 till it was done. A little over 4 additional hrs. Held very well at those temps. I don't think I would have had any trouble getting the temp lower, and I will try that next time.

Brian