Lighting a fire in Medium Sized Stickburner with Pics!

DownHomeQue

DownHomeQue

is Blowin Smoke!
Joined
Oct 11, 2012
Messages
1,719
Reaction score
1,158
Points
0
Location
Jonesboro. AR
Lately i have seen a lot of folks have trouble with getting their stickburners up to temp.. I am doing this thread as a way to give new people a outline as to how I light my stickburner.. and what i use for fuel. times and so forth. First off this is what i start with.. Cheapest Charcoal I could find.. because I'm primarily burning sticks for fuel anyways.. Charcoal is just a means to help get my fire going in the first place. I start with about a 3rd of a bag.. which takes of very little of my fire basket.. Keep in mind SMALL HOT FIRE is ideal for offset smoking.
 
Last edited:
Next I add 2 splits to initially get my pit up to temp.. It takes about an hour to get my pit to 300 with exhaust wide open and intakes open.
 

Attachments

  • 20130817_101631.jpg
    20130817_101631.jpg
    44.7 KB · Views: 1,232
  • 20130817_101645.jpg
    20130817_101645.jpg
    50.5 KB · Views: 1,226
These are the pictures after i put out the weedburner and intially letting the draft get going and getting the pit up to temp.
 

Attachments

  • 20130817_104626.jpg
    20130817_104626.jpg
    55.4 KB · Views: 1,230
  • 20130817_104631.jpg
    20130817_104631.jpg
    78.3 KB · Views: 1,229
Notice the splits are on fire... this is what it takes to get my 10 feet of cooking chamber to temp.. Just charcoal will not get my pit over 150 degrees..
 

Attachments

  • 20130818_192613.jpg
    20130818_192613.jpg
    39.1 KB · Views: 1,229
  • 20130818_192619.jpg
    20130818_192619.jpg
    28.1 KB · Views: 1,229
Thanks for taking the time to post this. Helpful to me - I get my first stick burner in a few weeks. Guess I should buy a weedburner now.
 
My biggest problems with my stick burners are, once I get them to temp, is to get them to stabilize. I've owned 3 different type of stick burners, and all do the same, either a little too warm, or a little too cool.
 
Pics of the Pit i am using.. Lang 60, Meadow Creek 250, Medium sized trailer offset type cooker.. this applys to all stickburners though.. Babies to monsters... they all need to burn wood for fuel.. to get that fire going.. Hope this helps all the Newbies that need guidance with how to get that fire going!
 

Attachments

  • 20130814_175643.jpg
    20130814_175643.jpg
    72.6 KB · Views: 1,224
  • grill in the afternonn.jpg
    grill in the afternonn.jpg
    112.8 KB · Views: 1,222
That a good short tutorial. I do something similar, except I use a charcoal chimney and Weber white starters. ( I need to get me a leaf burner. That's cool)
 
Uncle JJ said:
Thanks for taking the time to post this. Helpful to me - I get my first stick burner in a few weeks. Guess I should buy a weedburner now.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of other ways to get that stickburner going.. without a weedburner.. a chimney full lit coals does the same thing.. pour coals in place splits on top.. wait until the catch fire before closing door.. or you could get a piece of newspaper.. pour some oil on it.. place in firebasket.. charcoals in top of it.. light that piece of newspaper.. which lights your coals.. then once your coals gets going good.. add your splits.. its more than a 100 ways of doing this.. utilizing what you already have on hand..
 
Smokinwright said:
My biggest problems with my stick burners are, once I get them to temp, is to get them to stabilize. I've owned 3 different type of stick burners, and all do the same, either a little too warm, or a little too cool.
Click to expand...


Are you using the same size splits? Exhaust wide open? intakes open the whole time? keep in mind that with stickburners changes tend to take more time to see the full effect. Key is using similiar sized splits.. maybe adding a handful of charcoal with those splits.. to help stabilize the pit.. another trick to keep handy is to try and keep really thin splits for when your temp drops.. throw these on the fire and the help bring it back up in no time! Hope this helps!
 
First off thanks good job! It is true I light mine the exact same way and it takes 1 hr to get to temp Too. Like I keep saying it aint the size of your equipment it's knowing how to use it.
DSCF0015.jpg
 
Thanks DHQ, good basic info. I do basically the same thing without the charcoal, I just use a few cross-hatched layers of kindling, usually 1/2X1/2 up to 1X1 foot long sticks from the woodworking side of my shop with a couple full sized oak splits on top and fire it off with the Texas match. Like yours, it will take my pit 45 minutes to an hour to get up to temp. Once there, I'll add a couple of hickory splits onto the coal bed give them 5-10 minutes to get going good and the white smoke to clear, then start cooking. Depending on how hot I'm cooking, how full the pit is, weather and a bunch of other variables, I'll typically use 1-2 splits every 1-2 hours for the duration of the cook. I usually preheat my splits on top of the firebox to make sure they ignite fast.
 
jestridge said:
If you have a weed burner ,why use charcoal
Click to expand...
Charcoal in my case is just a means to get the wood burning.. I use a lot less propane by lighting the charcoals.. then placing the wood on top of them.. than i would if i were just trying to get the wood going... Charcoal takes about a minute of Weedburning to get lit.. straight logs the size i use would take almost 3 or 4 to get burning good..
 
DownHomeQue said:
Charcoal in my case is just a means to get the wood burning.. I use a lot less propane by lighting the charcoals.. then placing the wood on top of them.. than i would if i were just trying to get the wood going... Charcoal takes about a minute of Weedburning to get lit.. straight logs the size i use would take almost 3 or 4 to get burning good..
Click to expand...

and if i might add it gives you a great bed of coals to keep heat and light the next split....when stick burning i have found this is important lol if you dont have it you struggle all day to keep a good fire
 
DHQ's tips are right on.
I'll offer another observation, for what it is worth. We all know every pit is different and part of my learning curve was finally understanding where my pit WANTS to run. When I run a fire with 2 splits, the exhaust wide open and intakes open enough to get clear blue smoke, my pit WANTS to run at 275*. I can adjust it to 250* or 300* by closing or opening the air intakes. If I want to cook hotter, I just move to a 3 split fire and give it more intake air; I can easily move the pit temps to 325* or 350*.
And a final observation: +/- 25* is not going to end the world. When, for example I want a target temp of 325*, I've finally gotten comfortable with anything in a 300*-350* zone and really don't mess with the pit as long as I'm in the zone. When I get to the lower end I just know its time to add a split or two.
Just my $0.02.
Smokinwright said:
My biggest problems with my stick burners are, once I get them to temp, is to get them to stabilize. I've owned 3 different type of stick burners, and all do the same, either a little too warm, or a little too cool.
Click to expand...

DownHomeQue said:
Are you using the same size splits? Exhaust wide open? intakes open the whole time? keep in mind that with stickburners changes tend to take more time to see the full effect. Key is using similiar sized splits.. maybe adding a handful of charcoal with those splits.. to help stabilize the pit.. another trick to keep handy is to try and keep really thin splits for when your temp drops.. throw these on the fire and the help bring it back up in no time! Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
 
I take one split and chop it into a few pencil thick pieces, pull off a handful of matchstick size pieces, and whatever else I end up with. A piece of newspaper about the size of sheet of notebook paper and a match no charcoal or weed burner, in about ten minutes its ready for 1/2 sized splits, an hour or less and the meat is on.
 
More than one way of achieving this Small hot fire.. i have done that way also.. I have used just kindling and a regular lighter... built my fire from there also... Key is getting to a small hot fire..
 
What size expanded metal are you guys using. One of the problems I have had is having too large of holes in the expanded metal and the coals fall through before I get the next split on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

O
Fire, animal, almost chit my pants
2
Replies
21
Views
1K
4ever3
4ever3
I
Issue with Memphis Pro Pellet Grill
Replies
2
Views
288
Vision
V
T
My Workhorse Pits 1969
3 4 5
Replies
82
Views
6K
bonz50
bonz50
F
My experience with beef belly
Replies
0
Views
144
Fsonicsmith
F
TheHojo
Offset Fire Management
2
Replies
33
Views
2K
Connor_Macleod
C
Back
Top