Humphrey's user question

Pappy Q · May 27, 2014

Got my new Humphrey's BB last week. I'll be using in comps to finish cooking big meats after wrapping (like an oven). So don't really have a need to use water. Will it operate properly without the water? I've done a couple of burns at 275 using foil balls instead of water and temps fluctuated a lot. Thought about fire bricks in the water pan as well. Looking for thoughts from Humphrey users.

Untraceable · May 27, 2014

you could try sand.

Smaller cookers are more prone to fluctuations (smaller internal air space makes changes in the fire box more pronounced) than larger cookers. Running water may just be a nessisary evil for rock solid temps.

K-Train · May 27, 2014

No help here, I always use water in mine.

kj8060 · May 27, 2014

I am not a BB owner but thinking about getting one sooner or later. And i dont wanna use any water in my smokes at all. Wont bbqguru do what you need???

polishdon · May 27, 2014

Do you have the drop in or slide in water pan?

MarleyMan · May 27, 2014

Pappy, sand works well. I just lined the pan with foil and filled with Play Sand about 1- 1 1/2" from the top then covered that with a double layer of foil for easy cleanup.

I run water for cooking up to 250F, above that it runs better with another heatsink other than water to get up to higher temps in my experience.

scm1226 · May 27, 2014

I always use water. Except the time I made pizza, that's when I removed the water pan(drop in) and the heat divert or and cooked the pizza at 500 or so. Never had a problem getting to +275 with water, just have to plan for the heat up time.

kj8060 · May 27, 2014

Guys, wont guru solve all these temp flactuations without water/sand/etc...? i just wanna run plain 250-275 most of cooks except chicken.

MarleyMan · May 27, 2014

scm1226 said:
I always use water. Except the time I made pizza, that's when I removed the water pan(drop in) and the heat divert or and cooked the pizza at 500 or so. Never had a problem getting to +275 with water, just have to plan for the heat up time.

I have had problems getting up to 275 with water, then again maybe I just got impatient with the warm up time.

When do you add water when cooking at 275? My norm is to light a chimney or use a torch to light a corner. Once cooker is around 200 or so I add in HOT tap water to the pan and let the guru do the rest bringing it up to cooking temp.

How long does it take you to get up to 275 using water in the pan once you light?

I am using the drop in pan also.........thanks!

MarleyMan · May 27, 2014

kj8060 said:
Guys, wont guru solve all these temp flactuations without water/sand/etc...? i just wanna run plain 250-275 most of cooks except chicken.

I tried running dry this weekend with the guru in place and diverter plate in.

It hit 275 and then started to creep up on me, I added water at 320 to bring temps down.

So in my experience you will need some sort of heatsink to regulate the temp even with the guru....

kj8060 · May 27, 2014

hmm thats weird and i thought when running dry all you have to do is turn on guru lets say 30 degrees under target and its gonna reach target and hold plus minus some degrees, well definitely not overshoot to 320 on 275 target.

polishdon · May 27, 2014

My experience is, once that water pan burns out, the temps spike quickly.

To help reduce this issue, I added a diverter plate to my charcoal tray, which I also extended the sides on for more fuel capacity. Over the weekend we removed the water pan and used the diverter plate to cover the hole to get the box up to baking temp, that seemed to keep the temp steady with the Guru set to 325.

kj8060 · May 27, 2014

Guys i will ask differently. Is it possible to hold 250-75 steady for hours in these BBs and run it dry no water no sand ... just guru? Thanks for answer. I have Acorn now and i am very happy , have absolutely no problems with smoking dry, steady temps for many hours. Just need bigger capacity, i really like concept of reverse flow(looking at humpreys bb and pitmaker safe) but prefer just dry environment.

peeps · May 27, 2014

kj8060 said:
Guys i will ask differently. Is it possible to hold 250-75 steady for hours in these BBs and run it dry no water no sand ... just guru? Thanks for answer. I have Acorn now and i am very happy , have absolutely no problems with smoking dry, steady temps for many hours. Just need bigger capacity, i really like concept of reverse flow(looking at humpreys bb and pitmaker safe) but prefer just dry environment.

MarleyMan said:
I tried running dry this weekend with the guru in place and diverter plate in.

It hit 275 and then started to creep up on me, I added water at 320 to bring temps down.

So in my experience you will need some sort of heatsink to regulate the temp even with the guru....

MarleyMan, how is your guru setup? I know my SS2 (vertical gravity feed with no water) is a different beast, but mine crept quite a bit if I had the Guru fan damper fully open the whole cook. The last cook I did, I had the guru fan damper closed down halfway once I got to temp and it held much easier (+/- 10°F of setpoint).

kj, I don't know why you couldn't maintain those temps if you throttle the damper on your cooker or the guru...

Pappy Q · May 27, 2014

kj8060 said:
I am not a BB owner but thinking about getting one sooner or later. And i dont wanna use any water in my smokes at all. Wont bbqguru do what you need???

Guru was used

Pappy Q · May 27, 2014

polishdon said:
Do you have the drop in or slide in water pan?

Drop in

MarleyMan · May 27, 2014

Peeps, I normally knock the damper back to around 1/2 also around 50 deg away from target temp.

Normally I have been running at 250F usually with only the occasional cook above 250F. I use water and also tried sand for awhile, but like the results with water better (especially if not loading up the cooker).

I will play around more at 275 with water and see where I get...but with my cooker running nothing in the water pan seems to cause it to run away and get hot even though using a guru.

Untraceable · May 27, 2014

Long time sand user here. When I ran sand, my cooker was great. I could go to any temp I wanted effeciently. Unfortunately I had to ride the exhaust and guru intake to limit overshoots. After awhile of realizing that I dont need the daisy wheels, I used permatex on the backside to seal them up to be leak free, and started running water. Now I can finally run lump super steady and make it the automatic cooker I want.

I personally feel water sucks. wasting energy, I dont buy into the moisture hypothesis, clean up is disgusting. But.....The ability to run lump dead ass steady has justified the negatives. The best part is I can alternate smoke woods and it burns so clean that I can tell when a cherry chunk is lit vs a Hickory chunk. No eye burning mace experience from briquettes for me anymore.

kj8060 · May 27, 2014

Untraceable, how do you keep steady temp in 375 temp zone when doing chicken halves?

Untraceable · May 27, 2014

Im not a 375 degree chicken half cooker. Im a 250 degree ribs and brisket guy.:icon_smile_tongue:

I did cook a turkey for thanksgiving and ran my cube at 325. Put the turkey on the very top rack and I bet it was close to that. The ol' texas microwave

I believe humphreys will 100% weld your pit as an upgrade to make it air tight. Running water, you really dont need to be 100% air tight. To run dry, you better be air tight or dang close.

Humphrey's user question

is Blowin Smoke!

Babbling Farker

is Blowin Smoke!

Found some matches.

Full Fledged Farker

is one Smokin' Farker

is one Smokin' Farker

Found some matches.

is one Smokin' Farker

is one Smokin' Farker

Found some matches.

Full Fledged Farker

Found some matches.

somebody shut me the fark up.

is Blowin Smoke!

is Blowin Smoke!

is one Smokin' Farker

Babbling Farker

Found some matches.

Babbling Farker

Similar threads