Maintaining temp!!

[el luchador]

Originally Posted by lankster35

How is that good? The temp is swinging 50 degrees in less than 20 minutes through the whole chart. Looks like a mess to me.

this is the nature of stick burners. that graph is an example of an excellently managed, expensive, stick burner.

if you have any data on your burns I would be interested in seeing it.

[JohnH12]

Originally Posted by lankster35

This is exactly what I do....Preheat the split in the firebox and just push it to the fire and leave your next split at the front of the box. Works great and the splits catch fire immediately and sometimes even before you push it to the fire.

Great Texas minds think alike!

[BKING!]

After reading through this thread it got me thinking. Normally in the past I just regulated temp with fuel size and kept all vents and chimney wide open. If temp got away from so be it at least the fire is clean and on a long cook no big deal. A few questions...

1. Is it worth it to try to keep temps within a normal 50 deg range if it occasionally exceeds that?
2. If it is worth it... is it better to restrict the firebox vents, the chimney, or both. I've seen a few good suggestions in this thread. It seems restricting vents would give better temp control but more likely to get bad smoke.

[medic92]

Originally Posted by WareZdaBeef

Get a bbq guru and set and forget it.

Cracks me up ppl will spend over a grand or 5 on a smoker, and not want to spend a few hunnit on a guru.

You should be thoroughly comfortable with using your cooker without a Guru before you use one. When the day comes (and it WILL come) that the Guru craps out or the fan won't work and you have to manage the smoker without the Guru crutch you'll be happy you spent the time to learn it. Because Guru's don't mess up while they're sitting in the garage. They wait until you have a big dinner planned with a lot of guests that are very important to you.

[smoke ninja]

Originally Posted by el luchador

this is the nature of stick burners. that graph is an example of an excellently managed, expensive, stick burner.

if you have any data on your burns I would be interested in seeing it.

Give it rest man

[Av8er]

What size opening expanded metal do you recommend? They have 1/2” opening and 3/4”. There is already 3/4 in it but it’s dropping coals like crazy!!! I know these will go 90 degrees and that will help.

[pjtexas1]

Originally Posted by Av8er

What size opening expanded metal do you recommend? They have 1/2” opening and 3/4”. There is already 3/4 in it but it’s dropping coals like crazy!!! I know these will go 90 degrees and that will help.

i don't think the size matters as it is more important how you overlay. that will determine the size of the holes for ash and coals to fall thru.

[Stlsportster]

Originally Posted by BKING!

After reading through this thread it got me thinking. Normally in the past I just regulated temp with fuel size and kept all vents and chimney wide open. If temp got away from so be it at least the fire is clean and on a long cook no big deal. A few questions...

1. Is it worth it to try to keep temps within a normal 50 deg range if it occasionally exceeds that?
2. If it is worth it... is it better to restrict the firebox vents, the chimney, or both. I've seen a few good suggestions in this thread. It seems restricting vents would give better temp control but more likely to get bad smoke.

I do use my intake pinwheels to drop the temp, but usually only when the temp rises more than 50 degrees over where i want it, or when trying to smoke at a very low temp.

When I do jerky and am trying to keep the temps between 150-190 I have both intake pinwheels closed about 80%. When I'm cooking between 250-325, I generally don't need to use the pinwheels...unless the temp really spikes.

I don't ever touch the exhaust damper.

[sthamm]

Originally Posted by JohnH12

Here's the way I like. It worked on my 36 and still works on the 60D.

Note: Add the splits crossways (opposite of your pic) and use them to shove the coals toward the front of the firebox closest to the cook chamber. This preheats the splits so there will be minimal smoke when you add more and shove the hot splits toward the coal bed.

Add splits as necessary but always add crossways and never directly to the coals. Always use the new splits to shove the preheated splits (some may have started to burn) towards the coals.
There's no set time to add more splits. It could be 30 minutes or maybe 45 or even an hour. Watch the temp gage and add as soon as you notice even a small temp drop. You'll learn the approximate time for given conditions as you run it more.

I remember reading about this method on the Lang forum years ago. How many splits are on this "conveyer" belt at a given time? There's the one that is touching the fire. Do you have a line of 1 or more splits that are preheating and immediately backing up that partially lit log? Or do you only add one split at a time once that lit log fully catches or is dying down? I'm curious to try this method as my current practice is labor intensive (coke can sized splits and feeding every 20-25 minutes...all vents fully open)

[el luchador]

Originally Posted by smoke ninja

Give it rest man

Huh???

[JohnH12]

sthamm:
I normally run the 60D somewhere around 275 and 325. I usually add a couple of splits at a time but it could be more depending on the type wood I'm using since they all seem to burn different.
The 60D has 4 pinwheels on the sides of the firebox. After I get the fire going good and fully close the doors I close the two pinwheels closest to the cook chamber and start dialing down the ones nearest the firebox door. When running white oak the rear pinwheels are usually about half or a bit less open. Blackjack seems to burn hotter so the pinwheels are maybe 1/4 open. Wind direction also play a part in whats open and how far. You just have to learn your pit. Obviously colder days require bigger fires.
The chimney damper is always wide open. I tried the method of controlling temps using it but didn't care for it so I went back to pinwheels only.
As stated above, I also keep the drain closed unless Im cooking something really greasy.

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

Originally Posted by Av8er

What size opening expanded metal do you recommend? They have 1/2” opening and 3/4”. There is already 3/4 in it but it’s dropping coals like crazy!!! I know these will go 90 degrees and that will help.

Before you spend money on something you don't need how about you give running the cooker another shot? Tons of great advice in here and I can almost guarantee you don't need that expanded metal for the firebox grill grate. Langs have been around for a long time and if those grates needed to have smaller holes they would have made that modification years ago to keep customers happy.

[BKING!]

Originally Posted by Stlsportster

I do use my intake pinwheels to drop the temp, but usually only when the temp rises more than 50 degrees over where i want it, or when trying to smoke at a very low temp.

When I do jerky and am trying to keep the temps between 150-190 I have both intake pinwheels closed about 80%. When I'm cooking between 250-325, I generally don't need to use the pinwheels...unless the temp really spikes.

I don't ever touch the exhaust damper.

Thanks!

[sudsandswine]

Originally Posted by lankster35

How is that good? The temp is swinging 50 degrees in less than 20 minutes through the whole chart. Looks like a mess to me.

Well, since that's my chart, I suppose I'll respond. That's the nature of a stick burner...not really sure what you expected to see, many people probably don't bother charting their stick burner temps but they'll never have a flatline like a charcoal cooker on a temp controller and will all generally look like this. The polling interval in that chart makes the temperatures look much more spikey than they were - in reality, the cooker's temp runs like a modest sine wave.



In this example I was running a median temp of 275*, and as new logs are added and then burn down, the temperatures rises and falls. I run splits that are at their max thickness, about a beer can in diameter. I could run bigger logs, but I like the control and clean burn I get from splits of this size. Not a big deal to walk outside, add a log, and walk back inside every 20 to 30 minutes.

[Springram]

Originally Posted by JohnH12

Great Texas minds think alike!

Works like a charm!

My firebox is insulated so placing wood on the top of it does nothing fro preheating.