coal bed maintenance - advice?

[capnamerca]

NB Bandera, today's ribs are my fourth cook. I'm getting better and better at fire control. I usually start 5 LBs in the chimney, and build a "bowl" of unlit charcoal in the firebox, covering about 90% of the grate area (firegrate mod, raised expanded). Pouring the lit chimney into ~12 lbs of unlit in the firebox gives me about 2.5 hours of perfect 220-240 in the smokebox (measured inside, not outside), and the temp holds real gosh-darn steady. However ... as that coal bed begins to deplete, obviously the temps start to drop. It's a controlled drop, no worries. My question comes now - how do you maintain the coalbed at this point? If I throw in a bunch of new coal, I get a serious spike in temps. If I throw in just a little, I feel like I'm tending the fire every twenty minutes, and opening the firebox lid far too often.

Today, I even tried to add lots of charcoal, but a long way away from any hotspots, so as to encourage a "walking burn", if you will, but it all just lit real fast and I got the above-mentioned temp spike (and it held high, not just up-and-down).

So, any thoughts about adding/maintaining charcoal and coal beds?

Thanks!

[Kevin]

This won't be much help because I burn wood, but to maintain a consistant bed of coals and temps, I have to add a few sticks every 45 minutes to an hour.

[nmayeux]

If you are using the "New" Kingsford, it will ignite very fast. Sometimes lump will also.

[capnamerca]

Yes, the ignite times are pretty short. The problem is more specifically a maintanance of the bed overall - I feel like I'm tending fire like every 20 minutes, and if I add enough charcoal so that it doesn't burn out that quick, I get a huge spike in temps as the mass of new charcoal all ignites at the same time.

[JohnMcD348]

Get or build a charcoal basket. I went through the same troubles for a year until I got a basket from Spicewine. Best money I ever spent. It increased the temp control and burn times of the charcoal and I think I may have even used less charcoal. I burn a combo of lump and Briquette and I can keep the lid closed about 1-2 hours before I'm reloading the basket and tending the coals.

[Jorge]

Originally Posted by capnamerca

Yes, the ignite times are pretty short. The problem is more specifically a maintanance of the bed overall - I feel like I'm tending fire like every 20 minutes, and if I add enough charcoal so that it doesn't burn out that quick, I get a huge spike in temps as the mass of new charcoal all ignites at the same time.

If you start with your charcoal as you have been, and then switch over to wood you can make it a little easier. I start with charcoal and wood, and then continue to burn wood only. I'll keep an eye on it, since it isn't a set and forget deal. When the wood is nice and charred I'll break it up a bit and spread it around before adding the next batch.

When required I'll add some lump to keep the heat up if needed.

(Edited to add: A bag of lump lasts me a loooong time)

[kcquer]

As your coalbed depletes, you can push the remaining hot stuff to the smokebox end of the firebox and dump another load of unlit stuff behind it. This will roughly replicate your original burn pattern. You will have to clean out the ash underneath when you do this to prevent the glowing embers in the ash from iginiting too much of the cold stuff at once.

This said, there is no subsitute for frequent (every 45 mins) additions of wood (or prelit coals) to achieve steady temps and clean smoke.