Chubby Advice

[hd4me]

I got my new BW chubby last week and did my first cook (four butts ) over the weekend. Brewmaster was a tremendous help!!!!! The problem I had was I used three and a half baskets of lump for a 11 hour burn. A couple of ideas where lump takes up a lot of space and I filled the water pan to the top.
I had to keep one draft door open about 1.5 " or so to keep a 200* temp. Then by morning a 3/8" opening held at 240* The water pan was about 1/4 when I pulled the butts. Any help would be appreciated. Before you start I just haven't had time to post pron yet.
Thanks

[Norcoredneck]

Might have overloaded it. Was water hot when you started?

[hd4me]

Nope, cold from the tap. Overload meaning that much water was eating the fuel? Brewmaster suggested that right off.

[Divemaster]

Originally Posted by Norcoredneck

Might have overloaded it. Was water hot when you started?

That would be my question.... Water takes a LOT of energy to heat....

[jrb03]

You say 3 1/2 baskets of lump, but how many pounds of what type of lump? I get about an hour per pound on my BWS Party. Not sure how big the basket is on a chubby, but you really need to pack it in there on my Party basket to get it full.

Also, where were you getting your temps from? The BWS door therm has been known to *mess* with a noobie! Gotta make sure its not touching the meat.

[hd4me]

I cant really tell you the weight but it was BGE lump. The chubby is supposed to get 8-10 hour burn. I was also thinking about a basket mod, there is plenty of room in the box for a bigger basket and pan. I made sure the meat was no where near the temp probe.

[Norcoredneck]

Next try I'd go 1/2 pan Hot water to start. Also overloading charcoal will keep temps down (Not enough air circulation. Are you sure lump didn't draw moisture at some time. . What exactly do you mean when you talk about door open? Physically open or vent open?

I say you do a load of fatties as a test. Better yet 1 Butt and "Biscuit test"

[hd4me]

Vent open. I will measure it tonight to figure out how much room I have. Just looking in the fire box door I can make the ash pan and the basket bigger about 3" each way and about 1.5-2" taller.

[Spydermike72]

I am thinking the water thing as well. I can get about 6-8 hours with my party with a full charcoal basket (6-8 lbs) and a lit chimney. I dont use lump I use briquettes and wood for the smoke.

[ique]

Is that about a bag of lump? 8-10lbs of lump to cook four butts overnight ain't bad...

Originally Posted by hd4me

I got my new BW chubby last week and did my first cook (four butts ) over the weekend. Brewmaster was a tremendous help!!!!! The problem I had was I used three and a half baskets of lump for a 11 hour burn. A couple of ideas where lump takes up a lot of space and I filled the water pan to the top.
I had to keep one draft door open about 1.5 " or so to keep a 200* temp. Then by morning a 3/8" opening held at 240* The water pan was about 1/4 when I pulled the butts. Any help would be appreciated. Before you start I just haven't had time to post pron yet.
Thanks

[jrb03]

How many pounds is a bag of BGE Lump? And then how much of that bag did you use? We really need to know how much lump you used in 11 hours to know if there was a problem. If its a 20lb bag and you used about half, then your doing just fine. If you used almost the whole 20lb bag, then something might be off, ie your therms. Lump can come in weird sizes which can affect how much you have in the pan.

I just did some research, and it seems my party and your chubby use the same size fire pan. I can load up 10 pounds of Kingsford briqs in there and get it to last 10+ hours at 240-250. Lately I have been messing with lump. The most I have been able to get in the pan was about 7 lbs of B&B lump, and that lasted about 7 hours at 240-250.

Do you have the heat diverter?

Try this next time you fire it up. FILL the firepan with unlit really packing it in there, pour a half chimney or so lit on top. Let it burn with one vent open, the other one closed all the time. When the temp reaches 200+ fill the waterpan with hot tap water, put in the heat diverter, and close the vent to about an inch open. This gets me to 250 quick. You might need to play with the vent a little to get it dialed in right where you want it, but it will stay there once you get it dialed in.

To get the long burn you need to pack in the charcoal. I take the time to pack it in by hand to fill it up as much as possible. I have thought about making the pan a little taller to make this process easier, but a firepan mod is not needed to get a long burn. Try it again, learning your new cooker is half the fun!

[hd4me]

Jrb03,
I started with a 40lb. bag of lump and it felt like I used almost half of it. the big chunks take up a lot of space but also leave a lot of voids. I do have the heat diverter. I left it in and filled the water pan before I lit the lump. I will give that a shot. Thanks for the help guy's.

[KC_Bobby]

Mark,
You may have experienced the same/similar problem I've been dealing with in my Competitor. I often had issues getting it up to temp, then recently called Mike McGowen and he gave me some ideas. Try busting your lump into smaller pieces or mix in some briquettes with the lump - thus getting more coal in the pan and getting more coals hot.

I've fired mine up twice since talking to Mike and haven't had a problem since.

Go look at my party pics on my website and it has pictures of the coal basket I had in my party - easy and should help you too.

[jrb03]

Damn, half of a 40lb bag for an 11 hour cook in a chubby does sound like alot. Only advise I can really give is try again! Maybe try a different coal, and as Bobby says, if its lump make sure there arent really huge pieces and take time to pack it in. Still not sure what therm your using, but make sure its accurate. Post pics next time, soemtimes a pic is as good as a thousand words.

[tony76248]

I have seen some folks skip the water and use sand. That will have to be your experiment though. I am sure folks will chime in.