I got my loaded Wichita in April and I have enjoyed learning it. It can be a but worrisome when it doesn't run like you pictured in your head but I have kept at it and fiddled some.
Mine has the new door which puts the baffle lower, though I do think it could be bigger.
The two issues I have had are getting white smoke and temperature differences side to side.
White smoke:
There have been a couple things that i have done to deal with the white smoke.
With the ash management and the tuning plates the draw is pretty good. I do find if I push ash too quickly I loose draw and I might see some white smoke. Otherwise it is preheat the next split then when tossed on it lights and I don't have to open the door or open the baffle.
I do want thicker plates as these flex when I try moving them.
Side to side temperature:
I have two chamber probes that are 1/3 the way in from each end and centered under the grates. When I first started this journey I would see as much as 120* difference which is ridiculous. To correct this I have:
If I had to do it again I would gone bigger (Kingman) cause it is bigger. I was worried we wouldn't be able to get it in the back yard. We ended going through the fence between us and the neighbor (though their backyard and over their patio). An additional 200ish pounds could have been really difficult.
If I didn't go bigger I would go with the counter weight and second shelf but not the plate.
At this point I am pretty thrilled and looking forward to the next cook, just need to get time and figure out what I want to do next.
Mine has the new door which puts the baffle lower, though I do think it could be bigger.
The two issues I have had are getting white smoke and temperature differences side to side.
White smoke:
There have been a couple things that i have done to deal with the white smoke.
- Leaving the door open. I don't like this as I don't think it should work that way.
- I bought a cheap short stand fan. I use this to create breeze into the firebox as I am not rotating into the wind.
- Managing my ash pile. I have found it better to push the ashes deeper into the firebox instead of removing them. There is still heat in it. Also I leave a bed of ash under the fire.
- Split size. I will split down from what I bought. I also cut them in half lengthwise to get a better fit. I keep chunks for spreading into the coal pile as it is getting too small to rebuild it. I may not need to do this much in the future.
- The heat management plate. I moved it back some, back some more and finally back as far as it would go. This is the thing I think Yoder were too clever with and I don't believe it works the way they wanted me to think it worked.
- Replaced the heat management plate with tuning plates. Mine are 6"x18"x16ga. I bought 6 of them, one is angled against the ash deflector, then 3 abutt and then about 1/4 inch gap and a 1/2 inch gap.
- Fire placement. I have been more centered (though biased to the back of the box. If I go to the back right corner I don't get as clean as more centered.
With the ash management and the tuning plates the draw is pretty good. I do find if I push ash too quickly I loose draw and I might see some white smoke. Otherwise it is preheat the next split then when tossed on it lights and I don't have to open the door or open the baffle.
I do want thicker plates as these flex when I try moving them.
Side to side temperature:
I have two chamber probes that are 1/3 the way in from each end and centered under the grates. When I first started this journey I would see as much as 120* difference which is ridiculous. To correct this I have:
- Played with exhaust baffle. Closing it down gets the two probes closer but not even 50* is too much.
- Tipped the heat managemnt plate up. This didn't really help but it was a thought.
- Moved the heat management plate back, and back and back. This for the difference down to 25* which is tolerable, but it also seemed to force the tempurtures down. It was harder to get up to where I wanted to be this way.
- Tuning plates. This sorted the issue, at least thus far. I have had spans of time with 2* or less differences, with differences getting as high at 20*. At times the left (far) end was over the right end. I think this is great. If I open gaps closer to the box it increases the difference which is useful. I need to have more time working this to get a feel for where it should be for the difference I want.
If I had to do it again I would gone bigger (Kingman) cause it is bigger. I was worried we wouldn't be able to get it in the back yard. We ended going through the fence between us and the neighbor (though their backyard and over their patio). An additional 200ish pounds could have been really difficult.
If I didn't go bigger I would go with the counter weight and second shelf but not the plate.
At this point I am pretty thrilled and looking forward to the next cook, just need to get time and figure out what I want to do next.