Charcoal basket for UDS

[lewisc]

I made this charcoal basket to keep the fire contained in my offset. I'm almost ready to use the UDS I've just made and wondering about the basket size.

Rather than making another, I'm thinking I'll just use this. It's 150mm x 300 x 450mm (6" x 12" x 18"). Also planning to make a stand so it sits off the bottom.

All the baskets I see online are quite tall. Is this the better way to run them?

 

[ebijack]

I'd suggest 3" tall legs/bolts. So ash will not be able to choke out your coals.
I'm guessing you should get at least 15+ hrs @ 275*
If you are direct grilling/smoking, a round coal basket would give more even heat.
But if you use a drip pan. That is the best design. As the heat will always be from under the drip pan. No direct heat. If that makes sense.

 

[jemezspring]

I think that will work perfectly. Air flow looks good and nicely made. May not be the best for super long cook's but 10- 12 hour shold be no problem. My basket is 17 inch diameter and 8 inches tall. Filling it up to roughly 6in can get me 12+ hours @240-270. Weather conditions contingent.

 

[thirdeye]

I don't see a problem with using that basket, but I would watch the first few cooks in case it's necessary to spin the grate to balance the cooking.

My old baskets were 14" X 6" and a couple of years ago I built new ones that are 14" X 10" and I'm very happy with them. I can get about 16 hours of burn time at 300° and well over 20 hours with a 250° pit temp. If you do ever decide to go with a round basket, rolling the expando the "short way" is way easier.

 

[guero_gordo]

Should work fine, I'd put it on bolts so the bottom of the basket sits an inch or so above the vents.

 

[lewisc]

Thanks for the advice. Just wanted to get some ideas that I'm on the right track. I've done two practice burns over the last 2 days. The first wasn't great. Too spread out I think.

I added a spacer in my basket that gave me smaller area but I piled up the heatbeads in the second run. I dumped about 15 lit beads on it and adjusted from there. I feel like the second run went much better. The digital thermometer read about 25degrees different to my analog thermometer.

The analog was around 275F for the first 3-4 hours and then dropped to 250F I went to bed around 12am, woke up at 7am and the analog was at 200F. A small adjustment of the the air intake and it shot back to 275F.

Any other tips or ideas would be great. I'll get the rest of the inside grates made up this week and finish the top but won't get to cook till next weekend.