Temp Control in a BWS Extended Party

[Ackman]

I just got my Extended Party. Today I went to season it. No water in the pan. I loaded it with Kingsford Competition briquettes. I started it up using the Minion method. It took about 30 minutes with all vents open and it ran up to 275 at which point I chocked back the side vents to about 1/4 open but the temps just kept running up towards 400F, I closed all the side vents and covered the top vent about 3/4 of the way, but the temp just never dropped below 400. I was planning to cook tomorrow but now I am concerned about controlling temps. I did do a search and came up with some 235 posts, I went through a lot of them but was sort of looking for Temp 101. Is there such a thing?

Thanks in advance.

Steve

 

[T-Man]

Like my spicewine , it is designed to be used with water to keep the temps down .
That being said , people are running it with out water and having good results . I am sure they will post on their method...

 

[Ron_L]

How much lit charcoal did you put in at startup? I've been just lighting mine with a starter cube in one corner of the firebox and can hold 240 just fine. I have on side vent closed and one open and 1/8 inch.

 

[mjl]

Steve,
You will enjoy your Party, I have had a few, and they are great little cookers.
In the future, start restricting the air sooner, instead of when you get to your target temp. Try and get the cooker stable at say..200 degrees, and ramp up to your desired temp. Especially if you are cooking with a dry water pan. When I wasn't using my Guru( I would recommend a Guru, or something similar), I would bring it to 200ish, close one side vent completely, and use the remaining vent to get where I want to be. I would also try to position the cooker in such a way that the remaining open vent, would be out of direction of any wind you mind have.

If you don't want to use water, another option be to put sand in your water pan. The additional mass can help to manage temp spikes etc.

Enjoy your cooker.

ML

 

[Ackman]

I lit about 15 briquettes in a chimney and spread them over the full rack

 

[Ron_L]

That could be it. Too much lit at the start and spreading over the pile allowed even more to burn. If you want to use the chimney to start some charcoal leave one corner of the fire box open and add just a few lit briquettes. That way the fire will spread slower.

 

[Sauced!]

As MJL said, start to choke down the intakes earlier than your target temp so that is eases up to the target. Once it goes past the target its a bugger trying to get it back down. The only way I successfully do bring it down when it overshoots is to shut down everything including the exhaust for a bit until it comes back to where I want it.