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Still need some input on low temp problem

We're gonna need pics of this pit. A lot of things just aren't adding up here. I've burned big sticker burners and small charcoals smokers without much issue of keeping temps up. I was burning my sticker burner this weekend which is probably about the same size as yours and only had to add a piece of wood every 30-40 mins and it was holding at 300-350 no problem. My tank is 1/4" thick so if yours is thinner then it should be hotter since your not using all the heat from the fire to heat metal.
 
Ninja - I'm using 6 thermometers. The one on the top that came with it (screws into the lid), 2 on both ends at grate level, the probe for the pit on the Qmaster (as well as the food probe) and a separate Maverick probe that I've always used.

Shagdog - If I close it up and leave it, it takes an eternity to get the thing back up to temp (tried the smokestack in various positions). I'm using a Qmaster with a motor blowing at 100% power and it blows a considerable draft into the firebox. The fire gets nice and hot. Burned the paint off the thing already (lol). Heat in the firebox isn't the issue. It gets GOING going.

Zak - Yeah, something isn't adding up. I'll post some photos on my next attempt tonight. Going to stick with some simple chicken breasts, this time without that dryer vent (that's got to be the problem).
 
If you watch a pile of glowing hot charcoal, it does just that, glows hot right near the pile. If you watch a fire from a pile of wood splits, the flames are a foot high or more, and reaching for the sky. Same thing in your firebox, the draft of the flames will carry the BTUs into your cook chamber.

Just humor us and try a fire as suggested (sans the other mods), burning nothing but wood splits once you get your base built. It'll work, I promise. Stickburners don't run well on charcoal.
 
SmittyJonz said:
NOT. Notorious Q - you are way too Hung up on metal gauge/thickness. I've seen it in several posts. Sure Heavier is Better but I've Smoked in a File Cabinet and put out Q I'd put up against anybody with any smoker. I've seen guys build Smokers out of 3/8" Oilfield pipe then Bitch it takes 2- 2.5 hrs for their smoker to reach temp - one's a Buddy of Mine. My Heaviest guage Smoker is 3/16" - The Smokehouse Old Country Gave Me. Most of the Old Country's are 14 guage and run just fine and will last a good while if cared for. The Ok Joes are 16 or 14 guage.
The really thin ones -like a Charbroil -are 18/20 guage and there's still guys running those just Fine.
It's airflow issues - most likely because of the dryer vent and possibly any baffle or deflector plate if added. It'll run on Charcoal but it'll EAT Up some charcoal.
Click to expand...

I hear ya Smitty. Metal thickness is my thing. To be clear, you have to have BOTH airflow AND metal thickness. The super thin charbroils can hold temps if you hover over them and watch them like hawks, making adjustments every 3-5 min. It's like saying my '83 Buick with ski rack can do everything your '15 Cadillac does, it gets me from point A to point B!! Cool, that's a true statement but, man, is that a bumpy experience :(
 
The thing is that your infrared heat from the charcoal wants to go up not sideways, you need the flames and the wood gases to carry the heat with them into the cook chamber. I know that you think heat is heat, but it's more complicated than that. Just throw a log on there and watch the magic happen.
 
Have you added a baffle or deflector or convection plate of some sorts. ? That could disrupt draft also......
Ditch the dryer vent and try again on charcoal then next cook try a chimney of lit charcoal and a split and then feed a split every 45 minutes.
 
Well I was mixing it up. It's not like there was no wood in there. It wasn't logs, I don't have access to whole logs. I did have the Western brand wood blocks though.

We'll see where we're at once that dry vent comes out. That's gotta be the issue. Not enough "draw".
 
Notorious Q.U.E. said:
Ok I'll be the jerk here and I've held off for a while. I've followed OKJ for a long time. I almost bought a Horizon because those are supposedly the true OKJ successors. OKJ has had essentially 3 incarnations:

1) Original built like a tank Roger Davidson specials that are coveted on the aftermarket
2) half way decent lowes / Home Depot COS when they were initially sold to charbroil, they had given Davidson assurances during the transition that quality would be maintained
3) last 2 years, every time I've lifted the door to an OKJ cook chamber, I've been floored by how flimsy they've become. It feels like the thickness of a soda can I kid you not.

So here it goes: are you within the 30 day money back guarantee window? It may be worth seeing if you can return it. I'll be the jerk and say that the Achilles heel is the thinness of OKJ metal. You're getting a raging inferno but it's spilling out into the atmosphere and not transferring into cook chamber. Once in the cook chamber , it is being sinked once again into the environment. Punchline: today's OKJ cookers can't hold a temp :(
Click to expand...

Well not to pick a fight but im gonna disagree with this. Ok joe is currently recognized as the lowest end of usable cos pits (smitty could vouch). They are a step below similar old country pits, maybe comparable to brinkmann trail master (if they still make them) that said they are still considered a functional pit. Unusable is more like dyna glo, which by the way, can still be ran at cooking temps.

Again i own a longhorn and still kick the tires on the ones at big box stores (i know im not the only brethren) when i walk by the grill section.

The ok joe highland can DEFINITELY get up to temp and hold it when being fed splits every 30-45 min
 
Mookieman said:
Well I was mixing it up. It's not like there was no wood in there. It wasn't logs, I don't have access to whole logs. I did have the Western brand wood blocks though.

We'll see where we're at once that dry vent comes out. That's gotta be the issue. Not enough "draw".
Click to expand...

Mookieman please look at these pics. Burn wood. Build coal bed, as splits as needed. Supplement with charcoal or lump as needed/wanted to maintain coal base. Use
Coal bed to light splits.

Building the base



Adding splits. Be sure to leave firebox door open until it ignites






 
smoke ninja said:
Well not to pick a fight but im gonna disagree with this. Ok joe is currently recognized as the lowest end of usable cos pits (smitty could vouch). They are a step below similar old country pits, maybe comparable to brinkmann trail master (if they still make them) that said they are still considered a functional pit. Unusable is more like dyna glo, which by the way, can still be ran at cooking temps.

Again i own a longhorn and still kick the tires on the ones at big box stores (i know im not the only brethren) when i walk by the grill section.

The ok joe highland can DEFINITELY get up to temp and hold it when being fed splits every 30-45 min
Click to expand...

I'll be curious if your rig is 2015/earlier or 2016/later. That's the difference right there. We are essentially talking two different pits under the same name of OKJ. It's what I call the gap between 2nd and 3rd generation OKJ.

I promise I'm not trying to disrespect but if we are trying to give straight and skinny opinions, those are my views. I'd be blown away if you've got a 2016 later OKJ and you cook the Que that you do. If you do, then hats off to you. OKJ has done to the bbq public what ivory soap did when they shrank their soap bar sizes and boasted no price increases!
 
I had a chargriller with soda can steel and I cooked some seriously killer Q on it. Its more difficult but it ain't impossible. Thin steel doesn't mean anything about getting to a temp, it just affects your ability to hold it there. They turn into much more of a roller coaster, but you can still make great food on em. Running splits with plates it still ran pretty steady. I'd get a solid 30-40 minutes between splits.
 
Mookieman said:
People keep telling me to burn wood, but getting the firebox hot isn't my problem. I can't get the heat to transfer. I can't see what difference it would make to burn a different material if you can't get it to transfer to the pit.
Click to expand...

People keep telling you to burn wood because they know what they are talking about and you are not listening. Charcoal is going to put out a ton of btu's in the form of IR heat that will heat the walls of the firebox. An open flame on wood splits is going to put out more of its btu's in usable convection heat. You need the covective airflow/chimney effect to suck air into the fire box, heat it, and draw it through the cook chamber.

Too much airflow and you let a lot of heat go out the chimney and you need to burn a ton of fuel to maintain temps. Too little airflow and you either get a smoldering fire or a hot firebox and cold main chamber.

You need to find wood splits, not chips or chunks. Only use charcoal to get the wood fire started. Until you accept this, you are wasting your time adding or removing mods or whatever else you plan to try.
 
Mookieman said:
Shagdog - If I close it up and leave it, it takes an eternity to get the thing back up to temp (tried the smokestack in various positions). I'm using a Qmaster with a motor blowing at 100% power and it blows a considerable draft into the firebox. The fire gets nice and hot. Burned the paint off the thing already (lol). Heat in the firebox isn't the issue. It gets GOING going.
Click to expand...

This and the exhaust mod are keeping you from getting proper air flow. Do away with both and use splits. That should cure the problem. You aren't getting enough air flow using that fan on your type of pit.
 
Do as others have said ,and check your exhaust flue.Make sure it is not blocked in any way and keep it all the way open.
 
Notorious Q.U.E. said:
I'll be curious if your rig is 2015/earlier or 2016/later. That's the difference right there. We are essentially talking two different pits under the same name of OKJ. It's what I call the gap between 2nd and 3rd generation OKJ.

I promise I'm not trying to disrespect but if we are trying to give straight and skinny opinions, those are my views. I'd be blown away if you've got a 2016 later OKJ and you cook the Que that you do. If you do, then hats off to you. OKJ has done to the bbq public what ivory soap did when they shrank their soap bar sizes and boasted no price increases!
Click to expand...

:laser:
 
I have had a 2014 OKJ Highland and just picked up a new one today. Both were exactly the same in terms of weight and metal thickness. I can do a run tomorrow and post pics and temps. I have had no problem running the highland in 300 degrees plus.
 
I agree with most others as well. Burn coal to get your bed and go to splits.
Stick burning is the "manual transmission" of the bbq world. If you can do it effectively you can run about anything. Similar to a manual transmission car it is becoming more of a lost art.
 
Notorious Q.U.E. said:
I'll be curious if your rig is 2015/earlier or 2016/later. That's the difference right there. We are essentially talking two different pits under the same name of OKJ. It's what I call the gap between 2nd and 3rd generation OKJ.
Click to expand...

The Ok Joes have been the same for the last 5-6-7-8 years. They dropped the slide out ash pan -that always rusted out - a few years ago but they the same guage ever since Walmart n Lowes started carrying them. This Longhorn I borrowed in Oklahoma 2 years ago was about 5 or 6 years old at the time and it's no Heavier guage than the one I saw at Lowes a few Days ago.





End to End temp difference.....(or end to middle - probes were moved as I shifted/wrapped Briskets n added Ribs)



 
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SmittyJonz said:
The Ok Joes have been the same for the last 5-6-7-8 years. They dropped the slide out ash pan -that always rusted out - a few years ago but they the same guage ever since Walmart n Lowes started carrying them. This Longhorn I borrowed in Oklahoma 2 years ago was about 5 or 6 years old at the time and it's no Heavier guage than the one I saw at Lowes a few Days ago.





End to End temp difference.....(or end to middle - probes were moved as I shifted/wrapped Briskets n added Ribs)



Click to expand...

We are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I promise you the OKJ in your photos is not the same rig you can now buy at big box retailers today. I've owned 4 decent pits and 4 that I tossed aside over 20 years doing bbq. I knew this was going to be a contentious item but OKJ is not the same brand it used to be. I've clearly stirred something but I don't want to be afraid to tell people what I know.

A buddy of mine told me I should go into buying and selling pits. I have a knack for finding diamonds in the rough. I've managed to find pits and sell them at a profit even after cooking on them and not doing the best cleaning job. The one in your photos I could move. The one I laid hands on over Memorial Day Weekend at Lowes , no.
 
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