Pit Barrel Cooker Troubleshooting Help

What's your exact process? I put just less than one chimney of unlit into the basket, then fill another chimney just about full and light it. Wait 15-20 minutes until the ash creeps up to about the top of the chimney then dump them in. Then I hang meat, cover, and walk away. Mine sits around 275. I do just let it burn itself out though, so it's always fresh charcoal.

I had a meatloaf I put right on the grate put out a section of the fire once with too much juice falling. I also had one cook where my pit thermometer cozied right up to one of the chickens. I was fighting the temp, leaving the lid off trying to get it hot and ended up cooking stuff too fast. I knew I was in trouble when I moved the display unit and it yanked on the wire and I saw my temp go from 250 to 360 instantly.....

I'm in a neighboring city and our elevation is just about the same and this is what I do:

Set your intake at 1/2

Fill the basket tight with fresh briqs or lump or combo (No skimping or reusing old briqs)

Light it up and let it ash over or until there is no dirty smoke

Hang meat

Close lid


Has worked for me everytime.

I spoke to Noah about a week ago and he said to use the 40 briquettes in the chimney. After 10 min or so dump them over the remaining coals wait abput 5 min more then you are ready to cook

Hope this helps

Had the same problem

anthropas said:

Thanks everyone for their posts and responses to my original questions. For those of you who shared your experiences of using smaller amounts of lit coals or leaving your lids open to get more heat going up front and then closing the lid, I have tried that as well. The PBC can get amazingly hot with the lid off. If it maintained a 300 degree cook temp once I put my lid back on, I'd be happy as a clam and that was what I was expecting when I bought it as I've seen people put up their i-grill data temp screenshots on the web with those type of 275-300 consistent temps. My experience has been that once my lid goes back on, my temps will eventually drop down to 200-225 and occasionally go out if I don't babysit it. So I must be doing it wrong. I'll talk to Noah and try his recommendations and then post the results. Hopefully others can learn from my mistakes.

Thanks,

Anthropas

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So today was my first cook with the PBC and I had a similar problem as you. Have you found a solution?

I'm in Ohio at about 900ft and had my vent set to a 1/4. I light the charcoal with lighter fluid per the video in hopes of setting a baseline exactly per the instructions. After 15min I put on the lid and it was around 360F and a few minutes later I hung a rack of ribs and for the entire cook I was fighting dropping temps. I opened the vent more and more and that didn't stave of the falling temps. I did have to crack the lid a few times to get the temps up but as soon as I put the lid back on they alway fell and never held consistent getting as low as 210F. It acted like the setting of the vent didn't do anything. Anything you learned would be appreciated.

So how did the food turn out? I find that it is best not to worry about pit temps. Just follow the pbc videos and check the meat temp periodically throughout the cook. When it's done food will be fantastic. Good luck. And feel free to call Noah at anytime.

I don't try to monitor temps in my pbc. Fill up a weber mini chimney with kb and light. When ashes form on the top add to the basket which is a little more than 3/4 full. Distribute lite coals ... hang the ribs, chicken, tri-tip and close the lid.... and forget it. I check the tri-tip at about 90 min and test the ribs for doneness at 2hrs ... let the chicken set ... take everything off when I feel it's done. Never moinitored the temp as when I tried it was always low .. but things got cooked rather quickly. I am at sea level and crack the vent at 1/4 +/- . There is enough heat for longer cooks.

I use the lighter fluid method he shows on the website. Easy and I've NEVER had a lighter fluid taste or smell in the food. Just let it burn for the correct amount of time. 15 or 20 minutes depending on elevation.

Ok tesult but had too monitor/fiddle too much

Bob C Cue said:

So how did the food turn out? I find that it is best not to worry about pit temps. Just follow the pbc videos and check the meat temp periodically throughout the cook. When it's done food will be fantastic. Good luck. And feel free to call Noah at anytime.

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The results were ok but I'm not sure the chicken was done (pulled at 2 hers per direction) and thigh temp ok, however after rest breast meat seemed border line not fully cooked. Ribs pulled at 3:30 and contrary to most peoples results the tip closest to the coals was over done and then as you moved up the rib it transitioned to not quite done.

Maybe I should avoid monitoring temp, however based on this cook I'm concerned because the temp kept dropping to 200 range unless I cracked the lid and this is with the vent at over half open.

I think I'm going to do a empty run tomorrow (have too much Q already if that's possible) to try to see if letting it go a little longer at the start with the lid off and starting with the vent at 1/2 will stabilize the temps.

If you open the vent to half open at your elevation I believe it will run hot for awhile but then start to die out. I remember amazingribs.com talking about that in their review of the PBC. Again, I would call Noah at pit barrel to troubleshoot your issues. He really does like to hear from customers. Best of luck dialing in your temps. I really think you will love it once you get the hang of it.

bs617 said:

...
I think I'm going to do a empty run tomorrow (have too much Q already if that's possible) to try to see if letting it go a little longer at the start with the lid off and starting with the vent at 1/2 will stabilize the temps.

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So today I did a dry run. This time I used the 40 briquettes in a chimney per the instructions instead of the lighter fluid. At 15 min I added them to the basket capped it and then proceeded to monitor the temps and overall I think it did well. Here's the summary:

elapsed time (hr:min)/temp (center of grate)
0:00 - light charcoal chimney
0:17 - added coals to basket, added bars and put lid on
0:21 - 333 F
0:26 - 325 F
0:39 - 304 F
0:50 - 311 F
1:17 - 324 F
1:46 - 325 F
1:52 - 325 F Closed vent slightly (closer recommended setting)
2:34 - 313 F
3:32 - 306 F
3:42 - 302 F (then added a strip of rib flap meat left over from yesterday)
4:10 - 297 F (pulled meat)
4:19 - 295 F
7:37 - 253 F

Based on this the only thing that makes sense to me with my experience yesterday is that the drippings were significant enough throughout the cook that the coals couldn't keep up, if that make sense. Has anyone else experienced continually falling temps requiring cracking the lid multiple times when cooking with a medium to large meat load?

I've had my PBC for about a month and had a lot of trouble with the chimney method. I followed the instructions on the website for the lighter fluid method and haven't had a problem. I make sure that my food is on with the lid closed at 15 minutes (i'm at sea level). After 15 minutes the PBC is around 335-340 and eventually settles at around 275. This weekend I cooked chicken and one rack of ribs. The PBC started to dip around 255 and I cracked the lid until it hit 275, put the lid back on and was at the low 300's for the rest of the cook. I am going to try to attach pictures of my PBC burning off the fluid and the coals several minutes in. I have not smelled the lighter fluid on my food or PBC after it has initially burned off.

Thanks for pics. Does anyone else have a pic or two on what they would consider an ideal looking bed of coals prior to hanging meat?