UDS temperature issues?

[BeerdedTexan]

Howdy all, new to the forum and have a question about temperature management on the drum smoker. I've been using a weber with slow n sear to make bbq for a couple years and I've just recently had a drum built. I did a burn in and smoked ribs last weekend for the first time and had great results. Smoked about 8 hours and had half a basket of coals left. This weekend I did a brisket and ran into some problems, at about 8 hours my temps started dropping with plenty of charcoal left, I opened all the vents to try and recover it and it just kept dropping. I included a picture of the smoker and basket as it sits this afternoon, any ideas? The wind picked up in the late afternoon but it was just breezy, nothing too crazy.

 

[sjb67]

Sometimes you have to shake the ash from your fire basket it plugs the holes and does not let air flow and your fire smothers

 

[BeerdedTexan]

Do I need to do this mid cook or should I just clean the ash before each smoke?

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

Do I need to do this mid cook or should I just clean the ash before each smoke?

Clean all ash before every cook. I sometimes just kick mine a few times a cook to knock the ash off the coals. That charcoal basket might be over complicating things and restricting air flow

 

[jham0077]

I always clean ash each cook for sure. Then I lightly shake or bump mine with my foot when I walk by and think about it.
And that is not much "U" for a UDS.

 

[rovster]

This happened to me only once and I was using lump. The lump I was using had really large pieces and only thing I can figure is there was too much space between pieces and the fire never jumped to the next coal. Never had an issue using briquettes or smaller more regularly sized lump. Just throwing that out there.

FWIW I always clean out the ash and shake out the basket before each cook.

 

[Nuco59]

My drum is not a pretty as yours... I kick the snot out of mine about 4 -5 hours into a cook. You need to settle the ashes to keep the basket from smothering itself. I run cheap a$$ Kingsford - not sure if lump does better...always heard it ran hotter but did not last as long?

nice drum btw.

 

[JS-TX]

I think rovster nailed it^

 

[Waterboy]

I can do 8 or 9 hours without ash being a problem but then have to kick or shake the drum. I use a homemade charcoal basket that breathes well and lets the ash fall through easily.

 

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

I love B&B Lump charcoal, but that Oak charcoal they carry burns VERY low and slow in my experience. Even in my cabinet smoker I've had issues getting temps over 225° when using this particular charcoal. I love B&B Hickory Lump as it's much easier to obtain higher temps and is more responsive to airflow changes.

I would try changing out the charcoal before you go making any costly modifications. You can even go with a good briquette like Royal Oak just to see if this particular charcoal is the culprit.

 

[SmokerKing]

just open the firebox door and.....oh wait

 

[Lahawk1]

I had that same issue a few times when using lump charcoal in a UDS as well. I now use only briquette charcoal in most of my cookers. I had bought about 10 bags of B&B lump on clearance at Walmart and continue to use it in the Karubecue and the Kamado Joe as it does well in those.

 

[ModelMaker]

I would guess you lost your ember base to keep the large pieces of lump going.
Ed

 

[SmittyJonz]

I don't like lump - needs Alot of Air flow to burn and then runs Hot. I had much better results with briquettes.

Alot of Ash in that Basket around charcoal- will choke airflow and kill fire. go to expanded metal style already posted - or work the bottom of that basket for better ash drop. shake or tap drum after several hours to drop ash.

 

[BeerdedTexan]

I love B&B Lump charcoal, but that Oak charcoal they carry burns VERY low and slow in my experience. Even in my cabinet smoker I've had issues getting temps over 225° when using this particular charcoal. I love B&B Hickory Lump as it's much easier to obtain higher temps and is more responsive to airflow changes.

I would try changing out the charcoal before you go making any costly modifications. You can even go with a good briquette like Royal Oak just to see if this particular charcoal is the culprit.

I mixed in some jealous devil that had very large peices of charcoal in it, I just needed to use it up. I'm wondering if that caused some issues. I used only BnB Oak last weekend and had no problems. I'll clean the ash well and try again this weekend. Live and learn. Might give briquettes a try too.