Bps charcoal nest burn time?

Greg84

New member
Hey there,

A few weeks ago I built my first smoker with the big poppa smokers kit. Since then I've used it twice to cook ribs and a few times with no meat just to get used to controlling it.

Last weekend I used it with no meat to test how long I could get it to go for using royal oak briquettes. After about 6 and a half hours the temp started to drop. Today I made ribs on it and this time I used royal oak lump. The basket was near full when I started and I was able to maintain 225 for about 4 hours. The last hour of the 5 hour cook it was down to just below 200.

Now from what I've read I should be able to maintain 225 for 15+ hours with this kit, so I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong? I realize there could be a lot of things affecting this, so I'll go through what I know.

I started it with a wax cube in the center of the full basket while it was out of the smoker. Then let the cube finish burning. Once the cube was out I put the basket down in the bottom of the drum then I put my make shift heat deflector in, which is just an aluminum pizza pan. Then I placed a stainless steel bowl full of hot water on the deflector and closed the lid with the exhaust fully opened. After the temp got up to 200 I closed the vents at the bottom to a half hole on either side. That stabilized over the next half hour or so at 225 and then i added the meat. After 2 hours I opened it so I could wrap the ribs. 2 hours later the heat had dropped down to just below 200 and there was still about a quarter of the charcoal left but I guess it wasnt burning very hot. I ended up finishing the cook because these were just ribs, but if I was going to do a brisket or ham I'd have to fill this thing up like 3 or 4 times.

So I'm wondering, are there any red flags here of something I'm doing wrong, or is it something else i havent mentioned?

Thanks
 

Greg84

New member
Hey there,

A few weeks ago I built my first smoker with the big poppa smokers kit. Since then I've used it twice to cook ribs and a few times with no meat just to get used to controlling it.

Last weekend I used it with no meat to test how long I could get it to go for using royal oak briquettes. After about 6 and a half hours the temp started to drop. Today I made ribs on it and this time I used royal oak lump. The basket was near full when I started and I was able to maintain 225 for about 4 hours. The last hour of the 5 hour cook it was down to just below 200.

Now from what I've read I should be able to maintain 225 for 15+ hours with this kit, so I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong? I realize there could be a lot of things affecting this, so I'll go through what I know.

I started it with a wax cube in the center of the full basket while it was out of the smoker. Then let the cube finish burning. Once the cube was out I put the basket down in the bottom of the drum then I put my make shift heat deflector in, which is just an aluminum pizza pan. Then I placed a stainless steel bowl full of hot water on the deflector and closed the lid with the exhaust fully opened. After the temp got up to 200 I closed the vents at the bottom to a half hole on either side. That stabilized over the next half hour or so at 225 and then i added the meat. After 2 hours I opened it so I could wrap the ribs. 2 hours later the heat had dropped down to just below 200 and there was still about a quarter of the charcoal left but I guess it wasnt burning very hot. I ended up finishing the cook because these were just ribs, but if I was going to do a brisket or ham I'd have to fill this thing up like 3 or 4 times.

So I'm wondering, are there any red flags here of something I'm doing wrong, or is it something else i havent mentioned?

Thanks

I was just thinking about the charcoal I used, the royal oak lump. It's the first time i used lump, and i noticed that the bag had mostly small pieces in it. I've read that small pieces burn faster. That could help explain why the charcoal burned out so fast yesterday, but it doesnt really help to explain why the briquettes from last week burned out quickly as well.
 
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