Newbie - trouble hitting 225F

myc5

I'm a newbie with the kamado. I'm using a new Auplex kamado the size of a LBGE. Used weber kettle for 10 years, never smoked on it though.

I'm struggling hitting the 225F and 325F temps. I've tried lighting it 2 different ways.

First: Load up the coals and put 3 weber starter cubes buried and light them. Keep the lid open until the cubes are flammed up. Close the lid and have both top and bottom vents wide open. The problem with this technique is the fire starter cubes generate flames which raises temp on the thermometer quite quickly but drops once the cubes are consumed, and by then I find it's shot past 325 closer to 400F. Good for grilling, not for smoking.

Second: Put lump coals in the kamado. Put two handful of lump in a chimney starter and light it on my Weber performer with the gas assist. When coals are all grey, dump them into the kamado close the lid. This too ends up shooting up to above 350F.

So what's the best lighting technique to hit 225F or 325F?

DaveRichardson

starting too hot!!!!  3 cubes is too much.  1 cube will do; make a small pit in the lump, place and light the cube, and place some larger lump pieces over top the cube.  Let it burn open for 10-15 minutes, then close the lid and let it get to good smelling smoke; approx. 45 minutes.  Bottom vent about 1/8 or less open and the top petals barely open....  Works for me every time!

TylerA

I agree, only start the fire in one spot, and try not to overshoot the temp.  Its hard to come back down once you get to hot.  I like around a half inch on the bottom and about half open on the daisy wheel vents.  

Ladeback69

You want to catch the temp on the way up.  If you want 225, you need to be closing the vents down by 175 to 200.  It may take a little time from 175, but if you over shut it it takes a while to come down.  I also agree with what Dave said above.

BRush00

myc5 said:

Second: Put lump coals in the kamado. Put two handful of lump in a chimney starter and light it on my Weber performer with the gas assist. When coals are all grey, dump them into the kamado close the lid.

I think the issue's been covered above - you're lighting too large a fire.  However I saw the above, and was a wee bit concerned as well...  When I hear about coals being all grey, I can only assume you're using briquettes, as back in the day, you'd wait until they were all covered in white/burnt/burning before cooking on them.  My lump charcoal never turns "grey", it goes from black to flaming, to dust....

Can't speak to your kamado, however BGE tells us that charcoal briquettes are not good for the egg, as the binders will leach into the ceramic.


FWIW; if you're using briquettes, i'd change over to natural lump charcoal.

SoCalTim

225 is a tough temp to hold on the egg (consistently) without using a temp control device. 250 is very obtainable .. 275 even easier.

lousubcap

+1 with too much lump initially lit.  For low&slow use one (or a half) cube with bottom vent fully open and dome open.  Once around a softball sized amount of lump is burning shut the bottom vent to about 1/2" open and close the dome.  Add DFMT equivalent and dial in the vent settings as you approach your desired temp.  There are about as many ways to light a BGE as there are posters.  Find one that works for you and refine as you go.  FWIW-

DoubleEgger

SoCalTim said:

225 is a tough temp to hold on the egg (consistently) without using a temp control device. 250 is very obtainable .. 275 even easier.

My XL will hold 225 all day all night. Medium has a hard time below 238-240 even when using a stoker 

SoCalTim

DoubleEgger said:

SoCalTim said:

225 is a tough temp to hold on the egg (consistently) without using a temp control device. 250 is very obtainable .. 275 even easier.

My XL will hold 225 all day all night. Medium has a hard time below 238-240 even when using a stoker 

My example was for my large. Gonna take your good word for it on the XL. Still feeling my way around my new mini ...

myc5

Thanks for the tips. I guess I'm starting with too much fire/heat. 

I am using lump, not briquettes.

I'll start a smaller fire with a single starter cube. This needs more patience it seems. 45 minutes to get started ... eesh.

My next thought is on the flavour wood chunks, say hickory. I have chunks not chips and don't soak then. I will put one hickory chunk near the initial fire and a few more chunks elsewhere. The hickory chunk closest to the initial heat will light up first and eventually start producing the blue smoke, but then what about the other chunks? As they spark up later in the cook, won't they start with white smoke then blue? I read white smoke is undesirable.

myc5

I'm doing another practice run now. I bought the Kick Ash basket. My Auplex is the size of a LBGE. I filled the basket with lump. In the center I put one weber marsh mellow starter then piled above it some large lump pieces. It lit fine.

Had the lid open for about 10 minutes while the marsh melow lit and died. I closed the lid, had both top and bottom vents open until 200F. Then I closed the petals the top leaving the petals open so slightly. Bottom vent open about 1/4".

It stabilized at 250F but the pecan chunk had not lit. So no pecan smoke from the beginning. It stayed at 250F for maybe 2 hours but when one pecan piece lit, it shot up to 300F. How do you get your wood flavour smoke from the beginning? Seems you need to get one of them chunks lit at the beginning from the initial startup pile.

This is getting difficult to manage a smoking temp of 225-275. I see a temp controller or a pellet grill in my future. The guys in the store make it sound real easy, just set the dampers and your done, it will stay a long time at that temp.

I don't think I have any leaks as I don't see smoke coming out any where else. I'll do the dollar bill test later.

I'm glad I didn't spend the big bucks on a BGE as managing smoking temp is far from easy.

Biggreenpharmacist

My egg likes to lock in between 250 and 275. As far as your wood chunks, you dont have to see the smoke. You want them to smolder, not burn. 

DMshow

@myc5  It's not hard, you just need to be patient.  IMO you need to start off grilling just like you would on any other grill to get a feel for a kamado.  I've had my LBGE for about two months now and today is the first time I have attempted a Low and Slow.  So far I've nailed it.  Been at 220-250 since 8 this morning.

myc5

Alright, I'll start grilling on it to get the hang of it.

Theophan

myc5 said:

... This is getting difficult to manage a smoking temp of 225-275. I see a temp controller or a pellet grill in my future. The guys in the store make it sound real easy, just set the dampers and your done, it will stay a long time at that temp.

I've had 2 BGEs (Medium & Large) for a few years, now, so maybe I had more trouble than I remember when I first began, I don't know, but I agree with the guys in the store.  It can take a few tries, I guess, to get a feel for where the upper and lower vents need to be for a certain temp, but usually once it's stable at, say, 225-250, it stays there for hours.  It's one of the things I love about the BGE.  (Now, I'm assuming your kamado works the same -- I'd guess it would, but I don't have any experience with one.)

There's a bit of a learning curve with practically anything in life.  Don't get frantic, or make rash decisions about buying other expensive stuff.  You've made an investment in your kamado, so get to know it for a while.  Keep trying things, learn from your experiences, and honestly, I think in a pretty short time you'll be very happy.

I've found it really handy to keep sort of a log of my cooks, how I did them, what seemed to work well, what didn't work so well, what I might want to try another time, and it really helps me.  If it's been a while since I've tried a certain kind of cook, I can look at my notes from the last time I did that.  Might be something to consider.

Theo