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Coals went out. Help!

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Unknown
Unknown
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I started a long burn on Saturday. I arranged the lump in layers up to the fire ring with some hickory chunks thrown in. I started the fire with an electric starter buried just below the surface. I stabilized the temp between 225-230 and threw the boston butt on the grate. I made a minor adjustment to the vents after waiting an hour or so. After another hour I finally went to bed. I woke up a few hours later and coals were almost totally out. The pork was still warm so I pulled the grate, drip pan and plate setter out. Then I looked down at the pile of lump to find an almost perfect 3 inch cylinder burned down through the pile of lump. I stirred/rearranged the lump, restarted it and stabilized with no problems after that.[p]What happened?
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Comments

  • Clay Q
    Clay Q Posts: 4,486
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    Flomster,
    Some variables with a fire; Position of lump in firebox, size of lump, air flow amount, quality of lump. [p]A fire at 250 dome is more reliable to maintain, easier for overnighters.
    Clay
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  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,757
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    Flomster,
    i get that sometimes, a center burn. it never happened to me until i started burning wicked good lump. i now start my fires toward the front right, and in the middle of the night i get up and push the lump from the sides toward the center with the wiggle rod.
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
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  • av8or3
    av8or3 Posts: 18
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    fishlessman,
    I had the same thing happen this weekend.I was
    using wicked good lump as well. Never happened with the
    BGE lump I used. Took everything appart and restarted,
    worked fine after that.
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  • GrillMeister
    GrillMeister Posts: 1,608
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    Flomster,[p]One thing I do when I load the egg for a long cook is to make sure the lump is situated where there is no large holes, as in there needs to be lump touching lump (ok Stump, chime in here). [p]

    Cheers,

    GrillMeister
    Austin, Texas
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  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
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    GrillMeister,
    i used to be extra careful in the first few cooks to add in all those smaller pieces so that there is plenty of bridging.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
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  • GrillMeister
    GrillMeister Posts: 1,608
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    stike,[p]Yep, that was a trick I learned from Dr. BBQ over a glass of Jack at the 2003 Eggtoberfest. Works pretty good.[p]I have a Pit Minder E-Temp that does the job for me on any cooks lasting longer than 2 hours.

    Cheers,

    GrillMeister
    Austin, Texas
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  • BrianP
    BrianP Posts: 147
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    Flomster,
    What I do is distribute the lighted coals around the top of the lump so more lump is exposed to the fire. About 15 minutes after I light my fire (eletcric starter or one of those starter cubes), I'll take the ash tool and spread the hot coals around the top of the pile - I'll also try to cover them a little bit. This makes a wider fire and the column burn-down thingee doesn't happen. I also use Wicked lump and have noticed the same thing if I don't stir the lump after lighting.[p]Brian
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