Mini max help

Back Yard Dan · January 2016

I'm a long time large BGE user. I just got a mini max for Christmas and tried to smoke a pork butt yesterday.

The fire was struggling after 6 hours, temp on meat thermometer dropped, so I finished indoors. When the egg cooled, I looked at the left over lump and could see that there was a significant amount of lump, away from where the burn appeared to have moved, and that most likely was not going to catch as gravity wasn't going to feed it into the center like the large does to some extent.

I started the fire with one Tumbleweed starter (Lowes) dead center. Once the starter was consumed, there was no significant drop in dome temp like I see on the large. The lump was hot and it was really going. I had to choke it down to get it to 250. The starter also seemed to catch quite a bit of lump by then to the point I was afraid I'd burn it all up.

Questions:

Any advice on lighting the mini max so that the fire will consume all the lump if need be to keep the cook going?

How long can you expect the mini max to keep a 250 temp on a single load?

What process do you follow to get the mmax up to your desired cook temperature.

Thanks,

Dan

EGGjlmh · January 2016

what brand lump are you using?

feef706 · January 2016

I managed 8 hours on my first low and slow, I had the opposite problem, temp held steady for the first 6 hours or so (with minor adjustments) but then started climbing towards the end to the point that I shut it down to let it finish, pulled the 7 lber at 196, a little short of my goal because the masses were starving, but it was plenty tender.

How much lump did you use? I loaded mine with royal oak to the brim, to the point that my improvised plate setter was actually resting on the lump a little because I was afraid of running out. When it was all said and done I had quite a bit of lump left, below is the post. You have to scroll to the end to see what was left

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/1892475/#Comment_1892475

Mickey · January 2016

This is how I light my MM

It lights all and stays lighted.

Back Yard Dan · January 2016

Went to 3 different HD stores but couldn't find any Royal Oak, so I picked up some Cowboy lump at Lowes. I don't think the brand of lump is the issue, it's the burn pattern based on how you light it as the burn moved from center to the back and left unburnt the lump in the front. With my large, the sage advice was that the number of starters used was dependent on how hot you wanted it to get. With low and slow, one or two starters towards the center always seemed to work as the lump pile was deep in the center and gravity would feed lump towards the center and the fire seemed to spread outwards a bit. On the MM the lump pile is not deep and its evenly spread. One starter had me at 300+ once it was consumed. I'm afraid that starting the fire in more places to get a more even burn might exacerbate the temp problem.

I plan on starting in more place with pieces of a starter...if that doesn't work, putting a little lump in a chimney a spreading across the top.

Thanks for the comments.

Dan

Mini max help

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