Dome temp doesn't go above 300

Fajing

I filled it up to the fire ring with lump. Lower vent and upper vent are wide open.

What am I doing wrong? :(

Celtic Wolf

Make sure the opening in the bottom of the Firebox is lin4ed up with the vent and the fire grate holes are not plugged up. Light the lump in more than one place.

Make sure your dome thermometer is calibrated.

Panhandle Smoker

Make sure your fire grate is not clogged with lump and ash. If you don't have a wiggle rod you can make one out of a coat hanger just bend a 90 degree bend in the end of a long shaft. Stick it through the bottom vent and make sure all the holes in the fire grate are clear.

Morro Bay Rich

Heat = fuel + oxygen

Your oxygen is low.

Celtic Wolf

Gawd I hope not else the whole world will burn...

heat = fire + fuel + oxygen

Morro Bay Rich

Picky, picky, picky.

Fajing

I lit the lump in only 1 place. Next time I'll do more.

Thanks.

I didn't have this problem in the summer.

Fajing

I cleaned everything out well before the cook.

Fajing

I thought the problem breathing was just my asthema.

tach18k

Damp lump

Grandpas Grub

Let's see, fire/flame typically occurs when combustible airborne chemicals oxidize in such a way that heat is released and the electron activity or the temperature of the reaction emits visible light. The fire is the volume in the air where the chemicals are reacting in this way and emitting light.

Most fires "feed" themselves because the heat produced by the flame drives more fuel particles from a solid or liquid source into the air (oxygen).

Fire can also be produced by combining other reactive chemicals. In our atmosphere burning by oxidation is by far the most common phenomenon.

Alcohol burns with invisible flame.

So I guess it is save to say mix some stuff, then there is a chemical reaction caused by some sort of ignition, that makes heat and typically light.

Now the questions is that dome temperature doesn't go above 300°. Unless the day is hotter than hell, one would have to think there was an existing fire.

So, Rich could have stated - More heat = Fuel + Oxygen.

If the temperature is at a plateau, and If there is fuel then just clear an air path and the temperature will go up.

The fire box doesn't really have to be aligned with the vent opening, the ash doesn't have to be cleared out. What has to happen is for air to pass through the fire grate up through the lump, with that air flow the heat will soar very quickly.

My 2¢ anyway.

GG

Celtic Wolf

Try turning the fire box around and see if you can exceed 300 degree. Since ash can block the air path that path should be clear of ash.

Air passes through the firebox opening and the wholes in the fire BOX, up through the fire grate, and then through the lump.

Grandpas Grub

 
180° fire box will exceed 300°, but what a pain to clean out ash.

"Air passes through the firebox opening and the wholes in the fire BOX, up through the fire grate, and then through the lump."

Yup, that's what I said.

Hope school is going well.

GG

Celtic Wolf

Nope go corect it.. You said Fire RING..

I won't argue about the turned firebox, but will say I could never get up past 220.

Grandpas Grub

 
Crap, I hate it when that happens.... fire grate, though. Thx.

GG