running out of lump

BamaEGG · January 2008

What am I doing wrong?

I put a 8.5 lb butt on my Large EGG at midnight Sunday morning. thought it would be done by 5pm Sunday afternoon. I cleaned out the egg and put fresh Royal Oak (USA) in and filled it up to the top of the firebox. At 5:00pm Sunday afternoon according to my Stoker the internal temp was 173 and holding and the temp at the grid was falling. It was a steady 225 Grid all night and day. I opened the dome and sure enough it was almost out of lump.

Details of my setup: indirect, platesetter legs up, drip pan. I started the fire with my MAPP and lit the lump in 3 places around the outside and and 1 place right in the middle.

Would it shorten burn time if I didnt let the Egg stablelize before attaching the Stoker? I just lit the fire and hooked it up. How much top vent do you guys use with Guru or Stoker? If I'm not getting a good seal between the dome and base would that shorten burn time?

Thanks
Scott

Grandpas Grub · January 2008

Scott,

Sorry to learn you ran out of lump.

A couple of questions...

How cold is it there?

Did the lump burn vertical, that is, is there unburned lump in the fire box?

On my Large with a DigiQ2 I use about 3 to 5 cfm on the blower, On a over night I usually fill the lump to the top of the fire ring. I light in three spots 10, 3 and 6 o'clock with a Mapp (now a weed burner).

The top vent of temps below 300° grid I have the slider shut and the pettles open 1/2 to 3/4. In the late fall I could easily go for 24 hours, close the egg down and do another cook with the remaining lump and possible a third cook.

I have not done a overnight in our very cold weather. I am not sue if the ambient temp makes much difference or not.

I am going through more lump but I also have a new medium and often I am cooking on both eggs at the same time. So my higher burning rate is most likely due to having two eggs going at one time.

I did do a 6 to 7 hour 400° burn during this cold weather but I still had a lot of lump left in the large when I finished. At that temp for that period of time I expected to use more lump than I actually did.

There have been a lot of posts about people not getting through the low&slow's with out haveing to reload. We probably have had 3 to 5 of these type posts in the last little while.

Looking forward to your response to the questions above.

Kent

Celtic Wolf · January 2008

First I know you said you filled the firebox to the top, but just how much lump was that? Biggers pieces could mean less lump. What brand lump are we talking about? Some brands burn longer like Wicked Good and some burn faster like Kingsford's Charwood.

If the temp stayed steady at 225 then you were sealed up good and the Stoker was doing it's job.

BamaEGG · January 2008

Temperature was in the high 20's to low 50's during the cook.

It did burn vertical but there was only a small amount of lump on one side of the firebox left when I checked and it roared to life as soon as I opened the dome and the stoker kicked in.

BamaEGG · January 2008

I would say most of the lump was a medium sized. Maybe a couple of large pieces. I filled to the top of the firebox and then tried to level as best I could.

Like I said I lit it in 4 different places, closed the dome, attached the stoker, set the target temp, and waited about 30 minutes until the smoke had cleared so I could put the meat on. Of course the stoker will run wide open trying to get the egg up to temp so there was tons of smoke from all the air it was pumping in. Maybe it just burns to much getting up to a stabilized temp.

I was using Royal Oak (USA) for this cook. Found it at the local super market for $9.99 for a 20 lb bag.

Maybe the lump just burns real quick.

Unknown · January 2008

Fill it to the top of the fire ring. More than just filling the fire box.

running out of lump

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