Wrong time of year, or am I just really bad at temp control?

[YetiDave]

So I'm on my third smoke on my ProQ 20 and I STILL cannot get the bugger to stick much higher than 200 without opening all of the vents completely and burning through my charcoal really quickly. I'm using the minion method with a full basket of coal and a full lit chimney dumped into the middle, water in the pan and Big K restaurant grade briquettes. It's really pretty disheartening - I had it sat at 250 before I put the meat on (room temp) then bam, straight down and it's not budging from about 210. Is it me? The coal? The water in the pan? Or just that time of year?!

[Toby]

1.how much water do you have in the pan? you dont need more than 1"
2. is the water boiling hot? if its cold it will absorb all of the heat
3. your meat will take time to come up to temp and it isnt unusual for the temp to drop for a while.
4. just be patient, dont play with the vents.

Its freezing outside which will have a bearing on the cook

[thesmokingpenguin]

Are you doing what I did the first time I played with a proq? People said I needed to our foil around every rim and the bowl to seal up air gaps, but I put too much effectively sealing up the fire and preventing enough oxygen to allow it to get hot enough!

[bencops]

If the water in the pan is boiling and you've got low temps and destroying charcoal then you need to seal up the stackers, that's ProQ for you. Try the clay tray next time.

I myself am in a similar situation - I tried the Big K briquettes (the funny tube shaped extruded ones) last night and they practically went out! I don't think they're very good for long slow smouldering. Live and learn.

[YetiDave]

Seal up as in heat resistant silicone? The water in the pan does get to boiling point (not rolling, vigorous boiling, but bubbling around the edges of the pan) but I have been adding a fair amount of boiling hot water to it - probably at least half full whenever I've used it. I'll give the clay saucer method a shot, I'm guessing that the steam leeches off too much heat for this time of year and the only other thing I've tried is foil wrapped bricks (I added two of them, two too many I think). A full chimney of lit charcoal did give me a higher temp than I've previously had though. But maybe next time I'll switch to a different brand of charcoal too and see what happens as the Big K stuff is pretty inefficient for filling a basket - it's got a hole running through the middle of it (which means more air flow through the centre of the fuel, increased surface area for burning, faster burning?) Maybe heat beads or the Devon restaurant grade charcoal I've seen kicking around would be better

[bencops]

no i mean running tin foil round the edge to seal it but if its not a rolling boil then that's probably not the problem.

Try the big k ACH15 http://www.bigkproducts.co.uk/Product-R ... al_22.aspx

I am trying the same stuff as you're using and having the same problem - vents wide open and no heat (well I'm at 260F now but on normal lump i'd be at 400F with the vents where they are). I only use the clay tray, not water, and (definitely, now) only lumpwood charcoal.

[YetiDave]

Aaah, it's reassuring to hear that I'm not the only one having problems with this stuff! Thanks for the link, I'll definitely grab some of that stuff before my next cook. Fingers crossed it'll go a little better

[bencops]

That stuff needs a lot of air. In the end it went very well for my pork, was overnight at about 150f then from 8am til 4pm at 260f. The charcoal was still going strong at 9pm! Certainly lasts a long time

[Eddie]

Dave in the winter months people on here norally use resurant grade charcoal as it generates more heat. But are you useing your Pro Q in a yard or an area that doesn't have a good air flow? Keith127 said that untill he got a Pitmaster 110 he could'nt get above 200f and now he can get the temp that he needs. Force air flow flow is the best thing since sliced bread. As far as I know that you can use three different types. Stoker, Guru or the the Pitmaster IQ. Please see following links: https://www.rocksbarbque.com/Systems.html http://www.thebbqguru.com/ http://pitmasteriq.com/ They all do the same thing, but some are cheeper than others.

Regards


Eddie

[YetiDave]

Yeah I'm gonna give charcoal a shot and see how that works out, I'd rather avoid buying anything else right now. The area I'm using it in is very well ventilated so no issues there, just got the cold smoke generator so that'll keep me busy until I can grab some charcoal!