Bringing smokenator up to temp.

[logan]

I am new to the art of smoking and am wanting to be a smokenator master someday... Any ways the issue i am having is getting the smoker up to temp. I have smoked a couple pork loins, done ribs twice and have smoked a whole chicken. All of them have turned out pretty darn good for me never smoking meat before. But when i start my smoker by adding kingsford charcoal and then starting 12 in a chimney and adding them to the smokenator. It takes almost an hour to bring the grill up to temp 225. I have vent set just like the instructions say and it crawls up in heat. i open them wide and it doesn't change much. By the time i have the grill up to temp 225 i have to add more briquettes so i have enough fuel to last me. Is this normal? Please Help.

[ncsmoker]

Try adding 14-16 coals depending on your location 12 may be to few. And make sure they are white hot and knock off the ash as you put them in the SN. Also I put the water pan on top of the grill instead of in the hole for it so I can get more coals in.

NC

[logan]

Thanks ncsmoker. I am located in Hell...i mean Arizona:). But it was about 100 degrees outside today at 9 am when i started and i did 12 coals and it took an hour to hit 225. i'll definitely try starting with more than 12 coals the next smoking session but i don't understand why it takes so long to come to temp. the ribs i did today still turned out amazing as well as the ABT's but I was behind an hour because of the grill taking so long to come to heat.

[ncsmoker]

Your right it should not take an hour to come to temp. Twenty minutes to 1/2 hour max. If your still having trouble after adding the 14-16 coals, the other thing that may be slowing things down are your vent openings. Try opening the top vent a little. Make sure you fill the SN full and then take the coals back from it. I always add a few extra to the chimney starter to allow for shrinkage as they loose there ash. This should fill the SN back up to the top with lit coals.

Good luck and hope this helps.

NC

[ecripps]

One thing to add is make sure the starter coals are white hot before you put them in. I also keep the vents wide open and don't add water until I put the meat on the grill. Here is a link to the set-up video my step-dad did - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep_35ytUcz0

Ed

[logan]

Thanks for the feed back. I will try these tips this Saturday and see what I can pull off. Man am I glad for this forum:)

[ncsmoker]

Be careful if you keep the vents wide open you can easily over shoot the 225 temp. Start shutting them down when you reach 200 to your normal cooking positions.

NC

[keithpgdrb]

I've been having pretty much the same problems. It seems the grill is always increasing or decreasing in temp. doesn't really hold well.

Does the total number of coals effect temp? does more coals equal hotter, or just longer?

I've got too many questions to post them all, so I'm going off to research some more before I go nuts.

[ncsmoker]

Hi Keith, welcome to the forum. Always fill the SN to the max, more coals equal a longer burn. First step is to fill the SN to the top and then remove 12 coals and get these white hot, I always add 4-5 extra as the lower coals loose some size do to the ash being knocked off. Get these white hot and reinsert in the SN. I always put the water pan on the grill not down in the coals. See the posts above if you can't get the temp up to 225.

Once you have done this adjust the bottom vent no more than 1/2 open and the top 1/3 open. Don't know if you have the silver or the gold it's much easier with a gold.

I have the gold and while the SN can maintain temps for a while in it, I do have to adjust the vents from time to time. I check it about every 20-30 minutes.

It takes practice to get used to the SN. Both the bottom vents and top vents need to be adjusted as the weather dictates, breezes, temperatures outside, sun on it, etc. all affect it.

Hope this helps.

NC