Questions about firebox venting with Wichita
Posted: July 5th, 2016, 3:48 pm
OK, after watching the video about managing a proper fire in an offset, I used my new Loaded Wichita this past weekend for the first time. I was able to cook some tasty meats, but had a couple of questions about fire/heat management.
My primary concern is that I had a tough time dampening the fire box. In fact, I could not even partially close the firebox door (even with the butterfly vent wide open) without the fire starting to smolder. I needed to keep the door WIDE OPEN all day in order to get that thin, blue smoke I keep hearing about. I'll provide some info and hopefully someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Charcoal: I started the day with two chimneys of lump charcoal. Dumped them in and tossed 2 splits of maple on the coals.
The firebox door was wide open at this time and within 30 minutes my thermometers were up to 275F. So far so good.
Once I was certain the temps were holding, I went ahead and put meat into the smoking chamber. Salmon on the top shelf furthest from the firebox, (2) racks of spare ribs on the top shelf closer to the firebox and (2) whole chickens on the bottom grates.
Wood: For this entire cook I used well-aged maple that I've had on the property for 3 years. It was very dry, had no bark and was very easy to split.
Once the lump started to run out of juice, things got interesting. I noticed the temps in the cooking chamber were more difficult to keep at my target of 250F or so. Therefore I started adding TWO splits each time the wood burned down and temps started to dip. If I tried to dampen the fire at all, the temps would climb just a little, but the smoke exiting the stack turned thicker and puffy white fairly quickly. As I opened up the firebox door, the fire would pick up (as you'd expect) and the smoke would return to the thin smoke I've heard I I should be shooting for. I did think it was strange that the temps dropped when the fire was given more oxygen. I figured the temps would rise in the cooking chamber.
I pretty much felt tide to the smoker all day. Seemed every time I turned around I had to run over and plunk another split on the fire to keep the temps up. So I feel like I was running through my smoking wood much faster than I should. I was sure burning way more wood than the author in the video. Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated! Planning to give it another go this coming Saturday.
My primary concern is that I had a tough time dampening the fire box. In fact, I could not even partially close the firebox door (even with the butterfly vent wide open) without the fire starting to smolder. I needed to keep the door WIDE OPEN all day in order to get that thin, blue smoke I keep hearing about. I'll provide some info and hopefully someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Charcoal: I started the day with two chimneys of lump charcoal. Dumped them in and tossed 2 splits of maple on the coals.
The firebox door was wide open at this time and within 30 minutes my thermometers were up to 275F. So far so good.
Once I was certain the temps were holding, I went ahead and put meat into the smoking chamber. Salmon on the top shelf furthest from the firebox, (2) racks of spare ribs on the top shelf closer to the firebox and (2) whole chickens on the bottom grates.
Wood: For this entire cook I used well-aged maple that I've had on the property for 3 years. It was very dry, had no bark and was very easy to split.
Once the lump started to run out of juice, things got interesting. I noticed the temps in the cooking chamber were more difficult to keep at my target of 250F or so. Therefore I started adding TWO splits each time the wood burned down and temps started to dip. If I tried to dampen the fire at all, the temps would climb just a little, but the smoke exiting the stack turned thicker and puffy white fairly quickly. As I opened up the firebox door, the fire would pick up (as you'd expect) and the smoke would return to the thin smoke I've heard I I should be shooting for. I did think it was strange that the temps dropped when the fire was given more oxygen. I figured the temps would rise in the cooking chamber.
I pretty much felt tide to the smoker all day. Seemed every time I turned around I had to run over and plunk another split on the fire to keep the temps up. So I feel like I was running through my smoking wood much faster than I should. I was sure burning way more wood than the author in the video. Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated! Planning to give it another go this coming Saturday.