PBC Temps Dropping Too Low

[BrentC]

Hi, everybody. I've read a lot of posts on here with folks whose PBCs are cooking too hot, but I'm seeking advice for the opposite problem -- my PBC temps quickly drop too low. I've had low temp issues since the beginning (about 1.5 years), though the issue seems to be getting worse.

Typically within an hour of putting the meat on my barrel temp (measured by a Maverick 732 probe hanging at about the grate level) will have dropped from an initial temp of around 260-270 to below 225 (I've hit anywhere from 216-205). My "work around" thus far has been to crack the lid for 15 min, bring the temp back up to the 260-270 range, and repeat throughout the cook.

I have one of the older models with the powder coating, and light my PBC using a mini-chimney. I'm at an elevation of about 300 feet. I've attached a photo showing my current vent opening. I've tried some of the alternative lighting techniques, which get the initial barrel temperature hotter, but that just seems to delay the temperature drop a little bit, and I still struggle to keep it above 225.

My cook times wind up being quite a bit longer than average for the PBC, and with all the lid cracking I'm doing a lot more fire control/manipulation than typical -- it's almost like I'm back to using my WSM.

Appreciate any suggestions or advice for other things to check or try. Thanks in advance.

Brent

[Del]

I am still learning my new PBC, but I am seeing lower temps as well.

If I am doing a small cook, I hang the meat on one rebar and leave the other bar holes open. More room for the hot air to leak out.

If the situation persists after some time and experience, I am thinking about playing with a small bumpers on the lid or lip, to give just a little crack for increased exhaust flow.

[Jerod Broussard]

I have found if I need to bring the temp up I need to get above 300 so it will settle back down in the 260-270 range.

[fzxdoc]

BrentC , have you tried the lighting method in the first post of the PBC sticky, Light my (PBC) Fire, Tips on Lighting and Maintaining Temperatures?

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...g-temperatures

Usually, in my experience, if the fire does not get hot enough, it's not well lit in the first place. That could be due to oxygen deprivation (vent opening not set correctly), a poor initial light on the fire (not giving the fire enough time to catch well), charcoal not stored properly (humid), or not enough coals.

From what you say, it sounds as though your lower vent might need to be opened more. That's what I found with my (also older) PBC. The recommended vent setting for my altitude is 1/2 but I find my PBC ran better (ave temp 270-290 for the first several hours) after I opened the vent up to almost 3/4. Once you find the best vent setting for your PBC, don't touch it after that. It does virtually nothing in controlling temperatures. Its main job is to stabilize whatever temp the PBC is running at, at least in my findings.

What type of charcoal are you using?

What PBC temperature does your smoker get up to before you add the meat?

Is the smoker probe hanging in the center or off to one side? I ask this because I always use 2 smoker probes, one on the vent side and the other on the opposite side. During any given cook, those two readouts will vary as much as 40 to 60 degrees, comparing one to the other. It's not unusual. Usually the vent side is hotter at the beginning of the cook and after a couple of hours, the opposite side is hotter. I take the average of these two smoker readings to help me decide whether to mess with the fire. When I had only one smoker probe, I used to fiddle with the fire a lot more during a cook. Now that I use two, I seldom mess with the fire, since the average of the two readouts is pretty much where I want the PBC to be.

When I'm trying to figure out what's wrong, I only change one thing at a time. So if this was my PBC and I was sure to use the right amount of dry charcoal, I'd open the vent more on the next cook and see how that goes. If you're still not happy, then working to get a better initial burn on would be the next step.

Best wishes,
Kathryn

Oh and P.S. I use a mini-chimney as well. It holds, overfilled, 40 briquets. Filled to what looks like full is about 30 briquets. KBB briquets, that is.

Also, the compact chimney takes longer to get all the coals lit compared to the larger chimney, filled about 3/4 full with 40 briquets.

I find that it takes 20 to 25 minutes for the compact chimney to get hot enough to pour the coals. (15 minutes is what the larger chimney takes.) I never pour coals until the topmost briquets begin to ash over. That way I know those little guys will do their job getting the basket to the right temp.

[BrentC]

Many thanks for the ideas. fzxdoc, I had tried the lighting method in the sticky twice before. I am using Kingsford original.

This morning I started a new cook (a single pork butt) and have been rigorously documenting everything. I changed a variable and a half. The half variable was I took a plastic putty knife to the bottom of the barrel and got off some gunk that I didn't realize was there near the air vent.

I followed the lighting instructions from the sticky but let the mini-chimney (with exactly 40 briquets) go for 25 minutes vs 15 (the main variable change.

At 5 minutes after putting the meat on I was at 348 and at 12 minutes 354 (and dropping) -- I was not watching the Maverick like I should have in between so I did not record the peak temperature. As I write this 25 minutes into the cook my barrel temp is at 307 and falling.

Photos attached for:
1 - Initial Basket Fill
2 - Mini-chimney after 25 minutes
3 - Lit coals in basket for 10 min and wood chunks on
4 - Pork butt on (hanging) before lid closed

Will see how this one goes!

[fzxdoc]

From those photos, BrentC , it looks like you've got everything right on target. I'm curious to see how the rest of the cook plays out.

Good luck and have a lot of fun!

Kathryn

[BrentC]

Thanks, Kathryn. Unfortunately, after a promising start, it does not appear that I have found my solution. I quickly returned to the old pattern of temperatures steadily dropping. My log so far:
Start Cook
— 11:30am - meat on
— 11:42am - 354 barrel
— 1:00pm - 102 meat, 248 barrel
— 1:15pm - 111 meat, 235 barrel
Cracked lid 1/4”
— 1:45pm - 122 meat, 316 barrel
Resealed Lid
— 2:30pm - 142 meat, 225 barrel
Cracked lid 1/4"
— 3:00pm - 153 meat, 313 barrel
Resealed lid
— 3:15pm - 160 meat, 250 barrel
Took meat off hooks, foiled
Rotated basket
Put foiled meat on grate
— 3:35pm - 156 meat, 282 barrel

Picture:
5 - Charcoal basket prior to rotation, after approx. 4 hours cooking

Next cook I'll likely tinker with the vent opening. Welcome any other suggestions folks may have. Thanks.

[fzxdoc]

Sure sounds as though opening up the vent a bit might be the next step, BrentC . Or this could just have been a cook that wanted to run at a lower temp. Sometimes my PBC is like that. Most of the time I can dial in a solid temp at 270-290. Then once in a while I have a cook where the PBC wants to run at 240 no matter what I do. When that happens, I just let it have its way and adjust the mealtime accordingly.

Just to check: you've got the aluminum foil down flat against the bottom of the barrel, right? I use the tip of the rebar to poke it down all the way around so it's flat before I set the basket on it. My arms are not long enough to reach it so the rebar tip works fine.

Kathryn

[fzxdoc]

I just looked at your basket photos again, BrentC . Are you putting in a single layer of coals? The basket doesn't look full to me. It might be the perspective of the photo shot though.

K.

[PBCDad]

I don't have much experience yet, but I did have a problem early on with my fire dying out. It looks like your coals are going pretty good all across the basket, so your issue seems very confusing.
The one thing I just noticed though is you said you had the mini chimney going for 25 minutes, and I see that suggestion came from a very reliable source. However, I found that my temp problem was solved by dumping the coals as soon as the smoke stopped, around 10 or 12 minutes, even earlier than PBC's recommended time of 15 minutes. I try to watch it closely, and if time gets away from me, I'm in trouble. This was a suggestion by Amber at PBC. For me (elevation about sea level), this worked. I know it can be frustrating not having this work when the PBC is supposed to be so easy, but once you do figure it out you will have lots of good cooking for years in front of you.

[BrentC]

Here's my full final log from yesterday:
Ambient temps 75-80, humid

Start Cook
— 11:30am - meat on
— 11:42am - 354 barrel
— 1:00pm - 102 meat, 248 barrel
— 1:15pm - 111 meat, 235 barrel
Cracked lid 1/4”
— 1:45pm - 122 meat, 316 barrel
Resealed Lid
— 2:30pm - 142 meat, 225 barrel
Cracked lid 1/4"
— 3:00pm - 153 meat, 313 barrel
Resealed lid
— 3:15pm - 160 meat, 250 barrel
Took meat off hooks, foiled
Rotated basket
Put foiled meat on grate
— 3:35pm - 156 meat, 282 barrel
— 4:00pm - 162 meat, 275 barrel
— 4:30pm - 174 meat, 254 barrel
— 4:45pm - 180 meat, 248 barrel
Cracked lid 1/4”
— 5:07pm - 190 meat, 275 barrel
— 5:20pm - 196 meat, 265 barrel
Pulled meat, put in faux cambro

I had the pork butt in a faux cambro for about 100 minutes, and it turned out very well. My fire was basically spent after 6 hours -- I put two half chickens on just to give them a bit of smokey flavor (finished them on the Genesis) and the temp dropped to 195 within an hour.

[BrentC]

fzxdoc, it's the perspective on the charcoal basket -- it had multiple laters, where the briquettes were just peeking over the top of the basket. The foil was down flat in front of the vent -- I made sure of that before starting!

I think my bigger issue -- and probably a more accurate subject line -- is I cannot get my PBC to maintain a stable temperature for very long. It just starts dropping and never stabilizes. Even if I could get it to stabilize in the 225-240 range, I could deal with that, but my temps just keep dropping without stopping unless I go back out and crack the lid. (I don't have a problem maintaining a stable temperature with my WSM or Kettle w/SnS.)

PBCDad, it is very confusing.

Appreciate all the help here so far. I'll try playing with the vent next weekend.

[fzxdoc]

BrentC , thanks for the additional information. It sure sounds, what with continually falling pit temperatures, that giving your fire some more oxygen might help.

In my experience the PBC is a perfect example of Occam's Razor in action. Usually the simplest approach is the best solution. It's not that complicated a device.

About the foil, I make sure it's flat to the barrel bottom everywhere, not just at the vent. The oxygen has to get to the fire from the basket's underside as well, so blocking it in any way, I've found, affects the burn. Sure, with long cooks, ash buildup under the basket blocks the air flow, but by then nearly all the coals are burning and the ash buildup does not seem to be a problem.

PBCDad , as I've said before, each PBC may have a quirk or two, or perhaps some problems are related to how the charcoal is stored, or a myriad of other non-PBC-related reasons. I had an experience similar to yours for my first 2 cooks on my first PBC going on 3 years back. I found that if I used 40 briquets instead of 50 in the chimney, I got a better light and a more solid PBC temp in that 270-290 range. It doesn't sound like that should have worked, but for me and for that PBC, it sure as heck did the trick. So by you pouring the coals sooner ( with some coals in the chimney unlit), it is lighting with fewer (burning) coals that solved your problem.

I've stuck with 40 coals in my newer PBC, never having the need to change, so I don't really know if this one is sensitive to the number of lit coals I use to start the fire like the first one apparently was.

Also, I am at 3700 ft elevation, which also may have a bearing on how well my PBC runs now with the methods I use and why someone else's PBC may not run exactly the same way. I've often wondered whether Noah's mile-high elevation was a reason why some of his methods and certainly his cook times never worked as well for me.

At the end of the day, for me, at least, it came down to trial and error, starting back in the day with Noah's recommendations and changing only one parameter at a time for each subsequent cook, until I got my PBC to cook reproducibly nearly every time. And that was my goal. As much as the PBC is touted as a "set and forget" cooker, I just wasn't comfortable trusting to some of Noah's methods in his videos such as not using a Pit thermometer, not always using an instant read thermometer, and using fire lighting methods that did not, for me, always produce relatively consistent cook times or results.

That said, the PBC, with a set-and-forget approach, still produces really tasty food. That's its unique charm and why I love smoking on it so much and why it is such a great product.

Kathryn

And P.S. I have found the more I use the PBC, the more reproducibly it heats and cooks. Maybe that's due to my experience, or maybe it's due to the PBC settling in with gunk buildup or whatever that enables it to get on with the business of smoking great food. I'm not asking any questions about how this happened. I just thank the BBQ gods and keep on cooking!

[PBCDad]

Kathryn, agreed, I'm happy to fine-tune once I got the big pieces to fit in.
I'm not saying it is scientific, but what Amber suggested was to dump the coals early so the coals are "less spent" and can light other coals before they hit their peak. Again, not sure why it works, just thankful it does!

[IvyH]

I use lighter fluid. If the coals do not seem to be ashing enough, I re-light with more. And no, my food has NEVER tasted of lighter fluid. The PBC cooking temp, IMO, comes down to initial coal condition prior to popping on the lid, the vent, and whether or not you have a good seal on the lid. I'm not a fan of cracking the lid. If the temp drops too low, I remove the lid until I'm satisfied with the coal condition, then close er' up. I'm in Louisiana, so this approach is fairly common b/c of the humidity.

[Jilliam3224]

How about if you WANT the lower temps? I've got a recipe that calls for a 175 -200 range with a 2 hour cook. Less charcoal? Less air? flow? Just looking for some thoughts on how to best manage.