I've had my PBC for a couple of years now and I absolutely love it. I have noticed a change in starting barrel temps beginning this past spring. The first year I had 1t, it would heat up to 320 at the start and then work it's way down to 270-290 after about the first hour. Since April I've noticed it starts at 300-320, then drops after I hang the ribs within the first 15 minutes to between 228 and 250. I've been cracking the lid to get it back up to 300-320 start range, and then close it. It tne settles back to around 270. Had to do that today. Anyone else have this experience? I assume it's dropping because the meat is cooler than the drum when I put it in. But it didn't do this the first year.
I haven't had mine long enough to notice that but I've seen others posting that they are targeting a range of 360-420 at the start for it to settle down in the sweet range. Perhaps you have a better seal on your PBC now where you had a little lid leak before that would keep temps up?
phoccer nailed it, I believe. Either that, or you (or maybe some critter) accidentally bumped the vent cover and closed it a bit. Once I got my cover set for summer, I used a scratch awl to mark it (and another mark for winter, slightly more open).
Or you may have purchased some older briquettes, stored in damp conditions which allowed them to soak up moisture. I like to keep my bags of Kingsford indoors in the summer so the air conditioning pulls out moisture, and I have them sitting on milk crates so they can't wick moisture from the concrete in my basement.
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