New to PK360- Controlling Temperatures- Direct and High Indirect.

[Winchester44]

Now we are cooking!!! Polar was right on the money. More charcoal = higher temps. I had just never seen anyone suggest using more than one chimney as everything seems designed around the size of one chimney worth of charcoal. Combined with the ridiculous direct heat charcoal puts off, I had just assumed one chimney could easily get the grill much hotter. I guess that’s what happens when you assume. Anyhow, it took a little while, but with the lump added and everything open full, the grill easily got up to 450 and held that for over an hour. It actually maxed out at 482 and then very slowly started down. At that point I closed the right top vent over the coals to see what would happen. I immediately saw the fire board start dropping faster . I think for max temps it is everything full open just like the manual says. My conclusion is 1. Invest in a 2nd chimney and 2 those videos on the PK website showing 700 degrees are not using an indirect method. They have to have the capsule packed to the max with coals. Adding a whole extra chimney of lump only gained me 100 degrees. With oxygen being a further limiting factor I doubt another 3rd chimney would get another 100 degrees without a fan. It sounds like Polar was able to get to 540 with 3 full chimneys, but I don’t know if he was using a fan too.

Anyhow, at this point after it peaked at about 1 hour mark, I shut down the vents most of the way as I had a pork butt I had been marinating in apple juice, soy sauce and spices to smoke overnight.

[Polarbear777]

That thing is way to clean ;-)

[Winchester44]

I’ll close with one more lesson learned. My pork butt came out fantastic, 14 hours to get 6 lbs to 201 degrees. Added half a dozen chunks of lump midway through and also added a half dozen chunks of cherry wood for smoke through out. Again finished products was great.

[Winchester44]

However!!! Temps were great for first 3 hours or so after I stopped my high temp test and dialed down to 225. Then the temps were all over the place. Trmp would drop suddenly to 180 and would have to open the right vent full open to get any response. Then it would shoot up to 300. I would close a quarter turn and then back down to 180. Then I couldn’t get it to respond with right wide open and I had to resort to opening the left one and then I got some response. Anyhow long story short not a great night of sleep with high and low temp alarms going off every few hours. Long after the cook was done and I’d closed everything and let it cool did I find the problem. Darn intakes we’re snowed under with ash!!! I had cleaned the ashes out completely before my test, but I guess those two full chimneys ripping along at full tilt are putting off quite a bit of ash. Another lesson learned. Clean out your ash before any long cooks!!!!! Anyhow thanks a million to all for all the sage advice. Very much appreciated!

[Polarbear777]

Nice pics and results!

Yes, ash is the limitation on this cooker not always fuel amount. but if you start at 225 you should be able to go for a whole cook without much ash trouble. In my high temp tests.l, three chimneys plug it up at the end.

I used to use Stubbs hardwood briqs, which are way less ash than kbb, but Stubbs is gone and I haven’t found a suitable local replacement. Kbb limits me to 16 hours or so, but I’ve reached 20 with Stubbs.

you can also rapidly rotate and bang the bottom vents back and forth and that will knock some of the ash out the air slots , but always over the food if you are messing with ash in any cooker. Fine particles will fly everywhere. That may buy you some extra time.

The reason I can go 15+ hours is that the fan keeps an air channel through the ash longer, since it doesn’t allow ash to settle in the way.

[au4stree]

If it is convenient to you, B&B Oak briqs are a fine replacement for Stubb's. Very consistent for me. I've only been able to locate at Academy Sports.

[Winchester44]

I use my Fireboard with a fan all the time. A power bank gets the job done. No power cords needed.

Can you tell me what this set up is? I looked online for pit viper fans but can’t find them?

[au4stree]

Try Bbq guru page. their fans are called pit viper, it is the output.

https://www.bbqguru.com/storenav?ProductId=403

[TwoTone]

I suggest this reading this thread. There is another, just can't find it yet.

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...pk360-tutorial

Here's the other:

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...g-longer-pk360

Does anyone know if these threads were deleted? When I click on them if comes up as invalid. I signed up because I'm having the same issue as the OP. I've read through this post and tried the tips.

I'm not a smoker, just do some basic grilling and bought the PK because I wanted a nice charcoal grill.

With one full chimney of KBB, I can't get above 350 and it doesn't stay there for long. I've tried direct and indirect. Used the foil on 50% of the charcoal grate tip for indirect. I must be missing something very basic. Need to figure it out cause the wife is going to get pissed if I don't figure this grill out after spending this much.

[Polarbear777]

I hope they haven’t been deleted. My guess is that they moved internally so the links broke but they still exist.

[au4stree]

I’ve learned that if I want my pk rocket hot, it’s best to use 1.5 chimneys of all natural briqs or lump. Always gets me over 375F

[Larry Grover]

Tutorial is still there, Currently on page 4 of the PK section. Speaking of which I’ve been away for awhile and its nice to see us PK’ers have our own little hang out spot! And don’t be afraid to play with the vent above the fire. Even on low & slow I crack it open just a hair, makes the fire run a bit hotter & still easy to maintain 225. As you’ll see in the tutorial with a fan it’s easy to run 325 for over 5 hours on one load of KBB.

[RonB]

I don't have a PK, but welcome to The Pit.