KBB/SnS and Weber 26" holding 225°

[HouseHomey]

First of all CHEERS! Has anyone else or is it just me noticed that my coals have not been lasting as long. Full disclosure I have not fixed my "Bent ear" on my one touch. Also all of a sudden like I'm having to use the clips on my kettle. What gives? I started leaking like a sieve. I'm getting, today, 5.5 hours at 225° out of 90 coals. Huh??

I keep my coal in the garage as we are at the beach, snuggled up tight. So if I am leaking too much (I don't see it) I'm still cooking at 225°. I know we have some seriously smart people in the pit so I ask.

Am I consuming more fuel to hold at 225° like before I was leaking.the leak thing for me is barley 10 days old. I am baffled

Cheers

and I've been stalled since 9am.

[Thunder77]

Cheers! I haven't been doing any long cooks in a while, so I can't speak to the coals not lasting as long. But I sometimes kick the temp up to about 270-280 to get through a stubborn stall. Also a dead giveaway on the leaks is smoke coming from anywhere but the top vent. If yer smokin' around the lid, yer leakin'! 😎

[HouseHomey]

I'm ok with stalls as I cook with a moist chamber and I cal always wrap. This KBB thing is new to me though.

[HouseHomey]

What? No long cooks??

[Thunder77]

I know right? 😛 I did ribs like 2 weeks ago. Recent cooks have all been hot and fast.

[Polarbear777]

On a 22" I had a tight fit lid and never leaked. On the 26" I still have to add gaskets to prevent leaks and I still have a little. It doesn't take much to bend the lid and cause leaks especially on the 26". Possible that the lid got bumped and is out of round. I suspect if you can bend the lid back (carefully) or add gaskets you could get some more time back.

With a thermostatic controller I still only get about 6 hours on the 26" kettle, but I've been assuming due to the surface atea it bleeds more heat.

Addendum: I got a pk360 and experiments with that (posted under a pk360 thread) show I can get about 12 hours with a load of kbb, but 17-20 hours with stubbs natural charcoal. It's only one data point and I haven't repeated the kbb test at the same ambient outside temp so could be several factors.

Of course the price difference between Stubbs and Kbb works out to the same price per hour of heat so...

[HouseHomey]

Thank you for that. 7 hours for me was about right. Now pushing 5.5. Looks like I may have to spend a couple of bucks. Maybe I was just lucky. Thank again for your thoughts.