What are your fire manage techniques?

[lostclusters]

After watching several videos, I decided to tried my hand at fire management in my COS. OMG I thought adding wood to my KBQ every 20 minutes was a lot. Being a newbee, fire management required constant vigilance to prevent thick white smoke from entering my cook chamber. I have made three attempts at fire management so far. Each attempt yielded better results. I applied several concepts from the videos I watched. One was to control the temperature in the cook box by the amount of wood put in the fire box and by limiting the exhaust stack damper, leaving the fire box damper open full all the time. I found that having the fire box damper open all the way was not enough. I also needed to leave the fire box door open a bit and leaving the fire box lid cracked open a bit, to keep enough air going to the fire to prevent thick white smoke. I also needed to move the fire to the door side of the fire box for two reasons. More air and because when closing the stack damper backed up fire gasses in the fire box, choking the fire producing more thick white smoke. I also saw another video that detailed the use of a fire basket. I promptly made one out of 18 gauge steel expanded metal. I found it very useful in that managing the wood for the fire was easier and it kept the coals from the fire together keeping the fire hotter, and that made fire management easier to keep the fire cleaner.

I used the Live Oak I've had around and it had a moisture content of between 10% - 12%. I found that keeping a couple pieces in the fire box close to the fire dried it more helping the wood to ignite faster keeping the fire cleaner. The Live Oak wood work very nicely and provided a very good smoke flavor. I found adding the wood with the rounded side on the fire worked better because that side is harder to light. But it is not just a simple matter of just putting wood on the fire and waiting for it to burn down. No no no! The fire needs to be stoked, poked, and manipulated so it burns clean. It rarely does that on it's own. I am not sure I could do this for hours on end. But the end results, providing the fire can be kept clean, would be worth it. I may need a stoker, the draw on my COS may not be good enough to keep enough air moving through the fire. I have only attempted holding a 225 degree F temperature in my cook box so far.

[Mr. Bones]

I jus ignore th white smoke...happens on ignition, an refuelin...

Often, it's jus moisture steamin outta yer wood as it strives to attain full ignition temp.

I ain't never had no Dihydrogen Monoxide stank up no cooks on me...

[Mr. Bones]

Yikes, that is quite th Dose, Brother!
I was always told as a young'un, even a mere teaspoon could kill ya graveyard dead!!!

MBMorgan

[MBMorgan]

[Mudkat]

According to the latest research and study of 12 people we should all be dead already. 😀

[scottranda]

Aaron Franklin keeps his firebox door cracked at all times. Gotta learn your cooker! Good write up!

[Spinaker]

I think DWCowles and Steve B do the same.

[JonnyB]

As do I...the door has to be cracked at least a couple of inches to help draw in enough air. Just gotta find the happy spot!

[kboy24]

My Loaded Wichita the firebox door is ALWAYS wide open. Took me a while to figure that out but reading the forums and other people having same problem. Anyways, Leaving the door wide open made my Yoder work like it should and I luv that boy!! Every cooker and piece of meat is different. It's True...LOL

[Mr. Bones]

What are th dimensions of yer cook chamber? Firebox, too?
Even stack diameter an length all play into makin a smoker draw properly...

I'll certainly be more than happy to detail how I fire my stickburners, but I'm tryin to wrap around th scale yer workin with, in order to be of more assistance to yer quest.

[lostclusters]

Mr. Bones, my cook box is a little weirdly shaped because the lid is sort of triangle shaped so it does not fit into the table well. But it showed a size differential of 72% showing my fire box too small by 1128 cu in. And my stack being 3" in diameter but when fully open is half plugged needs a 85" chimney pipe. Looks like my intuition was correct. Thank you Mr. Bones.

[lostclusters]

Mr. Bones - If I replace the stack with a full 3" piece, it would only need to be about 21" long.

[Mr. Bones]

Always my pleasure to assist!

lostclusters

[lonnie mac]

Personally, I never use the rain cover. it stays fully open during every cook. This is how every offset is designed, and the hardest thing to learn, is to let it breath.

[lostclusters]

I try to leave mine open as well unless I am way over my temp or I get a thick dose of white smoke like when I went in the house for 5 minutes to set my DVR!

[Steve B]

Kinda like what Mr. Bones said. Would definitely like to see more pics of your cooker. A bigger scope so to speak.
I bailed on my old COS cause it was really just too much of a PITA to keep temps.
There is always hope though.
Shoot us some more pics and we can probably help better.

[Steve B]

Spinaker lonnie mac when you’re 6’7” 265lbs you don’t have to compensate for much of anything. 🦏🦍😂. Oh and that sweet little cooker would just happen to be a LoneStar Grillz 24x36. Oh yeah.
Looking back though I should have gotten the 24x48.

[lostclusters]

It is this one: https://www.chargriller.com/products...harcoal-grill# with the side fire box that is already pictured. As mentioned before I Lava Loked and RTVed it fairly tight. The process took me a week to complete.

[Steve B]

lostclusters I see the cooker your talking about but can't find any pics of the fire box you have. would like to see what that looks like. Also as stated before I think the first thing is to ditch that smoke stack. I would open that thing up to 3-1/2". and make it at least twice the height of the original one. You could put a rain cap on, just not too close to the opening of the stack.

[tbob4]

When I had COS' I never worried about white smoke - only black smoke. I used a couple of old oven thermo on the grates to let me know what was going on relative to the temp gauge on the lid of the smoke box. I did mods on all of them in the cooking chamber to basically regulate the temperatures and I never used a basket. I always started a fire with charcoal and added seasoned wood. Sometimes I bought wood that was purported to be seasoned and a whole lot of water would fizzle out of the ends. Then I knew I would never buy from that vendor again. I believe that the basket you have is really small and will lead to more smoldering. See if you can put a water pan next to the fire inlet to regulate temps across the smoking surface. You have two options for slowing the temps down - one is opening the chimney fully, but often you have to shut down the oxygen intake and the other is to close down the vent a bit and to open up the fire vents. Smaller splits make a cleaner fire but larger ones burn longer. If your concern is smoke color, go with smaller. If your concern is with tending to the fire and you are happy with results, go with logs.

[tbob4]

Ps - I loved my COS units. They are only gone because they rusted out and my wife would not let me keep them as planters.

[lostclusters]

The moisture content in my wood is good for this type of fire. I get no sizzling water at the ends. And I dry it even more in the fire box before it is put on the fire. The water pan suggestion sounds good.

[tbob4]

I loved all my COS' once I dialed everything in. They take more work to figure out. The food produced, once you find your sweet spot, is every bit as good as that produced on a more expensive mode. I upgraded only because the metal kept getting worse and I didn't want to spent money and time every year getting things right due to that.

[Ahumadora]

Carefully unbolt the stack damper, hold it in your right hand (if right handed) then throw that piece of junk as far away as you can. You don't need it (until it rains). Huskee will disagree with me but it is the same as blocking the exhaust on your car. (Many pics of old pits on the net all full of creosote as they have undersized stacks that do not draw). Make sure the rest of the pit is well sealed to stop air from entering.

[lostclusters]

I spent a week sealing it up with Lava Lok and food grade RTV. It is fairly tight. But the stack is more than likely an issue. After all it is only a COS, one of the cheapest. I got it just to play around with and to give fire management a go.

[Steve R.]

Mine, an Old Country BBQ Pits Over and Under, I keep the side door of the fire box wide open, and occasionally use a small fan blowing into it, depending on how the wind blows that day. I then control the temperature by maintaining a consistent fire with smaller splits. Every smoker is different, so just learn yours and roll with it.

[lostclusters]

I was thinking of employing a fan too. But I am going to fix and increase my stack first.

[jecucolo]

Is your pit from academy?

[Steve R.]

Yes it is, jecucolo.

[jfmorris]

Fire management can be a pain in the butt, but like someone else said, I worry more about black smoke than white. I tend to use charcoal and chunks or mini splits for smoke on my offset more than straight wood, for these very reasons. If I don’t want to watch the fire I use my kettle and SNS, if things will fit.

[Henrik]

I’m with Ahumadora 100%. Get rid of that stack damper! Open the firebox door. Let that smoker breathe darn it! Fiddling with vents is for kettles and Kamados, not offsets.

Also, try splitting your logs, splits will catch fire quicker, avoiding the variations in temps when adding logs.

[JeffJ]

I can't wait to get a stick burner so I can actively participate in threads like this!

[obiQsmoker]

I was thinking how much I love having a pellet pooper so I don’t have to - hehe!

[lostclusters]

I have sampled the output from several different pellet smokers. It was ok. I could have got one but decided against it and got my KBQ instead.

[Frozen Smoke]

Every stick burner needs different things. With mine the exhaust is always wide open. On a rare occasion I will sometimes close it half way a couple times during the cook if I want more smoke layed on the meat. My firebox has 3 vents one on each side. I think this is a big advantage and I wonder why more manufacturers haven't figured this out yet. This design allows this thing to really BREATHE. The reason you have to have the door cracked open on some smokers because the venting on the firebox is inadequate and does not allow it to breathe properly. After my smoker has been up and running and a good coal base is present I can usually shut the firebox vents half way.

Wood is also a big factor. The species, moisture content and size of splits all come into play. I use red oak almost exclusively as it is readily available. It might be because it's what I'm used to but i think it is the preferred wood for stick burners. It burns hot and it burns long unless it's over dried and it gives a nice mellow smoke flavoring. I burn everything from half logs all the way down to kindling and everything in between. I have splits of all sizes available during the cook. During a long cook my smoker will hold 250 for nearly a hour after the fire is basically gone out and just a softball size bed of coals in the bottom. I may need to cook for another 4 hours for butts or brisket. I don't want to throw a quarter or half log on at this point and get a huge temp spike so a 2 or 3 inch size split goes on just to maintain the fire and keep the coal bed going.

At the end of the day proper design of the smoker at the time of manufacture is the most important thing. It will determine how much interaction you will need to put into fire management to keep a proper and consistent temp. A lot of people can weld but few of them know how to properly design a smooth running stick burner.

[mrteddyprincess]

After 20 years with the same COS I have learned to control temps using a box fan sitting next to the fire box. I use two chimneys of lit charcoal, add the wood, then blow the fan on high directly through the open vent. Everything wide open to get up to temp. After clear to blue smoke is coming out I cook. Angle the fan to reduce the air flow. I can hold constant temps for an hour before adding more lit charcoal. I've done cooks at 225, 250, 275, 325, and 400 + F. This thing will burn two bags of Kingsford on an 8 hr cook. But, the flavor is amazing! The fan really helps.

[mrteddyprincess]

Stoking the coals to remove the ash is also important. Two chimneys will maintain 225 F for two hours if I stoke with a poker. Then it's time to add more fuel.

(I rarely do brisket because I can't afford that much fuel at one time.)

[lostclusters]

I applaud your ingenuity sir. As I mentioned above I will be trying a stoker of some sort soon. I want to get my stack fixed first. I will most likely use a smaller fan though with less blast force as you have limited yours be angling it.

[Huskee]

lostclusters I use the BBQ Dragon pointed into my firebox. By a couple sets of good rechargebles. One set lasts nearly a whole 12hr smoke, or will last the whole cook if the Dragon runs on low which it usually does. I got that for those still no-wind days when it just needs the oomph.

[Lock Stock and Barrel]

Your issues with "fire fiddlin" is correct. It is difficult to maintain an exact temp even with all of the procedures you have read about. Lump charcoal can smooth some of this problem out but you have to know when to add and how much. I agree with the other guys above, a little white smoke when adding charcoal or sticks does not seem to hurt my flavors on long cooks.

Having said this, I have become a new "cheater" by purchasing the Flame Boss 400 temperature controlling fan and discovered that there is very little to do except replenish wood every couple of hours. I filled my firebox full of pecan and charcoal, lit, turned on controller fan, brought cook up on my cell phone, watched LSU and UT longhorns play football, took pork loins off of grill when notified and ate! Dyno-mite! I always leave my stack fully open when doing cooks with or without fan controller. Everything is done on the pinwheel at the firebox. Learned this from articles posted on this very good site! When designing my pit before the "build" I researched smoke stacks and found that there are crucial diameters and stack heights based on firebox size, vent sizes and smoker volume. I do not feel most manufactures care so I always see little bitty want to be stack bolted on the top to vent smoke. Unfortunately this is a crucial step in volume control and updraft on a pit.

I am still in the judging stage of this device but so far it has saved me a substantial amount of "fiddlin" with my fire. Like it a whole lot! But let me do a few more cooks before school is out.

[jfmorris]

I've thought of modifying my offset with a controller on the firebox. I was looking at the DigiQ or something similar, and would drill a hole in the firebox to add an adapter tube, and shut down the main air intakes once I get ready to let the fan take over. I still know even with that I'll probably need to add fuel fairly often.

[jfmorris]

My problem is I cannot really add an intake for a fan below the level of the fire grate, as most of that space is taken up by a removable ash pan. So I would be above the fire, and am not sure it would feed it properly.

[lostclusters]

I do not think being above the fire would be a major issue. While not being optimal it would still increase air flow to the fire, and that is the goal for any properly managed fire.