To set the stage we had some people over yesterday with a big pork shoulder and some shorties as a chefs cut. My plan was to put the shoulder on Friday night for an overnighter, pull it whenever it was done in the morning and hold in the oven until I was ready to reset the bark. In the meantime I would time out the short ribs as needed. I know we’re all interested in cooks but for the sake of this post (and the fact nothing turned out brag worthy) I’ll stick to the topic.
Now I’ve seen plenty of videos on the efficiency of kamados but this was going to be a good opportunity for my own test seeing as I was going to be running this thing for quite some time. At 9pm on Friday I filled the charcoal chamber with Weber briquettes and fired it up. The diffuser sat flat on the ring, just meaning that I didn’t have it mounded but it was full. By 10 the smoke was looking good so on it went. I got it stable at around 240* and I went to bed. According to the weather it got down to about 40 that night.
I don’t have a thermostat or a means of recording the temp history but when I woke up it was at 280*. I got it back down to 240 and kept it running there whether there was food on it or not. Around 5pm I put the food back on to reset the bark and pulled it off at 6, purposely not closing any vents. Food was served and at 7:15pm I went back outside to take it apart and see how much fuel I had left.

This is 22.25 hours after the initial startup, 21.25 hours of actual cooking time. The coals at 6 o’clock were pulled in from the wall on the lower right. The wood piece on the left was added mid cook but the ashed over coals starting at 7 all the way around to 1 are from the initial setup. That’s just the way she burns. No idea how many hours of useful cooking are left in there but I’d imagine it’s quite a few.
Well there you have it. Good, bad or indifferent it was fun personally testing the limits. Cheers.
Now I’ve seen plenty of videos on the efficiency of kamados but this was going to be a good opportunity for my own test seeing as I was going to be running this thing for quite some time. At 9pm on Friday I filled the charcoal chamber with Weber briquettes and fired it up. The diffuser sat flat on the ring, just meaning that I didn’t have it mounded but it was full. By 10 the smoke was looking good so on it went. I got it stable at around 240* and I went to bed. According to the weather it got down to about 40 that night.
I don’t have a thermostat or a means of recording the temp history but when I woke up it was at 280*. I got it back down to 240 and kept it running there whether there was food on it or not. Around 5pm I put the food back on to reset the bark and pulled it off at 6, purposely not closing any vents. Food was served and at 7:15pm I went back outside to take it apart and see how much fuel I had left.
This is 22.25 hours after the initial startup, 21.25 hours of actual cooking time. The coals at 6 o’clock were pulled in from the wall on the lower right. The wood piece on the left was added mid cook but the ashed over coals starting at 7 all the way around to 1 are from the initial setup. That’s just the way she burns. No idea how many hours of useful cooking are left in there but I’d imagine it’s quite a few.
Well there you have it. Good, bad or indifferent it was fun personally testing the limits. Cheers.
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