Still leaning fire management

[DarylCincy]

 

  My pit aways seem to run alittle hot up around 275 degrees internal grate temp thats with running the intakes open enought to run a clean burn (clear smoke). By choking intakes down a little I could get the temp down to about 240 but I got some bad smoke and that will never happen again.
 Clean burn (clear smoke) is what I aim for so I now make sure my air intakes are wide open just like I aways ran the exhaust stack. What I did change this last cook to try to lower my cooking grate temps was by cutting  wood splits shorter, I was useing 18-19 inch long splits or longer thats just the lenght I bought them in and so I thought if I cut them abit shorter it may work so I cut them all to 14 inches and they are about 2x3 wide. Well to my surprise with the 14 inch long 2x3 wood splits and the air intakes and stack wide open it burned clean all day and steady at 235 degrees internal grate temp. So that is the best trick to changing the temps your pit will run at, don't choke the intakes (or stack) when burning wood splits run then wide open and control your temps by fire management.

[whiskeynwine]

Took me a long time to learn my pit too Daryl. For me it was as simple as the phrase "less is more".  Just because I have a big firebox doesn't mean I have to build a hugh fire.  It's so much easier to build a small fire and stoke it up if you need to.  I have never been able to lower my pit temp quickly just by closing the intakes.  The Guru I installed has made a hugh difference.  I can keep the intakes closed completely and the exhaust wide open and let the fan take over and keep the air moving inside so I get a good draft going.  Since I installed the Guru, no more bad smoke.  I can still overshoot my temps if my fire is to big so I always start with a small fire.  I have a Rebel and I will start with one chimney of charcoal to get her up to temp and then switch to hickory when the meat goes on.  In a 6 hour smoke I might use three small splits.  Weather doesn't effect me too much because I'm insulated and I think thats why I use so little fuel.  The last smoke I did I was able to keep her right at 225 for 4 hours straight without having to fuss with the fire.  Still have to check it to make sure it don't burn out.  Spend more time getting your pit to temp and make sure you don't overshoot before you put on the meat.