Is this normal?

[papatangeh]

Hey, I just got a char-griller @ HEB for $159. It has 830 grilling surface with an offest firebox. pretty sweet. I took the smoker out for a spin and i noticed that the fire kept burning out really quick.

I am using natural wood charcoal along with hickory chunks. The charcoal burnt out in about 1 hour. and the wood chunk took about 2 hours to burn out. I thought this was odd because when i used the SAME charcoal and wood chunks on my weber one touch kettle...and they lasted a good 3-5 hours.

During the smoking process, I have adjusted the vents and the smoking pipe to slow down the burning process of the wood and charcoal. Ive shut the vents to the firebox to allow the charcoal burning to slow down(brought temp down by 20 degrees, which was about 220 F)....and that only added about 20 mins.


So my question is...is this normal? how long does your fire source last before you have to add in new charcoal? should i switch to briquettes? use straight up wood as fire? should i soak the wood chunks before i put them in?



I am new to smoking...so any info on a good fire source is appreciated!


but here's some photos of the ribs i smoked. no sauce or boiling....just 5-7 hours of smoking with only rub on it.....and that 5-7 hours ran me 1 entire bag of 8 lb of charcoal.

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[BlackFord]

I dont have a "smoker" but my grill is big enough to do full racks indirectly. I start my charcoal in a chimney starter. sometimes I use chunk sometimes briquettes. generally speaking 1 full chimney gets me about 2-3 hours at 250* I use chunks of what ever hardwood I find at the store and/or suits what ever meat I have. I use just enough to make steady smoke and fill the chamber so I am not sure if thats a factor in how long or how hot it burns.

[Pony Express]

5 to 7 hours on 1 bag 8# er dosnt sound like a lot to me!

[niget2002]

I don't know. I did a 6 hour smoke at 250 in my pit on Saturday. I used 1 chimney of briquettes that I poured over 1 basket of lump with a few chunks of oak.

Could the brand of coal have something to do with burn time? I used Royal Oak from Walmart.

[JaCK2U2]

I agree with Pony - 8# for 5 to 7 hours doesn't sound bad to me. Ribs looked good!

[tex_toby]

I reserve lump for high temp grilling and briquettes/chunks for smoking. Lump burns hotter and faster than briquettes. Your Chargriller is a good pit. I used one for years and even still have one for camping. That said, they are full of leaks. More airflow = faster burn.

tex

[MEAT]

The longevity of your heat depends on a few things...one being the thickness of your firebox.
I would suspect that's the issue you're having with your char-giller...thin steel loses a lot
of heat and burns faster then thick.
Stick with burning more wood then charcoal.

[B-hill's BBQ]

Not bad I would say for just starting out, it takes practice and tidbits of advice. Take some from people, use what works for you and drop the rest. For some it is a real science, for others it comes natural. Me, I have been playing with fire since I was in grammer school and the fact that now I can harness it and use it to cook the food that I love, I get better with each time.
So 1: Did the food turn out good, if yes, than you are on the right direction, and 2: Did it work the way you planned, if not, tweek it a little. Close the damper slightly, add wood as the fire goes out, small stuff then add the big stuff. I say look back on old threads and work your way up, and good luck.Most of all enjoy the process, practice makes perfect and nothing is better than practicin your Que.

[n2dabluebbq]

i think if you are prone to using charcoal w/wood, charcoal being prime then you might want to look into getting or making a charcoal basket. this will allow for the charcoal to be "condensed" so to speak. and from there i would be inclined to use the minion method. i do this on my new braunsfels offset and it has prolonged my burn times.
on my large offset(read trailer), i use charcoal only to start and straight wood from there on. the big difference aside from size is thickness of metal. my NB is an older one and is thicker than the newer ones, so would imagine that the basket would help yours like it has mine.
also, the ribs looked good.

[roaniecowpony]

I agree, the air leaks will cause cool air to enter and require more fire/charcoal burn. Metal thickness has some effect, but it's not as much as big/lots of leaks. You'll really improve performance of that bbq if you figure out how to close up some of the leaks (no glue or tapes, gotta be metal, foil works). But brickettes burn more quickly than hardwood lump charcoal by far. A 8lb bag of brickettes for that long a burn is a little high, but doesn't seem off the scale. Try mixing in some hardwood lump (natural wood) charcoal next time.