Problem with low UDS temp

J

Junktrader

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I've been practicing smoking chicken's the last 3 weekends and I keep having the same problem. :mad2: I can get the UDS up to 340's with the heat shield in place. But as soon as I put the chicken on the temp will drop to 225ish and never get back above 300 during the cook. The bird will hit 165 and the temp never gets high enough to crisp the skin. I'm running all 4 inlets full open. For yesterday's cook I even let the bird air dry in the refrigerator for about an hour after the brine, before putting in the smoker. I'm doing a my first turkey for Thanksgiving in a few weeks and I'd like it to have crispy skin. Any thoughts on what's going wrong? Thanks for your input.
 
How much are you covering the grate with chicken? In other words of you completely load the grate, you are really cutting down on the airflow in the cooker.
 
How big are ur intakes and exhaust? Take the lid off and it'll get hot......
 
Take that farkn diffuser out start with at least 1/2 chimney of hot stuff and leave the lid off at start up until the thermo hits 200 then put the lid on and let it settle in then put on the meat.
 
I always think the UDS burning is not correct
Either you waste extra charcoal or the temp. can not rise higher.
Not all fresh air contacts coal, extra air simply bring away heat.
Why do not adopt burning pot design from Ceramic smoker, in which all fresh air is in contact with burning coal. Much less by-pass air colds down the temp. or wastes coal.
Here is my design
uds8.jpg

uds15.jpg
 
woodpelletsmoker said:
I always think the UDS burning is not correct
Either you waste extra charcoal or the temp. can not rise higher.
Not all fresh air contacts coal, extra air simply bring away heat.
Why do not adopt burning pot design from Ceramic smoker, in which all fresh air is in contact with burning coal. Much less by-pass air colds down the temp. or wastes coal.
Here is my design
uds8.jpg

uds15.jpg
Click to expand...


Forget about the cast iron smoker.That looks like a money making design.
 
that happened to me with some lump in my 22 wsm, i put our turkey on and no way no how could i get the temp up, i even lit a full bucket put it on and it just dove back down,so i ended up putting what little kingsford original on top, lit like 3/4 of a bucket and it rocked along at 320 ish. That lump i had just would not run hot with a big bird in there, i just cooked in my backwoods with it though and it ran all afternoon at 300 with that lump, long story short try different charcoal
 
From someone that cooks about a bird a week in all types of weather i'll tell you it's just an air flow thing. The cold bird always bogs down the heat but i never drop that far. I go on about 325 and the pit might drop to 270-280 and rebounds pretty fast.

Increase the size of two of them to 1 inch... How big is your exhaust? If it's to small that will affect temps also.
 
Thanks for everyone's input. There are four 3/4 inch inlets - 2 on fatman ball valves and 2 with elbows - and two unpiped 2" exhausts. (Link to pictures of my UDS - http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2686428&postcount=11572) You can see one of the elbow inlets in the shadow on the first pic.

So far I've only been cooking 1 chicken, split or spatchcocked in the center of the grill. This past Saturday I did also throw in 4 Cornish hens about an half way into through the cook. I may try adding some lump to the Kingsford to see if that helps.
 
Last edited:
Junktrader said:
Thanks for everyone's input. There are four 3/4 inch inlets - 2 on fatman ball valves and 2 with elbows - and two unpiped 2" exhausts. (Link to pictures of my UDS - http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2686428&postcount=11572) You can see one of the elbow inlets in the shadow on the first pic.

So far I've only been cooking 1 chicken, split or spatchcocked in the center of the grill. This past Saturday I did also throw in 4 Cornish hens about an half way into through the cook. I may try adding some lump to the Kingsford to see if that helps.
Click to expand...
Your Proble is HERE!!!
Every 90 deg turn you pur in a line restricts its flow by 50%. in the simplest terms 4X.75= 3/2= 1.5 1.5/4=.375 so your 3/4" intakes are now 3/8" Solution:> Get rid of those Elbows on 3 of your intakes and use 1 valve. Then do this:
Take that farkn diffuser out start with at least 1/2 chimney of hot stuff and leave the lid off at start up until the thermo hits 200 then put the lid on and let it settle in then put on the meat.
 
I have not had good luck with Lump in my UDS - Stubbs or KBB with several wood chunks has actually maintained higher temps longer. - Lump required too much airflow and burned up faster so I had up n down temps with it. - I've tried. 3 times with 3 different brands.
 
Could it be your thermo is reading directly over your food?

Move your thermo to just below your cooking rack for more accurate reads. I agree with the elbows and risers, they hurt the performance of a drum.
 
I have used briquettes in my drum 1 time a 5lb bag of matchlight to start my burn out pre build. I burn nothing but Lump in it Never has given me a problem I can go 14 hrs at 300+ or over 20 hrs at 250. The key is to let it sit & burn awhile before you close it up
 
Elbows and riser sound like the problem to me, if you want to run risers you will need to increase the size. JMHO
 
First off, lump should require less airflow than briqs. Second, lump doesn't soak up moisture like briqs. I've never had any issues using lump in my uds or any cooker. the only change in performance is more btu's when you need them. I like cooking at higher temps, so lump fits my needs perfectly.

I agree with Bludawg about the intakes, and restricted airflow. If I were going to do a fat man mod, I'd use 2" pipe and use a fridge magnet or sheet metal slide to control air flow. Not a fan of ball valves at all.
 
I would check to see how close to the birds your pit temp gauge is. If they are close to the meat, you will get wrong readings. Move the probe at least 2-3 inches away from the nearest bird. Also get rid of the 90* elbows and use only one valve with the other 3 just short nipples with a cap on them for easy removal.

Blessings,
Omar
 
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