Lid on or off?

[TurkeyLeg]

After adding lit coals to my UDS basket I put the lid on. It usually takes over an hour to get thin blue. Seems like a long time. Does anyone leave the lid off when starting their UDS? I get them temp I want quickly,just bad smoke for a while.

 

[MeatyOakerSmoker]

My experience is lid off is a bad idea. Usually you wind up with a raging fire.

 

[mrboy]

^^^^
What IbrahimSS said... fire will burn out of control with lid off, and then you're trying to calm down a monster instead of creeping up on desired temp.

My UDS takes an hour to come up to temp and start blowing thin blue. It's just the nature of the beast.

 

[Nuco59]

Me? Lid on- every time. So it takes 45 min to an hour? Let the temp stabilize and the smoke clear- the wait is worth it. You could use that time to mix your rubs, or prep your meat, try to talk your wife into... well you know?

 

[Grillard]

Me? Lid on- every time. So it takes 45 min to an hour? Let the temp stabilize and the smoke clear- the wait is worth it. You could use that time to mix your rubs, or prep your meat, try to talk your wife into... well you know?

Yeah, I always make mine a margarita before I ask her to...





Make potato salad.

 

[Enrico Brandizzi]

The same here w/WSM.
Somewhere between 1 hour to 1:30 hour to get thin blue smoke and steady 250F

 

[mikemci]

I use that hour to trim and rub. It's just part of my routine.

 

[Doog]

Usually throw a half lit chimney in,put the lid back on and have 2 intakes open and let it settle in till it hits the temp I want.
As Mikemci said it just gives you time to prep the meat.

 

[Bludawg]

When I had a UDS I got thin blue in 15 min. Full basket, 1/2 chimney of hot, lid off, watch the side thermo when the temp got to 250 I had TBS. Add meat lid on, valve at 2/3 open, 1 cap on, settled at 300 in 10 min. 275 cap both nipples valve WFO, 250 cap both nipples valve @ 2/3 open. 225 valve at 1/2 open

 

[CakeM1x]

When I had my uds I'd throw on about 15 briquettes on top of my fire basket and then put the lid on with all 3 intakes open and top vent open. Then slowly choked down the bottom vents.

 

[Shagdog]

I always found that if you get the right amount of hot coals to begin with, the faster I would get thin blue. If you put 12 cols on and wait for the temp to get to 300, you'll be there a while.

300=3/4 chimney
250=1/2 chimney
275= somewhere between

Experiment with how many hot coals you add to start, it definitely makes a difference. If you know what it takes coal wise and where your valves need to be set for that temp, you can hit your temp with TBS pretty quick

 

[KevinJ]

I have WSM, dump my hot coals and put it back together I'm usually at 150-165, let it run with all vents open in 20 to 30 minutes it's up to desired cook temp (275-300). I'll start shutting down vents to maintain desired cook temp and let it run at that temp until the fire cleans up which is usually another 45-60 minutes.

After reading Bludawg's post I'll probably go with a full chimney instead of 1/2 to 3/4's and see if my fire cleans up faster, I use the Weber compact chimney which holds about 50 Briquettes full.

 

[SmittyJonz]

Mine always took about 45 minutes- I'd light it and go prep the meat.

 

[TurkeyLeg]

Thanks guys, just wanted to make sure it was normal.

 

[Edonis13]

My PBC takes about 10 minutes to get up to temp but 45 minutes to get clean smoke.