pjtexas1
somebody shut me the fark up.
your maze looks about right and should give you 12-20 hours of cook time depending on temp and if you use water.
here is what i would try...
start closing the ball valve when you get within 50-75 degrees of your target temp. much easier to catch the temps on the way up as you know once you go over it is just "over" for good. might also try starting will less lit too. relax...if it takes an hour to get up to temp then that is what it takes. again, better than fighting the cooker.
if all else fails add another piece to the maze to make it like a W or M shape vs the U or S shape. in my insulated cabinets i pretty much know just about how much charcoal i need for x amount of hours. towards the end of my maze i start thinning out the charcoal so the temp will stay steady vs continuing to rise because once they get hot they don't need much of a fire to keep them hot. i don't know if you are trying to cook for 8 hours or 20 but the cooker you have can do anything between with a single load of charcoal.
here is what i would try...
start closing the ball valve when you get within 50-75 degrees of your target temp. much easier to catch the temps on the way up as you know once you go over it is just "over" for good. might also try starting will less lit too. relax...if it takes an hour to get up to temp then that is what it takes. again, better than fighting the cooker.
if all else fails add another piece to the maze to make it like a W or M shape vs the U or S shape. in my insulated cabinets i pretty much know just about how much charcoal i need for x amount of hours. towards the end of my maze i start thinning out the charcoal so the temp will stay steady vs continuing to rise because once they get hot they don't need much of a fire to keep them hot. i don't know if you are trying to cook for 8 hours or 20 but the cooker you have can do anything between with a single load of charcoal.