"The lid is not all closed due to the wires for the maverick. "
That's a little bit of it anyways.....
Standard burn for me is about 10~11+ hours....two, with one or sometimes two, with wood chunks, with some small otherwise useless lump chips sprinkled on top of the outside edge of the chain....against the bell.....
Like so :
Top vent all open, always (pinched in some rare circumstances, but not usually long cooks) bottom vents anywhere from half open on down to just a little open, depending on :
~outside air temp
~desired cooking temp
~type of charcoal actually used
~outside humidity, rain, etc.
~bigness of meat (that's a biggie, sometimes)
But like this set....it just trundled along @ 260 or so....
Burned around, so just added in another length of coals.....only takes a minute or two, doesn't have to be perfect & finishes the cookup just fine....
Sometimes, it just runs straight thru with no adding in.......depends on if I get around to checking where the vents are set or not...
9 hours straight thru :
On at 9:30 PM........
......off at 6:30 AM
^^^^ That's a common sight at the Kettle Orphanage here.....
After the kettle's heated, 5~6 coals SHOULD produce about 240f thru the area......so it's possible you're losing some from the wires....usually i wouldn't think that's much of a deal, but maybe....?
lifting the lid a lot goofs things up, even though it will recover quickly..............