jhblaze1
Well-known member
So I was running the lonestar 24x40 for the purpose of seasoning today and finding it's just about impossible to keep the temp under 275-300.* The seasoning instructions say to run it 225-250 and that was basically impossible.
Leading up to that temp i had a nice hot fire going with very thin blue smoke and at times imperceptible smoke and i thought i was off to a great start. But then it kept climbing over 250 and up to 300 amd no matter what i couldn't get it back down to 250. Closing the intake didnt seem to do much.
*
Even with the intake only open like half to 3/4 inch, it would just hold at 275+.* Closing the intake any further would dirty up the smoke and I even lost my fire briefly trying to bring the temps down.*
*
After building a solid coal bed, I was adding one log at a time, every 45-55 mins or so, and preheating the next one on the far end of the firebox.* If I waited longer to add a split I'd lose my coal bed to ash down the grate, and if I added it sooner I'd be creeping up over 300.
*
I'm using red oak, a half cord of which was dropped off today.* I'm wondering if this wood is just too dense and burns too hot.* That's all I can really think of.* "red oak" means different things in California.* I'm not sure if it's just common red oak or if it came from "coast live oak", commonly used in Santa Maria style bbq, and valued for being hot burning.* Maybe it's just too hot burning for an offset? But that seems strange.
*
Any other ideas?
*
I want to try cooking on this tomorrow so I think I will go to a local BBQ store and buy a few bags or boxes of their splits to see if that goes any better.* If my wood is the problem I can just repurpose it for the fire pit.
*
Also wondering if maybe running an empty cooker with no meat to absorb the heat could be the reason.* Just seems like trying to cook at 225-250 would be just about impossible right now with the set of variable I have.*
Thanks
Leading up to that temp i had a nice hot fire going with very thin blue smoke and at times imperceptible smoke and i thought i was off to a great start. But then it kept climbing over 250 and up to 300 amd no matter what i couldn't get it back down to 250. Closing the intake didnt seem to do much.
*
Even with the intake only open like half to 3/4 inch, it would just hold at 275+.* Closing the intake any further would dirty up the smoke and I even lost my fire briefly trying to bring the temps down.*
*
After building a solid coal bed, I was adding one log at a time, every 45-55 mins or so, and preheating the next one on the far end of the firebox.* If I waited longer to add a split I'd lose my coal bed to ash down the grate, and if I added it sooner I'd be creeping up over 300.
*
I'm using red oak, a half cord of which was dropped off today.* I'm wondering if this wood is just too dense and burns too hot.* That's all I can really think of.* "red oak" means different things in California.* I'm not sure if it's just common red oak or if it came from "coast live oak", commonly used in Santa Maria style bbq, and valued for being hot burning.* Maybe it's just too hot burning for an offset? But that seems strange.
*
Any other ideas?
*
I want to try cooking on this tomorrow so I think I will go to a local BBQ store and buy a few bags or boxes of their splits to see if that goes any better.* If my wood is the problem I can just repurpose it for the fire pit.
*
Also wondering if maybe running an empty cooker with no meat to absorb the heat could be the reason.* Just seems like trying to cook at 225-250 would be just about impossible right now with the set of variable I have.*
Thanks