Hi @churchi,
Here’s my method of getting Smaug up to steak searing temps fast.
I start with a full basket of charcoal, and light it over a fairly wide area. I do use a weed torch, but the main purpose is to get a lot of charcoal lit, not to blast the charcoal with the weed torch. I have the lid open with the bottom vents fully open, with the grate off. After five minutes, I’ll flip over the lit chunks in the top layer of the charcoal a bit in order to get the top surface to give off heat, put the grate in, close the lid and open the top vent as high as it would go. I can usually hit 500-600ºF within 15 minutes.
I think that the moving the charcoal around after five minutes helps a lot, because it gets lit coals right at the top of the basket and distributes the fire more quickly than letting it burn on its own. (That’s also why I leave the grate off at first so I don’t have to maneuver a hot grate later to stir up the charcoal.) I’ve noticed in the past that if I’m going for a high temperature, and there’s large pieces of charcoal on the top that are burning only on the bottom side, the unlit portion of the charcoal is preventing heat from coming through. Flipping over those pieces did a lot to speed up the process. I’ve noticed that when my thermometer approaches 500ºF, the top surface of the charcoal will mainly be on fire, but the larger chunks will have a dark spot in the middle that isn’t actually burning. Here’s a picture from the Serious Eats website that shows what I mean. This looks like a good charcoal fire, but it’s really not at full blast yet. You see those large pieces of charcoal in the middle that still look black? That’s charcoal that’s not burning. I think this acts as an insulator, blocking the fire underneath it, and preventing the temperature from rising higher. Turning those pieces over helps the temperature come up faster.
Hope that helps! Try this method with your KK 32”. I’d be curious to see how well it works for you.