Amphoran

No, I don't have it yet. I asked Dennis a couple of times how to order one, but never received a definitive reply. He's a busy guy. The MAPP torch is just so darned easy, though, that I may just stick with that. Thiry seconds I've got!

Some of the sites/ads I came across did not specify content, and since it is as easy to gel oils as it is alcohol, I am suspicious of them. the alcohol gels won't ruin the flavor of a cook, but napalm and other gelled oils certainly do! Although it isn't a gel, you can still find hexamine fire starters out there, and those create toxic fumes. The little balls of fatwood shavings and paraffin are probably the best, but I've still found nothing that beats the MAPP torch for speed and simplicity.

Pressed mystery goo is just sawdust with enough paraffin wax to hold the thing together. (At least many of them are. Avoid ESBIT (hexamine) tablets, and a little web research has found that there are "gel" starters out there that are suspect.) The easiest method I've found to date is the MAPP torch - takes all of about 10 seconds to get a lump glowing and sparking.

The same thing happened when I got my Tel-Tru. In trying to slide the pot clip off the head of the thermometer slid off the stem, and I couldn't get it to go all the way back in. I calibrated it in boiling water and marked the nut and back, then locked it in place with a dab of "goop" glue. It seems to track correctly, but I did buy a new one from Tel-Tru, which I trust more. This time I gripped the shaft with a pair of vice grips before trying to remove the pot clip. Mike

That first statement was only meant that either increased the back pressure and reduce the flow of air into the cooker; I take your point about the difference in how the whole system responds. I was doing two half breasts, about 3 pounds each, on the upper grill.

Mine didn't start doing it until after several long and slows and a couple roasty toasties. I saw the behavior for the first time last night, when I'd open the top a quarter to a half turn, and it simply wouldn't stay - it would just rotate itself back down until the gasket was just touching. I'm planning on spinning it all the way off this weekend and looking at the threads to see if I need to wash off some greasy soot.....

Smoke was coming out of the right rear portion of the joint between top and body. Mine used to be quite open on the left side, so took off the spring and hinge and reset as best I could; paper is now tight everywhere but right rear, and that's where the smoke came out. Shutting down the top damper is effectively the same as closing the damper on the fan, so I'll try that next time. The unit has some very interesting features. The display is just a bit cryptic, but it uses brightness blinking to display the % time the fan is running, so you can check on its operation from a hundred feet away, easily. The display is also large and clear enough that I was able to check the food temp easily from inside the house by taking a glance with my binoculars. By the way, DJ, I was making your turkey breast recipe! It sounded so good I had to try it - However, after 4 hours, the internal temp was still only up to 165. Did you do that direct? I was using indirect, and I assume that the unit was not fully heat soaked for the first hour or so. Mike

I just finished my first cook with the new DigiII, and it is an impressive little device! I was cooking at 250, and after lighting a couple pices on top with the MAPP torch, I closed the damper on the 10 cfm fan halfway and set the pit setpoint to 250. The top damper was open a quarter turn (and this is the first time I've seen the behavior where it shuts itself! I had to stick a small piece of grapevine in under it to keep it open a quarter turn). It came up to 250 in about 20 minutes, and held rock stead for an hour. At that point, I set the display to food and left it there so I could tell how things were going from inside. After a couple of hours, I went outside to snoop, and when I changed the display to pit, found that the temp was 265, and fifteen minutes later it was 268. The dome thermometer agreed exactly with the guru. Obviously, half open must be too much for low temperature cooks. Anybody want to share their experience? Are there any other factors to consider? Should I try 1/4 open? Thanks, Mike

I just installed my new inducer tube. I cut down the 4.5 inch tube, and after reading this thread, and looking at the angle, I decided to make the cut an an angle, so any condensation (or coals) that might fall would not roll down the tube. Here's the result: The image is upside down from the way it installs in the side, so there is a protective overhang over the end of the tube. After installing it, I found that the angle should have been even a bit steeper! The end of the tube inside is vertical, but there is no overhang. Cheers, Mike

Hey FM, Have you tried one of those rubber/plastic gizmos that go under furniture feet to protect hardwood floors? they come in a variety of sizes, shapes, thicknesses and colors (including clear), and you could just roll the wheel up into one. A 1.5-2" round one would probably be perfect for the job.

Clearly, there are many good ways to sear a steak! I had never seen any smoke leakage from the gas door before. It is true that the entire charcoal basket was red hot - you could clearly see the glow through the front damper door, but when everything was cooled down the next morning, I'd estimate that less than a pound of charcoal was actually burned. I'll keep experimenting, try all of the techniques that have been mentioned here, and see what works best for us. Thanks all, for all the help! Mike

Yes, I definitely had a pair of welding gauntlets on! I let the fire build to raging heat, but as soon as the dome temp hit 700, I opened up the lid and tossed in the steaks, and shut the lid. Top damper was open about an inch and the damper door about a half inch. After a couple minutes, I popped open the lid, flipped the steaks with tongs, and shut it again. Throughout this time, the temp stayed in the 700-750 range. At the end of the second side sear, I spun the top damper down tight and pushed in the lower damper. This is when smoke started pouring out the gas door, which had never happened before. Over the next four minutes or so, the dome temp came down to about 450, then I spun the upper damper open a couple of turns, waited a half minute, and carefully opened the lid (no flashback!) The steaks were excellent. This morning, I took the gas door out and looked - no chuncks of anything that I could see, but the frame around it was greasy/sooty. The door is definitely NOT warped. I cleaned everything up, and put the door in and it looks tight. I'll have to test it again in a few days.. Now, what is the reason for keeping the dome up during the sear? By putting it down, the handle didn't get hot..... Cheers! Mike

First Extreme steak cook Last night I (hypothetically, sorry, no pics) did my first Xtreme temp steak cook, and all went well, but a very strange thing (I think) happened. I ran the KK up to 750 degrees, the seared the steaks on the lower grill, (shutting the lid during the sear). This required keeping the draft door open a half inch or so. When I shut the damper and the draft door for the dwell, smoke came POURING out of the gas burner door. It was fully shut, but I could slow the flow of smoke down a bit by pushing on the teak knob. Is this normal? It looked like a two-alarm fire. The temperature WAS dropping during the dwell, and the fire did eventually die out, but I expected that both dampers would shut tight. There was a LOT of moisture in this smoke, because it was condensing and running down the side of the KK, which is now a sooty mess. Is this a sign of a slightly warped gas door? Do I need to try and make a high temperature silicone gasket for that door? Any tips or similar experiences would be great. Thanks, Mike

Welcome from another relative newbie! Pastrami! Me too.

Thanks, FM! I realize that I had the damper just a bit too tight - I was losing a few degrees an hour, then when I tried to bring it back up quickly, I way overshot. All in all a good learning experience! The next one will be smoother.

I ordered mine when the boat was just leaving Indonesia. The ocean crossing took about six and a half weeks, and I had it in my yard about eight days after the boat docked.

Percentage change - a very good point I had overlooked! In spite of all the gyrations, the butts came out very well, so maybe I was being just a tiny bit anal-ytical

Yeah, I pulled it out to try and get things to heat up quick, because it was two in the morning, the temperature was forty degrees low, and I was in the back yard in my bathrobe.... The problem was that I should have shut it again after the temperature climbed about 10-15 degrees, then opened the twister a couple of degrees. I'm looking at the guru and the stoker; and can see advantages to each. I would like to know the cooker well enough though, that I could manage it well in case of a controller failure!

Six people - we actually ate a little less than half of it, most of the rest goes into the foodsaver tonight. I THINK that my problem with temperature wasn't an actual fluctuation in the burn, but my lack of a feel for the cooker dynamics. After the initial heat up, it took more heat for the first few hours (as the cooker itself heated up), then I closed the lower vent too much, and the temperature fell very slowly until it was down to 185 when I woke up at 2. I then pulled the damper out, and it heated up over about 10 minutes to 225, and I pushed it back in (still open only a tiny bitk), but there was enough heat in the charcoal itself to drive the cooker to about 265. That then cooled off very slowly over the rest of the night. In the morning I opened the vents just a bit more, and it held 220-230 very stably the rest of the cook. I will try the sorting by size trick; I've read about that elsewhere as well. When I pulled the damper out in the middle of the night, the entire basket was glowing dull red, so everything was lit. That would have been 9 hours into the cook.

Great, I'll want to pick up one of the bearings, too, because the one on my latch is getting quite rusty, and the Winter rains haven't even started yet!

Is the bearing for the latch? How do we go about getting the improved roti shaft? Cheers, Mike

My first really long cook (23 hours), 15 pounds of butts. I had a couple of temperature fluctuations - got down to 190 about 2 am, so I ran it up to 230, but then it kept on climbing to 270, but cooled down over the next three hours or so. I've got to do more, so I can get a better handle on the dynamics! It turned out fantastic, though, and most of it ended up eaten! Anyway, here's the proof:

Penzeys is another great online spice store. http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html

Ardbeg!

Oooooh. Lathes to die for! I drooled over those, but ended up with a Grizzley.