What am I doing wrong?

[DMAX]

Alright, started my fourth cook on the Dragon, and two hours later its over.

I filled the fire basket with wicked good weekend warrior lump, put a full chimney in the middle and surrounded it with hickory, oak and maple chunks.

I let the chimney get half lit, the bottom door was pulled open half way, and then I dumped the chimney.

I spread the coals out, put the heat deflector directly on the fire basket and then closed the top. The hat was two turns open, closed the bottom door and open the wheel about half way. She came up to about 200 when I closed the hat to a half turn open and closed the wheel to about a quarter inch open. This was a half hour after dumping the coals.

I waited another 20 minutes or so, and she was up to about 280, I put two full racks of ribs on and closed the wheel until just a sliver was open.

Then I went running...

Came back an hour later, the wheel is closed still, the hat is a half turn open and she's raging at 550 degrees and my ribs are charcoal!!

What the heck did I do wrong????

DMAX

[ThreeDJ16]

Sounds like your starting too large of a fire and your damper settings are open too much. For rib temps, you only need the bottom damper open a tiny sliver (1/8" or less) and the top damper barely cracked off the seat (1/4 or less turn). I use the gas attachment and only run it about 3 minutes. You really only need about 2 or 3 lit coals to get things going. Don't let the fire stoke up before setting your dampers. Let it come up slowly on it's own. Takes about an hour to get the whole cooker up to proper temps and start getting heat soaked, so don't rush it. Also when you do make adjustments, give the cooker 30 minutes to stabilize before thinking you need another adjustment. Lastly, if you are really lazy like me, just buy a Guru, light a few coals, set it and forget it!!

-=Jasen=-

[cruzmisl]

I agree. You start too hot and get too many coals lit you'll never control it. What I usually do is load the basket with coals, I then take a MAPP torch or propane torch and hold it on the center of the pile unitl they glow nice and red. Then crack the top and the bottom and monitor the temps. The K is very efficient so you will need very little airflow. Hope this helps.

Joe

[DMAX]

Thanks guys. I went and grabbed another two racks and have them on now. I have the wheel and the hat both closed, the only air leaving is at the thermometer port and rotis port. We'll see what happens.

J, I do plan to get a guru, but I figured I should get used to the beast first before adding contraptions.

DMAX

[cruzmisl]

Contraptions are what makes things EZ. Seriously though it's good to get to know the cooker because even with a guru you have to know how much to open the damper top etc. The best part is you get to enjoy the fruits of your experimentation.

[Firemonkey]

Dmax, if you have the door, dial and damper closed tight, your cook may be over in 2 hours again. Only this time, it will be because the fire is extinguished completely.

As the others have said, you want to start with appropriate fire. Dj uses gas, and I used to do that as well. Lately, I have been using a chimney. FWIW, a Weber chimney fully lit is way too much fire out of the gate. I usually only fill my chimney about 1/3 full. When its lit, i pour that over the lump in the KK, set the drafts to where I expect them to be, and let it come up to temp. Once it get it where I want it, the food goes on. After a while, you can pretty closely hit your target temps on the initial settings.

The thread below shows some pics of my standard rib procedure. You can see in the second or third picture how few hot coals it takes to get a 250* cook rolling.

http://www.komodokamado.com/forum/viewt ... baby+backs

[DennisLinkletter]

Low and slow cookin'

Always remember that you control your Komodo's temperature by regulating the volume of oxygen to the charcoal and that you want to muffle it from the top rather than restrict it from the bottom because you want to keep that cloud of humid air in the dome. Low 200º's are only about a 1/4 turn from closed and a 1/8"-1/4" sliver opening on the dial. and when your close to your target temp, make mini adjustments.

Another thing is that when you open to peek (a no no) the additional air/oxygen that enters will cause your temps to climb, if your temps were ok before you opened it up,don't do/adjust anything.. It will stabilize back to where it was set. Have faith here.

[tcoliver]

One other thing is to be sure you really are closing the top damper ALL THE WAY and then backing it off. Sometimes people close the top damper lightly and think it is closed when actually if you use a little more force it will actually turn a little more. So crank it down tight and then back it off again.

[Greg_R]

The critical thing to remember is that the more your door is open the bigger your fire is going to get prior to achieving your target temp. Opening things up to get up to temp quickly will NOT work (your temps will not be able to stay at 225 or 250 because the fire is too large). Get a few good pieces of lump well-lit and dump it onto the top of the pile. Once on the pile just barely crack the bottom dial damper (do NOT pull out the door) and crack open the top about a 1/4 turn or so.

You will need to do this even if you own a Guru or Stoker. I have tried bringing the KK up to temp with a Stoker and have had intermittent results (fire gets too big sometimes). It's much better when used as a temperature maintainer (i.e. slowly bring the KK up to temp and then start / use the blower system).

[DennisLinkletter]

Don't need to pull the new ones very tight at all..

One other thing is to be sure you really are closing the top damper ALL THE WAY and then backing it off. Sometimes people close the top damper lightly and think it is closed when actually if you use a little more force it will actually turn a little more. So crank it down tight and then back it off again.

We now have a better jig for exact positioning of the shaft when it's cast into the damper top and the top is paired up with the cooker when the stainless collar is installed. This insures a perfect fit, so there are no irregular fits and extra play like yours seems to have..

The threads are over sized and not only permits expansion when heated but also makes sure that when tightened it always makes a perfect seal.. even yours Tony.

[DMAX]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I obviously used too many lit coals to get started with and then had no hope of qwelling the inferno. The second batch came out good and I am looking forward to my next start to finish cook!

DMAX

[Sanny]

Excellent, DMax! Love it when there's a success or two in the learning curve. Incentive to learn some more!

But, remember. No pics? Never happened.

[linuxwrangler]

Another thing to beware of is moist charcoal. You will quickly learn what settings yield what temps - and they are very repeatable. Unless you run out of charcoal, you will always eventually hit/hold your target temperature.

But when you dump in that fresh bag of charcoal you can get suckered - especially with a low-n-slow and especially when a newbie.

When warming up, you can end up stalling for a while near the boiling-point of water till the charcoal dries. Since water boils at around the same temp as a low-n-slow you can get suckered into thinking that you are "dialed-in" but come back a while later and find things crisped. With the dampers mostly closed, drying can take time.

If I have just added a batch of charcoal, I will often open both dampers wide for max airflow and drying, watch the temp and wait for it to pass through the 200-degree plateau and head on up to around 350, then dial in my known low-n-slow settings.

The over-temp won't be a problem - the process doesn't take too long so you won't be heat-soaked and the temp will drop back down to your target not too long after you open the lid and pop in the cold food. And if you hit 350 you can be pretty sure your charcoal is dry enough.

But you do have to watch it. Once your charcoal is dry, the temps will head north rapidly with open dampers. You will be at 350 and resetting your dampers within a couple minutes. 5-10 minutes of inattention and you can end up at 700 and climbing.

[ThreeDJ16]

Another thing to beware of is moist charcoal.

Never had an issue with charcoal provided you don't leave it in the yard or buy it from an unscrupulous source who sells moldy, wet charcoal ! Can't go wrong with Kingsford from Walleyworld!

-=Jasen=-

[Sanny]

And you'll know pretty quickly if your fuel is damp. Clouds of steam pour out of the cooker when the fire is getting started. CLOUDS!! Billows, even.

Ask me how I know....

I find that keeping some fuel (extruded, in my case) around the inner edges of the cooker (not in the basket, or where it will catch fire) will give you a supply of dry, if you are in need. It dries while you cook, giving you dry fuel for next time.

[tcoliver]

Re: Don't need to pull the new ones very tight at all..

This insures a perfect fit, so there are no irregular fits and extra play like yours seems to have..

I was thinking more that sometimes there is soot or grit that builds up on the top damper and/or the top of the cooker and this gives a false sense of the damper top being fully closed but if you give it a few hard twists and wear off the crud it actually keeps turning, maybe this is not true of the newer grills but it has caused me to have a few fires get away from me. Anyway, looks like DMAX has it fugured out, just more reasons to cook more and experiment.

[DMAX]

Well, thanks again all for the guidance. I did another spatchcock chicken, no worries there, and then did a low and slow set of ribs on Sunday. I did as directed, filled the fire basket, lit two or three larger pieces of my Wicked Good Weekend Warrior blend, left the intake wheel at about 1/8" open and the hat at a half turn. It took her a good 45 minutes to get to 200, I took the hat to a 1/4 turn open, waited until she had been at 250 for a half an hour and then put on the ribs. Checked her every hour or so and she didn't budge off 250. Awesome!

I need though now, to figure out when to wrap my ribs in foil. The family wasnt a fan of the color and texture of the bark, but the meat was perfection! I'm thinking that at my first peek and mop at 4 hours, I will go ahead and wrap them for the final two hours.

Thoughts?

DMAX

[gadgetgeek]

Well, thanks again all for the guidance. I did another spatchcock chicken, no worries there, and then did a low and slow set of ribs on Sunday. I did as directed, filled the fire basket, lit two or three larger pieces of my Wicked Good Weekend Warrior blend, left the intake wheel at about 1/8" open and the hat at a half turn. It took her a good 45 minutes to get to 200, I took the hat to a 1/4 turn open, waited until she had been at 250 for a half an hour and then put on the ribs. Checked her every hour or so and she didn't budge off 250. Awesome!

I need though now, to figure out when to wrap my ribs in foil. The family wasnt a fan of the color and texture of the bark, but the meat was perfection! I'm thinking that at my first peek and mop at 4 hours, I will go ahead and wrap them for the final two hours.

Thoughts? DMAX

I'd hang check them at 3 hours... or tear check them.. if they are somewhat close to done, I'd wrap 'em in foil then.. You may want to go to a dry rub rather than a mop? Then when you unfoil them later you can doctor them up with whatever suits your fancy...

So many ways, so many different sets of ribs, and so many kinds of cookers.. Thank goodness all of the backyard chefs are the same...

.

[ThreeDJ16]

I need though now, to figure out when to wrap my ribs in foil. The family wasnt a fan of the color and texture of the bark, but the meat was perfection! I'm thinking that at my first peek and mop at 4 hours, I will go ahead and wrap them for the final two hours.

Thoughts?

DMAX

NEVER! Man, perish the thought of being unkind to those ribs and wrapping them in foil. Try using a rub with no sugar. For wives and kids, might also use little or no smoke wood (you will still get some from the charcoal). Did you use the heat deflector? Also try lowering your temps to 225.

-=Jasen=-

[Sanny]

Curses! Foiled again!