Open Range temp and fire regulating questions

The Good-One™ Forums » Good-One Smoker/Grill Owners » Questions about your Good-One Smoker/Grill

Open Range temp and fire regulating questions

(47 posts) (6 voices)

Started 9 months ago by Ranch13Q
Latest reply from JMJ

Tags:

No tags yet.

12 Next »

Ranch13Q
Member

I recently purchased an Open Range and did my first cook this weekend. Ribs on Saturday and chicken and potatoes on Sunday.
I'm new to The open Range but not new to BBQ. I have used a WSM for years and have gotten used to how easy fire and temp control is.
This weekend I watched the videos on your site and fired up my new smoker. I set the dampers as shown in the video and put the ribs in the smoker. I had to constantly fiddle with the vents and damper and even lost the fire on one side. I know that this can't be common so I'm assuming that I'm doing something wrong. I'm using the same lump charcoal I've always used.
Even though I knew this wasn't a long burn I set up for one like I did in my WSM. Unfired charcoal on the bottom and hot coals poured on top. In the WSM that was basically it. Should I have let all of my coals go ashen before I started my cook?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know that this is a great smoker I just need to get to know it's tricks.

Thank you,
Randy

Posted 9 months ago #
JMJ
Member

Randy, I am having a similar issue. See my post a few down, "uneven burning of coals". Like you, I seem to lose the fire on one side. For me it's the right side, furthest away from the ash pan opening. Is this where you are losing yours too?

Posted 9 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

John,
I read your posts and the other members with the same problem. I lost my fire on the ash door side. In all of my years of barbecue, and I'm no expert by any means, I have never lost a fire. I'm a little disappointed to see that this appears to be a, not so, uncommon problem.
If you or anybody else figures it out please let me know. In the meantime I'm going to keep trying other methods and reading posts. This weekend I'm doing a brisket. A 12 hour smoke should be a good test. Thanks for you help.
Randy

Posted 9 months ago #
big john
Member

Ranch13Q,
I also am disappointed to see that this is not isolated. I still think the smoker is one of the best, but it is frustrating to see the guys with Traegers, WSM's, and even the cheap Brinkmans have more control over the fire. I am beginning to think each smoker has some variations that affect the firebox. I took a cooking class where the same smoker I have was used (open Range). The instructor had complete control over the fire. He could raise temp 25-50 degress in a matter of minutes. I have to run mine wide open the whole time to sustain temps. when one side starts to die out, I prop the firebox lid open with a chunk of wood or piece of steel. The lid only has to be propped open an inch or two. this will allow the fire to burn even and raise the temp. I know this should not be neccesary, but it is all that works for me. Try it and let me know if it works for you too. Maybe some of the other posters can help us out. john

Posted 9 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

Big John,
I'm going to try a brisket on Saturday. I'm going to try pouring some competition briquettes over my lump charcoal and see if they will help keep the fire going. I'm thinking maybe the differing sizes of my lump charcoal may be causing some of the problem, although I never had that problem with my WSM and normally would usually never think of using briquettes. My WSM was basically plug and play. Start a fire, throw on meat and eat when done. Last weekend I did two chickens on my Open Range. They were side by side on the bottom rack. Because of the uneven heat, when one was done the other wasn't. I also had to add charcoal twice on a 4 hour cook. I could get 8-10 hours on my WSM. This can't be typical or no one would buy these smokers.
For the time being I'm going to assume that I'm doing something wrong and keep experimenting until I get this figured out. I agree that these smokers are among the best but there should not be the variances that we are seeing. That's where quality control is important.
I'll let you know how this weekend goes.
Randy

Posted 9 months ago #
JMJ
Member

Randy, I missed one of your questions. Yes, you should let all the coals get nice and red before starting your cook. I don't know if it would make a difference for you, but I do this and still lose my fire.

Posted 9 months ago #
ChrisM
Administrator

Guys, please either register your smoker at http://www.aceofheartsbbq.com/ownerregister.html and I will re-send you over the
October newsletter that details fire management for the Open Randge.

This goes over in detail the issues that you are having and how to correct them.

Or you can e-mail me @ chrism@aceofheartsbbq.com

Chris

Posted 9 months ago #
Urbs
Member

As I do not own one of these cookers I'm very interested in what Chris has to say. Can someone please post his fire management letter and maybe some results if their solution really works. I'm very interested in purchasing one of these but not with the problems I've been reading about on this forum. Thx

Posted 9 months ago #
big john
Member

Chris, I light my fire just like the newsletter says. My main problem is keeping the heat up past 225-250, or is that the ideal temp. Sometimes I like to bring the temp up and cook at 250-325. I have a temp of 300-325 when i start the cook but it always settles in at around 225 even with spinners on front wide open damper 1/4-1/2 open and top spinner 1-1.5 turns open.the only way I can raise temp is to prop open the lid. One reason I like a higher temp is when I am use the extra grate that gives me two cooking surfaces. If I dont have higher temp the stuff on the bottom seems to take forever, I finally have to put it on the top grate after the food on it is done. I have had the firebox so hot that my charcoal grate is warped. I know it must be something i am doing wrong, but i have not had a consistent fire for two years. I even bought the new upgraded spinners hoping that might help. I really appreciate what you are doing with this forum. The customer service from you and your staff is second to none. If it was not for you and Rob I would have sold my smoker a year ago. It just seems that the only complaints are with the temp. BTW anything on an ash hoe or some way to remove the ashes that dont go in the pan. tahnks john

Posted 9 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

Chris,
I used my Open Range on Saturday to do a brisket and a pork butt. This time I used every trick listed in this forum. I layered my charcoal, lit my chimney and set it in the fire box, poured my hot coals on the opposite side, added a layer of unlit charcoal and didn't shut the lid until I had a red hot fire. I dialed all three vents to two turns. For the first 4.5 hours everything was perfect. I had great control over the heat by using just the damper and I was sure that I had the system down. After 4.5 hours I added a chimney of hot coals. I was careful to spread the hot coals evenly across the box and left all settings where they were. At about 6 hours I opened the fire box for a quick check and found the side, opposite the ash box opening, to be almost completely out. The other side was red hot. I opened the firebox lid and re-distributed the coals to get the fire going again and continued my cook. I had a successful cook and kept a fire for over 12 hours until I shut it down. Any idea why, with a really hot fire, I would loose half of the fire when I had such a great fire going? Also I used 20 lbs of Royal Oak lump charcoal, about twice what My WSM would use. Does that seem about right? My smoker is the reverse lid, if that makes any difference.
Thank you.....Randy

Posted 8 months ago #
big john
Member

Chris, Randy,
Same here, I used 2 chimneys of Good-One charcoal red hot poured over a layer of unlit charcoal, put a layer of unlit charcoal on top of this. had front spinners all the way open, damper 80-90% open top spinner open 1.5 turns when the top layer of coals were red hot I closed the lid and let the temp rise to 375. I put on brisket, pork shoulder and ribs. ( I am using the extra rack on cooking surface) The temp went down to 200, I waited for temp to rise but it settled in at 225 (I still have all of the settings wide open). I propped the firebox lid open and temp rose to 350. The charcoal burnt up, when I added more the right was red hot and eventually burned to the left. I still had to prop lid open. The meat on the bottom grille (pork ribs) had too eventually be put on top grate to finish. I ran out of time to cook chicken wings. I probably used 15 #s of charcoal. Could it be that I am putting too much meat on? Should I use only the top cooking grate? I wonder about the damper, if the meat inhibits air flow wouldnt this cause an uneven fire. One of the reasons I bought this was the ability to control fire and cook at temps over 325 for extended periods, If I dont prop lid open I cant get temp over 225-250. Am I expecting too much? thanks john

Posted 8 months ago #
JMJ
Member

Randy, John....do me a favor. Go look at your smoker, specifically the thermometer. Measure the distance between the display and the smoker lid. The thermometer should be pushed in all the way, none of the rod should be exposed. Before I say why, I'm curious to know if yours is pushed in all the way or not.

Posted 8 months ago #
big john
Member

jmj, I checked my thermometer. it is in all the way. mine threads into the lid. there is 11/8 inch from the back of the face to front of lid. I think the temp reading is correct. For some reason I am not getting enough air flow to manage the fire. I hate to complain but for what this cost I should not have to prop up the lid to raise the temp.
It is probably something I am doing wrong, if it wasn't for this forum and ace of hearts I would be lost, my dealer is no help at all. I am considering trying to sell this and get a Traeger. It is getting to be a hassle instead of enjoyment john

Posted 8 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

JMJ,
Mine is out about 3/4" from the back of the thermometer to the face of the lid.

Randy

Posted 8 months ago #
JMJ
Member

The reason I mention it is because mine was not in all the way. I brought it back to the dealer where I bought it and he picked up on that pretty quick (it was maybe 2/3 the way in). I stopped by there on my lunch hour today and we chatted. He was using about 1/2 to maybe 2/3 the amount of coals I was using. Anyway, I saw the temp with the amount of coals he had, as well as the damper setting. 250F. I had a full bucket of coals solid red, and the damper a little more open than he had at 250F. Also, my smoker box lid was warped open at 250F. He had 250F and the smoker box lid was not warped, it sealed tight (which baffled me). So that got me thinking:

My smoker box had to be VERY hot for the lid to warp open a bit. Probably 400F or hotter, yet it only reported 250F. The temperature was being measured from outside and inside the smoker box. Who knows what the internal temperature was, but it was HOT. To give you an idea, I smoked a 9lb butt in 6 hours. After 3-4 hours the internal temp was 150F and I wrapped it and at 6 hours it was 195F internal temp. My dealer said a 9lb butt takes him ~9 hours at 250F. Mine read 250F, but I was clearly hotter. In fact, I was never really able to get a reading over 300F. I can only imagine how hot the smoker box really was when it read 300F.

My temperature appeared to fluctuate a lot. It could have been the exterior part of the thermometer that was affecting this, that is my guess. My dealer got a good consistent temperature and burn today, exactly how good I'll find out tomorrow.

Now that leaves a different issue that I still don't know how to explain, why the right side of my coals just die, even when they are all glowing red. I'm not an expert, but I'm wondering if it's possible to use too much coal? Is it possible that it's smothering itself? I'll have better answers tomorrow after talking to my dealer to find out if his cook on my grill burned even. If it did, I'll know I need to use less coals.

I'll update you tomorrow. John - Also, is there a chance your thermometer is damaged? With a decent amount of coal and your spinner settings and the damper nearly full open, you should be way above 225F even with meat on the grill. Remember I cooked a 9lb butt in 6 hours at a "reported" 250F. It should have taken 9 hours. If my math is right, that means I must have been running about 375F? That is, assuming the temp vs. cook time is linear. You could try a butt, and assume the one pound/hour cook time at 250F. If you're cooking in less time than that at a reported 250F, chances are your thermometer could be bad. thoughts?

Posted 8 months ago #
JMJ
Member

Randy, that is out pretty far. shove that thing in all the way. This could solve the fluctuating temperature issue, which could be false.

As far as the coals dying, see my post above. When I get my grill back I'll try a cook with less coals than I used before. I'm fairly certain I was using more than 10lbs in there.

Posted 8 months ago #
big john
Member

jmj I did a butt yesterday along with a briskit and some ribs. The butt and briskit were on the top cooking grate. The briskit was a thin one about 5 lbs. I took it off after 6.5 hours it was 185 the butt was 170 but my fire was almost out and i did not want to rebuild the fire. The ribs that were on the lower cooking grate were not done after 6 hours, the ones on the top grate were done after about 5 hours. I also wonder if I use too much charcoal, but if I used less I would have too add charcoal every couple of hours.

Posted 8 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

JMJ,
I have oven thermometer on my grill and actually shows that my lid thermometer is only off by 5 degrees which I thought was pretty good. Your theory about your grill makes a lot of sense, especially with the lid warping. Does the lid go back to normal when it cools? I've thought the same thing about the charcoal. I noticed after my last cook that there were quite a few pieces of smaller charcoal at grill level on the right side. I'm still not sure why it's always the right side that goes out. I will say that in the first 5 or so hours of my cook when all was working right the temperature control was really easy. I was experimenting with my damper and could raise or lower temp 10 degrees with little effort. I think we are closer to an answer. We just need to keep the fire going and I need to find out why I burned so much charcoal. Good luck tomorrow, update us on your findings.........Randy

Posted 8 months ago #
JMJ
Member

Randy, yes the lid goes back to normal. In fact, with the thermo inserted fully today and reading 250F, it had ZERO warping. I too burn a lot of charcoal, but i'm sure when you burn hotter, you burn more coal. My theory kind of gets squashed by the fact that your thermometer almost matches an oven thermometer. I do think that it's possible that we are using too much coal, but won't know till I get my grill back and I'll cook with 1/2 the coal and see how long it last and what kind of temps I get. Hey, in your posts you never mention what temp you are running at or trying to maintain. Are you around 250F?

Posted 8 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

JMJ,
Last cook I took Chris's advise and did 260 to 280. Something I read in one of his posts. No problem maintaining. Also I went out and pushed in my thermometer after your last post. I wondered why it was out so far.

Posted 8 months ago #
JMJ
Member

Okay, so my smoker ran about 8 hours yesterday and maintained anywhere from 225-250 the whole time, on what I would guess was 10lbs of coal or less. They definitely did not use as much as I was using. I am told it was a consistent burn and when they looked at the coals this morning (they shut it down after 8 hours), it was still an even bed, one side did not burn more heavily than the other. They left the damper alone and the spinners at 1.5 turns open. I had filled the box so full that the coals would bump the damper when I opened it.

I think we should take another stab with only putting coals up to the rails that hold the grate and see what happens. I'll give that a shot when I get it back later this week.

Posted 8 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

JMJ,
That sounds very encouraging. So are we putting 10 lbs in like the instructions say or maybe a little less. I would be very happy with an eight hour burn using only 10 lbs. Also did they have any special lighting tips? I'm hoping that Big John's problem gets solved with the gauge adjustment or replacement. He definitely sounds like his gauge is bad. Fill us in with any tips the dealer gave you. I'm doing chicken tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes. A short burn so I'm not to concerned. Big John let us know how you make out.
This forum has been a great help, also sounds like the dealer has been very helpful. Keep on smoking...Randy

Posted 8 months ago #
JMJ
Member

Randy, yes. I'm not sure how to measure 10lbs, but at or below the mounts that hold the grate should be good, and should burn a while if you aim around 250F. Chris and my dealer said they'll get a minimum of 6 hours at 250F on their cooks. I believe the Good One is more or less "guaranteed" for 4 hours. Of course this is temperature dependent. If you run 300F, maybe your easy 6 will turn into 4.

For lighting, he just used 2 starter packs, one on each side, about the point of the vents.

The dealer that is helping me is BBQ Island Inc. in Tempe AZ (they ship too). Their service is the best I have seen and I can't recommend them enough. Google them if you need anything :)

Posted 8 months ago #
JMJ
Member

Final update - Stopped by today to see my grill, they are making good use of it while it's there. They started it early this morning (9 maybe?) and it was still cranking at 230pm today, holding steady at 250F. When I looked in the firebox, there was hardly any coals in there and it had no problem keeping the 250F. They put a mark on that arc where the damper control is that marks 250F. It's barely open and maintains that temperature with no issues.

Isn't it amazing what a thermometer issue can do? John, I can't help but think you have a faulty thermometer possibly. The damper only needs to be open 1/2" to maintain 250F. I'll also only use 1/2 the coals that I was using before and I bet I won't have any fire issues anymore.

Posted 8 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

I guess I need to go see the dealer. I was so excited to get home tonight and cook some boneless, skinless chicken breasts that I had been brining. I got things going to where I thought the fire was ready, put on the chicken and set the temp around 270. I didn't check the meat for an hour and found it to be varying degrees all over the grill. Some of the ones on the front were actually raw while the rear pieces where around 120 degrees. After 1.5 hours I checked the fire and the right side was out again. I opened the lid to start up again and moved around some coals. The recipe I use will cook on my WSM in a little over an hour. I've been cooking now for over 2 hours and still not done. I think I'll have Mike at Barbecue Island explain to me or better yet show me how the fire should look before I shut the lid and put on the meat. I really think that I'm rushing my start up and that is causing much of my problem. I'll let you know how I make out. Very glad to hear that JMJ is having success. I'm sure I will too after more precise instructions.

Posted 8 months ago #
big john
Member

JMJ, Ranch, Do you guys have the extra cooking grate? I have the extra grate, and usually smoke enough to fill both grates. The top grate is much hotter than the bottom,
and things on the bottom never get hot enough to finish. I wonder if the grate is part of my problem?

Posted 8 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

Big John,
I do have the extra grate. Yes, my temps seem to vary. I just went and pulled my chicken off the smoker and this time the left side of the fire was out. Time to do what JMJ did and see a dealer.

Posted 8 months ago #
JMJ
Member

My smoker box has 2 grates, a top and a bottom. I did ribs one time and had a slab on the top and bottom, they both seemed to cook evenly. If you look at the design of the damper, it will let heat in on both the top and bottom cooking grate. In my google searching I found an interesting PDF file on testing on the good one open range smoker. It's a good read, check it out:

http://www.bbqequipment.se/smokers/final-report-open-range.pdf

Randy, I'm at Cooper and Riggs in Chandler. Where are you located?

Posted 8 months ago #
Ranch13Q
Member

JMJ,
I'm at Warner and Lindsay in Gilbert. Looks like we're just about neighbors.

Posted 8 months ago #
JMJ
Member

Contact me at j_m_j(at)cox(dot)net. I'm going to pick my grill up on Friday, maybe we can meetup there and chat, or I can stop by your place or you can stop by mine.

Posted 8 months ago #

RSS feed for this topic

12 Next »

Reply »

You must log in to post.