Need Excel 20 help

OK, I hope I am posting this in an OK place.
When I got home from vacation, my Excel was waiting for me.
That is the good news.
First burn, going to do Baby Back ribs. Filled the charcoal basket with Royal Oak lump, a few hunks of Hickory and Apple wood (dry), and added almost a full chimney of Kingsford briquettes on top. Had two vents full open to start.
Lined the water pan with foil. First mistake, I filled it with warm, not hot water.
Waited .5 hour, temp to only 195. Open all vents. After 1 hour, still 195.
It is now 2.5 hours, never got hotter. Just added some more lit coals, not much help, came up to 200+.
It is warm outside, 90F+, but there is a breeze that may be having an effect. Also I wonder if I affected the draft by using the foil on the water pan, since there is not much room on sides for air flow to rise.
The coals just don't seem like they want to burn.
I am experienced at using stick burners and other charcoal smokers, so I did not expect this problem.

Thanks,
Bill

Hmm...though I have yet to fire up the Excel sitting in my living room (I'll take it outside when it comes time to add fire), I am curious to see what others have to say about this. You're right, the water pan is humongous...I too am wondering if that has anything to do with the low temps? We'll see. Hope you got it lined out and the temps up.

BowtieBill wrote:OK, I hope I am posting this in an OK place.
When I got home from vacation, my Excel was waiting for me.
That is the good news.
First burn, going to do Baby Back ribs. Filled the charcoal basket with Royal Oak lump, a few hunks of Hickory and Apple wood (dry), and added almost a full chimney of Kingsford briquettes on top. Had two vents full open to start.
Lined the water pan with foil. First mistake, I filled it with warm, not hot water.
Waited .5 hour, temp to only 195. Open all vents. After 1 hour, still 195.
It is now 2.5 hours, never got hotter. Just added some more lit coals, not much help, came up to 200+.
It is warm outside, 90F+, but there is a breeze that may be having an effect. Also I wonder if I affected the draft by using the foil on the water pan, since there is not much room on sides for air flow to rise.
The coals just don't seem like they want to burn.
I am experienced at using stick burners and other charcoal smokers, so I did not expect this problem.

Thanks,
Bill

I didn't get any pictures when I stated up the 20 for the first time but I remember NOT filling the basket more than half way and adding about half a chimney to it. Could you be choking it out? As for the pan we added water straight from the tap to about half full with no foil or sand. I don't think the foil is needed as cleanup was very easy when finished.( the pan ran dry sometime that morning but the burnt stuff came right off)

We used some cheap lump them switched to the coconut briqs.Try firing her up and letting it sit without the stackers for a bit.

Outside of this forum, I've never heard of coconut briquettes. Do they add any flavor?

I didn't think so but they burn very well and leave little to no ash. They can be expensive as I'm told from Ian so I havent used any outsie of that contest.


I read the review from here but I think it had a very good burn time. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lumpdatabase/lumpbag46.htm


Here is a link to the site of the Mfg...
Go through a few pages and check out the pictures on the right side of each page.
http://www.sigmabbq.com/about.html

They are hand packed though..

Coconut briquettes burn very very clean and long, and leave no flavour at all.

I use them as often as i get any cheap since they are quite expensive.
Whenever i cook with them i use a bit more wood than i would with using lump charcoal for heat.

DM

Thanks, Dr.
I have some theories, and choking out the fire is one of them, because that is what the coals looked like. The lump I used had a lot of small pieces, which I think restricted airflow. I will try using briquettes only next time and see what happens.
I have quite a few boxes of the Kamado Extruded Cocconut briquettes left, I do not use them often. They are expensive and hard, even though there is a distributor in San Diego. Of the 16 boxes I bought at the time, maybe 6 were covered in mold. I did get them replaced though. They also seem to leave a fine white layer of ash over everything. I think they are a great product for use in Ceramic smokers, where you can shut it down after cook and reuse the un-burnt coals again. I will use up what I have in the Excel to see how they do.
The foil lined pan is what I have seen/read WSM users do, so that is why I did it. I do not think that is the problem. Has anyone tried the other tricks WSM users do, like using foil balls or sand in the pan? I will experiment.
I was also thinking that I should of let the coals ignite more initially with the unit open, then assemble and throttle down with air intakes. But that is opposite of how I have used charcoal baskets in stick burners.
I did not have access to my other thermometers, so I will try measuring grate temps over the dome temp gauge. The thing did settle in around 200d, and was still running there when I went to bed, about 8 hours.
And the good news is that my ribs came out fantastic. Cooked 2.75 hours, wrapped in foil for 1.25, and unwrapped for .5 hours. I did through them on my gassers during the foil process, indirect, just to make sure we would be eating on time.

Thanks for the advise.
Bill

Dr_KY wrote:

BowtieBill wrote:OK, I hope I am posting this in an OK place.
When I got home from vacation, my Excel was waiting for me.
That is the good news.
First burn, going to do Baby Back ribs. Filled the charcoal basket with Royal Oak lump, a few hunks of Hickory and Apple wood (dry), and added almost a full chimney of Kingsford briquettes on top. Had two vents full open to start.
Lined the water pan with foil. First mistake, I filled it with warm, not hot water.
Waited .5 hour, temp to only 195. Open all vents. After 1 hour, still 195.
It is now 2.5 hours, never got hotter. Just added some more lit coals, not much help, came up to 200+.
It is warm outside, 90F+, but there is a breeze that may be having an effect. Also I wonder if I affected the draft by using the foil on the water pan, since there is not much room on sides for air flow to rise.
The coals just don't seem like they want to burn.
I am experienced at using stick burners and other charcoal smokers, so I did not expect this problem.

Thanks,
Bill

I didn't get any pictures when I stated up the 20 for the first time but I remember NOT filling the basket more than half way and adding about half a chimney to it. Could you be choking it out? As for the pan we added water straight from the tap to about half full with no foil or sand. I don't think the foil is needed as cleanup was very easy when finished.( the pan ran dry sometime that morning but the burnt stuff came right off)

We used some cheap lump them switched to the coconut briqs.Try firing her up and letting it sit without the stackers for a bit.

Sounds like a plan Bill.
I too have choked a few fires with that 'shake' from the bottom of a bag of lump that's why I mentioned it. It's tough if not impossible to get fuel here in the winter so I may buy a box or three of the extruded stuff to get through the tough times.


I say load the 20 with baroquets then top it off with a bit of lump so it starts off hotter and gets to temp easier then the briqs will keep you in the zone. I use this theory with my drums and it seems to work well.

I have figured out that only using lump in my smokers is a bad idea because lump likes to burn hot VS coal wanting to be consistent. It could just be my thinking but hey I'm from Pomona.

Dr_KY wrote:Here is a link to the site of the Mfg...
Go through a few pages and check out the pictures on the right side of each page.
http://www.sigmabbq.com/about.html

I found this interesting from their website...

"Food grilled with coconut shell barbecue briquettes are known to eliminate fat and associated cholesterol. Thus it contributes to a healthy way of enjoying barbecued food."

I'm not a scientist so could someone please explain how cooking with this charcoal eliminates fat and cholesterol in food???

Fill my excell slam full this past weekend. Sorry no pics. I promise I do better next time.

I fill my basket with briquettes, foil my water pan and filled it full of hot tap water. Started 20 briquettes in my chimney. Dump the chimney in at 5;45am, alll bottom vents were open. In about 15 minutes my temp was at 200, closed one vent.About 15 minutes later 225. Placed a 9lb picnic roast(shoulder) on the bottom rack. About 45 minutes later 250, closed second vent. Temp settled around 235. Toss in a few hickory now and then, little apple juice about every hr. At five hours I flip the roast, temp still great. At noon I added five racks of ribs to top rack. Temp dropped, then max at 200. open second vent and tossed it more hickory,back to 230-240. At 1:00pm add 4 chic halves on bottom rack, temp max out at 210. open third vent and reached 240 within 30min. At 3:00, foiled ribs and add about 20 abt's. temp max at 195. Add extra hickory, temp only reach 220. Filled chimney full and started burning. AT 4:30 add chimney and went ahead and unwrapped ribs. Temp increased to 250, closed a vent, temp dropped to 240. At 12 hrs from the start, ribs were ready, chic was good, abt's were abt's, however roast was at 175. Took everything off but shoulder, open third vent, temp rose to 255, Hr later, temp was at 240,roast was at 180, another hr 230, meat was 180, another hr 215 , meat was at 180. Took the roast off, had to slice it, done , just not pullable. Excel held temps better than any other store bought smoker I've used.

Lilham...sounds like you've just about have it down pat! Good show!

Lilham,
Nice play by play, thanks.
That is what I wanted to hear. Sounds like briquettes is the way to go.
FYI, if your shoulder is not getting up to temp fast enough, try foiling it. After 165d or so, you will not lose any smoke flavor, but you will lose the nice crispy bark. It sure does speed up the cooking process though.
Thanks again,
Bill

lilham wrote:Fill my excell slam full this past weekend. Sorry no pics. I promise I do better next time.

I fill my basket with briquettes, foil my water pan and filled it full of hot tap water. Started 20 briquettes in my chimney. Dump the chimney in at 5;45am, alll bottom vents were open. In about 15 minutes my temp was at 200, closed one vent.About 15 minutes later 225. Placed a 9lb picnic roast(shoulder) on the bottom rack. About 45 minutes later 250, closed second vent. Temp settled around 235. Toss in a few hickory now and then, little apple juice about every hr. At five hours I flip the roast, temp still great. At noon I added five racks of ribs to top rack. Temp dropped, then max at 200. open second vent and tossed it more hickory,back to 230-240. At 1:00pm add 4 chic halves on bottom rack, temp max out at 210. open third vent and reached 240 within 30min. At 3:00, foiled ribs and add about 20 abt's. temp max at 195. Add extra hickory, temp only reach 220. Filled chimney full and started burning. AT 4:30 add chimney and went ahead and unwrapped ribs. Temp increased to 250, closed a vent, temp dropped to 240. At 12 hrs from the start, ribs were ready, chic was good, abt's were abt's, however roast was at 175. Took everything off but shoulder, open third vent, temp rose to 255, Hr later, temp was at 240,roast was at 180, another hr 230, meat was 180, another hr 215 , meat was at 180. Took the roast off, had to slice it, done , just not pullable. Excel held temps better than any other store bought smoker I've used.

Has anyone given the flower pot bottom a try?
I understand Guys are having great results with the
clay trays from the bottom of flower pots in the water pan.

Hey there Thom how the devil are ya?

I haven't used the flowerpot thing, is the reasoning because it makes clean up easier?

Dr_KY wrote:Hey there Thom how the devil are ya?

I haven't used the flowerpot thing, is the reasoning because it makes clean up easier?

I think using the flower pot thing is for a few reasons. One, it is a big heat sink, once it heats up it helps keep the temp consistent.
Two, clean up (some even are wrapping it in foil I believe).
And three, you do not have to keep adding water during the cook.

It is a similar theroy as using sand. Then there is the Foil Balls that some use.

I might experiment with some of the ideas once I get more familiar with the Excel20. Us Excel users can probably get some good ideas from the Virtual Weber Bullet web site.

Bill