excel 20 help....long cook times

well let me just say hey and that i love this cooker. its very high quality and holds temps very well....just not for a long time.


im cooking two pork butts right now and i had to add more charcoal 4 hours into the cook. its not cold outside and its not windy at all.

i started out with a full charcoal basket with royal oak lump charcoal, and put half a chimney of lit charcoal on one side of the basket across from the vent i planned on using the most. i let the charcoal sit for a few minutes and than closed the thing up. i filled the water pan with hot water and the temps came up pretty quickly. once it got to 200 i closed all the vents to about 1/3 open. once the temps hit 230 i closed two of them and opened the remaining one just a hair. it ran between 245 and 235 for 4 hours with one spike when a piece of wood caught fire. and than i had to add charcoal and now im afraid im going to have to keep adding fuel to finish these things. i dont really want to disassemble this thing and fill the basket back up but i might have to.

any ideas? id really like to get this thing to the point where i can just put the food in and let it roll until its done

hello smoke51

I use always Cocos briquettes .

These are not as high in temperature ,But continue certainly 50 % longer fires

well the only problem i think i have with those is that im not sure i can get them in the US. i guess i forgot to mention that.

Have you tried the conventional Minion method?
I think you may have had too much lit charcoal to begin with... you only require about 10 bits (I use briquettes for this) to be dumped in the middle of the unlit charcoal (not on one side).
I would also close the vent below the door (where you're putting the wood in) as this should stop them bursting into flame.

Hope this helps

Ian

Mack wrote:Have you tried the conventional Minion method?
I think you may have had too much lit charcoal to begin with... you only require about 10 bits (I use briquettes for this) to be dumped in the middle of the unlit charcoal (not on one side).
I would also close the vent below the door (where you're putting the wood in) as this should stop them bursting into flame.

Hope this helps

Ian

yeah, i guess next time im going to put the lit coals in the middle. i dont think it was too much charcoal but ill try less next time. i guess my brain isnt working right now because closing the vent where the wood is would definetly keep it from catching fire like it did.

thanks for the ideas ian

edit: i saw the post about covers being in stock in the uk....where can i get one in the us?

This works well for me.

now why in the world cant i get charcoal like that in the states. that would make my life so much easier. i guess people over here are just too used to lump and the normal briquette that something like that would freak everyone out.

Coconut Charcoal, apparently eco friendly.

You can get it in the states. Big Green Egg sells it and some others.

Dr_KY wrote:You can get it in the states. Big Green Egg sells it and some others.

thanks for the info....ill have to check around and see if the barbecues galore by me sells it