UDS Troubles!

[Qnavry]

I have a UDS that i built a few months ago. I can't get it dialed in to a constant temp. It seems that I have to cap or uncap my holes all the time to keep it in the 225 to 250 range. I have been reading about how they should maintain temps for long periods of time. what I am doing wrong.
I have three holes on the bottom(2 with caps and 1 with a ball valve) and use the hole on the lid as an exhaust. I fill the charcoal ring up halfway and put some wood chips in. Then i pour 1 chimney of lit coals on top.

I am ready give up and look into a WSM or a BGE.

Thanks
Q

[Jarhead]

Briquettes or Lump?
I have good luck with lump and the briquettes tend to go out or give off nasty white smoke.
Let it stabilize for temp, (about 30 minutes), before putting meat on.
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[day_trippr]

Unless you have an undetected air leak somewhere, the odds are that you're using too much lit charcoal to launch your cook, which leads to a protracted fight for control.

If you're shooting for 225-250°F at your cooking grate, try starting with a half-chimney of lit coals next time, get the cooker assembled and lidded quickly, then keep your eye on your thermometer as the temps climb, and start throttling your intakes so you get a nice "soft landing" at your desired temp...

Cheers!
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[Qnavry]

Thanks for the responses. I use Royal Oak lump.

[PorkQPine]

I would switch to charcoal and get that dialed in as I believe it is much easier to manage temp. when using Kingsford charcoal. Once you have charcoal managed you can use that as base settings to switch to lump if you still want to use lump. For me, lump burns too hot and too fast but others might have other experiences. BTW, I have never had any bad taste experiences using Kingsford.

[MarkJ]

I'm learning to use lump in mine but with briquettes it's been a piece of cake to hold temp. I put an empty coffee can with both ends cut out in the center of the grate. Fill the can halfway and fill the basket around it. Yesterday I lit 17 briquettes in the chimney, dumped them in the can and lifted the can off. My UDS held 225 all day long. It amazes me every time I use it.

[Qnavry]

now you are just showing off

[cityevader]

I lit a basket up for a test burn exactly 24 hours ago on briquettes, and it's held 220° since then and is only about 2/3 finished.

More agreement on smaller pile of starter coals. Ease into your temps, and start closing her down well before your target temp. It needs to come to and not past your desired temp... and that's where you're baseline intake opening will be.
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[Qnavry]

I cooked again this weekend and found that if i capped two holes and left the ball valve hole open that the temps dropped. if i closed the ball valve and capped another leaving one uncapped it held for a little bit but would always rise . I messed around with turning the barrel(so the ball valve was where the other open holes were) and the top exhaust cover too.

[polishdon]

I have unbelievable success with mine holding 225 using Kingsford briquettes. The few times I used lump I could not control the temp. Using the briqs I fill the basket full, light about 12 bricks in the chimney and when they're nice and hot dump them in. Run with all 3 valves open till it hits about 190, then cap one intake off completely. Give it another 45 minutes to see where it's at and make adjustments, too cold open that third intake again, too hot, I cap off the second intake and just run with the ball valve completely open, then dial it in from there using the valve. You need to make sure you give the drum a good 30 to 45 minutes to react to any intake changes you make. Cap or open an intake, let it go for 45 mins, then make adjustments.

[12TH AV SMOKERS]

Hey Qnavry....does your lid fit tight? If it's leaking allot of smoke that might be part of your problems. I have one UDS that has a flat barrel lid. When I first started usiing it I had a hard time keeping it under 300...once I started using the lids locking lever...no problems. Cruises at whatever I set it too and holds it there.

Good luck

peace
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[KSims1868]

[knackjack]

I'm a newb to UDS.

i have built one with teh two twist off caps and then one ball valve.

I cannot keep my temps to hold.

How do I determine how much charcoal to use and how much to start off with in the chimney?

my basket is rather simple... the bottow is a hog pan from the local farm store and then using long bolts I elevated a veggie bbq basket to hold the coals. Seems to work ok. but need to get dialed in how much charcoal I need to hold the 225-250 temp for ribs.

[cityevader]

A six hour rib cook won't take much fuel. Maybe a chimney and a half unlit in the basket, and no more than a half chimney lit and then dumped on top of the unlit charcoal would be a good starting point.
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To make the ° temperature symbol, hold the Alt key while typing 248 on keypad.
.

[dmike25]

[feldon30]

[cityevader]

Don't add the meat at 150...the cooker isn't even stabilized yet and likely still billowing nasty white smoke. At 150 start to throttle back the intakes slightly. At 200 or so throttle back some more. Ther idea is to ramp down the intakes incrementally until desired temp is achieved and white smoke no longer exhausts and THEN add your meat.
_________________
Since Christ DIED for us, we should LIVE for Him!

To make the ° temperature symbol, hold the Alt key while typing 248 on keypad.
.

[SoEzzy]

If your lid is flat and sits tight I'd suspect that you are over starting the fire.

I use 6 x 3/4" holes in the bottom of my UDS's for control, I don't leave the windward vent open longer than not needed, I have 8 x 1/2" exhaust vents.

1/2 of a small chimney = 250
3/4 of a small chimney = 275
Full small chimney = 300 or 300 +

My charcoal basket is based around a Weber kettle charcoal ring so there's a 2" gap from the basket to the walls of the drum, I use about 3/4 - 1 lb of charcoal per hour on long cooks on the UDS's.

I open all the vents when starting the fire, fill or part fill the charcoal basket, start the amount of charcoal to get where I want to cook at, I have a no name brand chimney starter not a Weber one, (I say that because the Weber ones are much bigger), once the coals are ashed over I add them to the charcoal basket and spread them out evenly.

Add the Turkey thermometer and the lid and watch the temperature rise. as the others have said it's better to catch the temperatures on the way up, than allow it to climb to far and then try and choke it off. At 200 I shut down the windward side, and alternate intake vents, at 220 I close down the other two open vents, leaving only the downwind vent fully open, as the temperature stabilizes it will normally lock in at 245 -255 without further fiddling.

I give it 10 minutes, then add the wood chunks, after another 5 minutes I add the meat quickly and relid the pit.

The next time I open it will depend on what the meat is and my plan for it's cook.
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[Qnavry]

[feldon30]

These guys have been doing this for a long time. Absolutely go with their corrections/updates to my suggestions above.
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