Couple n00b ECB questions

[San_Diego_Matt]

so I modded my ECB by putting the legs on the outside, swiss cheesing the charcoal pan and installing a real thermometer in the lid.

I'm a couple hours into my burn off/temperature control test run (no meat on there) and I seem to be running WAY hot.

I just drilled a hole in the lid and slid the thermometer in and used a bit of foil to create come pressure to keep it in there.

I also filled my chimney with lump charcoal and poured all of that into the charcoal pan. Is that too much charcoal?

I didn't drill any holes in the lid...maybe I should? I'm also not needing to fill the gaps between the lid and the barrel of the smoker and I'm still way hot.

Any suggestions?

 

[jbreiding]

Try doing a half chimney with charcoal and placing on top of unlit charcoal in your pan. It's possible you just put too much in and didn't wait for the temp to settle out. One thing I used to do in my ECB was take the water pan and put a couple of fire bricks in it and then cover it with foil, it helped with adding some thermal mass.

 

[jbreiding]

Also you may want to try, even though the site name is questionable to bring up in a conversation, http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/.

 

[San_Diego_Matt]

I figured out that if you don't fill the water pan with something, you run REALLY hot.

for Sunday I filled the water pan with...water, was stuck at 250 all day and ended up with 2 fantastic bone in pork butts