I must say, I am REALLY impressed with this baby!!! I have never cooked on
a UDS, so there is going to be a learning curve, that's for sure. But the
test went really well.
I put a heaping chimney full of unlit K-blue in the basket, then a dozen lit
coals and sealed her up, with intake and exhaust vents wide open. After 15
minutes, she was at 200, so I shut both vents down to about 1/4 open. The
temp kept climbing, so when it got to 235, I shut down to just a crack open.
The temperature settled in around 235. I put on some sausages and burgers,
since I didn't want to waste all that good heat.
I did have to fiddle with the vents a bit, but I'm sure that will be less as
I learn more about how to operate it. I was amazed at how fast the
temperature shot up whenever I opened the vents all the way.
Oh, length of the cook -- after 5 hours running anywhere from 225 to 250,
the coals were about spent. With vents wide open at the end, it was down to
215 after the 5 hours, so I turned off my thermometers.
Five hours on one chimney of charcoal --- WOW!