Well, I woke up today figuring that today was going to be way too hot to BBQ. I was right, but being that it is Independence Day, we decided that we needed to Q. I
told begged the wife to clean a smoker and fire it up.
Lisa fired up the Excel 20 and had the water pan filled with about 250 ounces of warm water. Temps settled at around 200-210 after an hour. She then dumped about 200 ounces out of the water pan and temps set in between 220 and 235 from top to bottom. After the fatties and the little smokies were done, another 1/2 chimney of coals were dumped on the fire. Temps then jumped up to 280-310 consistently. Lisa shut down a few lower vents and the temp held a consistent 280ish.
Lisa started cooking 2 fatties at 1:30, threw on a rack of ribs at 2:30, dropped bacon/brown sugar wrapped little smokies at 3:45 and chicken thighs went on at 5:30. Fatties and little smokies were off at 5. The ribs are glazed and in the home stretch and the thighs, well thighs suck.
Once the cook ditched some water out of the water pan, we really didn't notice any temperature issues. Temps were right where they should have been and the lower vents were only messed with a few times.
I'll follow up with pictures.
