Spent 4 hours obsessing over coal alignment on my offset smoker last Sunday

I finally got a new offset smoker last month and couldn't figure out why my temps were swinging 50 degrees. Turned out my charcoal was piled too high on one side, blocking airflow. It took me a solid 4 hours of moving coals around like a crazy person to get a steady 250. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on something this simple?

3 comments

3 Comments

sagejackson4d ago

4 hours to level coal? You are way overthinking this.

beng514d ago

My neighbor once spent an entire Saturday rearranging his garage shelves because someone on a forum told him the weight distribution was off. @sagejackson, sometimes folks just need to work through a process their own way before they see the simpler path. Coal leveling has always been a "whatever works" kind of job in my experience.

faithpatel3d ago

Think wasting 4 hours on coal bin alignment is totally normal lol.