Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

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txsmkmstr USER_AVATAR
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Re: Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

Postby txsmkmstr » Wed Oct 23, 2019 8:48 am

A little late to the party here but my experience with a small offset revealed my splits were way too big. I ended up taking the 18" logs and halving them to roughy 9" long and no larger than a coke can. Pre-heating is a must. Also, with your round firebox the ash collection will grow quickly and you'll want to clear the ashes out periodically if that's affecting your combustion. Due to the small fire size (in order to prevent runaway temps) I would have to add splits every 15-20 minutes. Also, my thermometer was mounted quite high compared to grate level resulting in a 30*-50* difference. Once I learned that I just factored that difference in and the Q started to come out much better with less effort. Hope this helps.
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Re: Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

Postby thejsug » Wed Oct 23, 2019 10:26 am

k.a.m. wrote:Try to use the same average splits throughout the cook. Larger splits are harder to ignite with a small coal base and will smolder.


Ok perfect. Sounds good. I think with the raging fire the splits just got consumed super quick which is why I then focused on bigger ones (which needed more stoking to keep alight). Will give it a go and let you know the results :)
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Re: Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

Postby thejsug » Wed Oct 23, 2019 10:31 am

txsmkmstr wrote:A little late to the party here but my experience with a small offset revealed my splits were way too big. I ended up taking the 18" logs and halving them to roughy 9" long and no larger than a coke can. Pre-heating is a must. Also, with your round firebox the ash collection will grow quickly and you'll want to clear the ashes out periodically if that's affecting your combustion. Due to the small fire size (in order to prevent runaway temps) I would have to add splits every 15-20 minutes. Also, my thermometer was mounted quite high compared to grate level resulting in a 30*-50* difference. Once I learned that I just factored that difference in and the Q started to come out much better with less effort. Hope this helps.


Not late at all ! Join in haha - the more advice the better.

Yes all sounds good. I'll measure up the log and maybe play around with that as well. The ash collection wasn't too bad during my 10 hour smoke with bigger logs (but it was a raging fire the whole time). I do have a little ash thing so I can scrape it out if needed.

Thank you!
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Re: Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

Postby thejsug » Tue Nov 12, 2019 8:07 am

It's taken me this long just to source some more oak wood (welcome to life in England, ha!) but suffice to say, this weekend I shall have more wood! Moisture content might be a bit high so we'll see how usable it is. hoping to test out all this advice next week and let y'all know how it went!
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Re: Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

Postby thejsug » Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:28 am

Thanks to everyone for their help! I've now had my 2nd smoke on the offset and wanted to share some thoughts and ask some more questions.

Firstly, some pics:
https://imgur.com/5wr0tnC
https://imgur.com/9DEvzS6
https://imgur.com/aFy7pG7
https://imgur.com/EACiSe2

As you can see, it turned out amazing - SO THANK YOU!

I ran the closed box method this time successfully too (WOHOO!). It's only a 16x16 firebox so not that big meaning I can't use huge splits. I managed to keep the temp consistently at between 250 and 300 (temp monitor on the grill was slightly passed halfway towards the firebox so meant the cooking area temp would be between 225 and 250 most the time) so this was perfect.

THE PROBLEM: I did struggle for a period of 90 minutes twice, where there weren't enough hot coals to keep the log alight fully, meaning the temp dropped all the way down to 190 and it was a real struggle to get it back up..... This led to some major frustration.

The first time was right at the start - getting it hot enough. I used a charcoal chimney full of lump. Set that alight, waited 15 mins for the flames to all die down and poured them in. I kind of stacked them towards teh backside of the firebox rather than spacing them out (which may have been an error it meant a big hot spot was towards the back corner rather than more central for the entire day!). Then stuck a couple of splits on which set alight but still didn't get up to temp... It took quite a few splits in the end (maybe 5 or 6) before it started getting hot enough.

Once it was up to temp though, I was rolling pre heated splits on 1 or 2 at a time and they'd set nicely alight.

Then a few hours later, it dropped back down to 190ish. It just felt like the coalbed would disintegrate, but the logs on fire wouldn't be ready to be broken up into hot coals and that would leave a kind of patch where everything would die down and it took a lot of time stoking and adding more logs before it would replenish.

I often found that the logs I'd put on would be on fire but the ends may not be, so I'd have to do a lot of turning it around, moving the coals underneath and trying to keep the whole thing on fire. This meant a LOT Of time spent moving logs around in the fire itself which I don't think is needed if the coal bed is properly design - is that right?

Anyway, your advice and thoughts based on the above would be appreciated. The majority of the cook went great though - I did have to use 2 splits on fire most of the time to keep the temp up and keep that coal bed developing, so wasn't able to rely on just putting one split on at a time which was unfortunate. I went through maybe a couple of nets of oak for a 12 hour cook which seems like a lot.

Thank you again though - even with all of that, it was a great day, a great smoke and the food was INCREDIBLE!
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Re: Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

Postby Chasdev » Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:41 am

Fire management "gaps" happen and getting too hot or not hot enough is par for the course.
Too hot you can drag the coals and burning sticks as far towards the door as possible and that cools off the cook chamber a little.
In an emergency overheat, get some tongs and a steel bucket and pull a stick or two out of the box until it cooks off a bit.
Too low heat is easier, just split up some splits into mini splits and chips of splits and feed a few into the dying fire to get it going again.
I love to tend wood fires but it gets too hot for me to do it here other than in cool weather.
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Re: Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

Postby thejsug » Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:12 am

Chasdev wrote:Fire management "gaps" happen and getting too hot or not hot enough is par for the course.
Too hot you can drag the coals and burning sticks as far towards the door as possible and that cools off the cook chamber a little.
In an emergency overheat, get some tongs and a steel bucket and pull a stick or two out of the box until it cooks off a bit.
Too low heat is easier, just split up some splits into mini splits and chips of splits and feed a few into the dying fire to get it going again.
I love to tend wood fires but it gets too hot for me to do it here other than in cool weather.


AHA! I didnt even think of that! So chop down some smaller splits if the fire is dying down, to get them to light quicker, and use that to light some more smaller ones, and that will get the fire more raging for a bigger split and increase the coal bed? Great advice. I'll try that next time and have some thinner ones at the side in case of this
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Re: Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

Postby Joetee » Sun Nov 01, 2020 5:40 pm

Have you considered using lump charcoal instead of wood?
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Re: Advice on fire management in a 16x16 firebox

Postby flexster » Sat Jul 10, 2021 11:46 am

k.a.m. wrote:
thejsug wrote:
k.a.m. wrote:Could you have a charcoal basket built to fit inside your firebox?
Something like 12" x 12" x 3"
If so this would help you control your coal base and keep it tighter and I would have the basket away from the cooking chamber opening closer to the end door.


I suppose so but I'll measure it to be sure. Would it be worth doing a dry/test run with a coal bed from a chimney full of lumpwood and a couple of logs on top to see how it runs first? Or do you think due to the size it will be too problematic?

Oh I would definitely do the test run. Run with the top door closed and feed from the end keep your fire as far away from the chamber end as possible. Use your door intakes and run the exhaust wide open. You could feed from the top if need be but I would try the end.


How about a picture of the firebox door closed. I would like to see where you draft window is positioned.

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