Clay saucer. Bringing down temp?

[AK_Bell]

My ProQ Frontier has finally arrived and I'm already getting some use out of it.

I decided to jump straight in with the clay saucer method so got a 24cm clay dish to replace the water. Wrapped it up tightly in foil. Then used the minion method with the coal. I put in a third of a mid-sized chimney starter of hot coal.

Even with all the bottom vents shut it was struggling to stay under 150C. I had a bit more luck the next day with just having one layer of coal in the chimney but while I'm aiming for 105C, I've had to make do with 112 (I'll live, just testing on rubbish costco ribs).

These temperatures are with the bottom vents shut. The top vent is almost nearly shut too.

Next time I'll be putting even less hot coal in, but does anyone have any ideas on cooling down the smoker?

Should I get a bigger clay saucer too to keep the temps down?

Thanks

[YetiDave]

How are you letting it get up to target temp? All vents open or are you just letting it build gradually with one vent open? The purpose of the clay saucer is heat dispersion rather than a heat sink

[AK_Bell]

I have the vents open until it gets near to the target, and then I've been narrowing the bottom vents down to a quarter. Top vent open.

This seems to slow it a lot but keeps creeping up. So I end up shutting the bottom vents completely and having to use narrow the top vent a lot (but that was more because the wind picked up halfway through).

[Swindon_Ed]

Sounds like the smoker isn't air tight at the moment, but it also sounds like it's sorting itself out.

With a new smoker they take a few burns with smoke and grease before they settle down.

[YetiDave]

Try just setting the vents how you'd expect to use them through the cook and let it build gradually - the fire will reach it's maximum heat allowed by the restricted airflow. Rather than giving it a ton of air and you ending up with a fire you have to try and cool down because it got too large

[PeanutZA]

I think I saw a few comments on here about the Pro Q's benefiting from some gentle modifications to help make it airtight. Stove rope and the such.

But did like the comment about cook grease helping.

[AK_Bell]

Being a stackable ProQ, the stove rope looks ideal. I did do a smoke test just after and there was a bit of smoke escaping between the stacks. I was worried I was going to have to take a hammer to it but that rope looks much better.

Thanks for the advice.

[keith157]

There are often gaps on the doors, which are best sealed with heatproof silicon.

[paulfire]

as dave says, start off as you think the frontier will run rather than let it get too hot and then have to "choke" it. as keith says the doors do sometimes leak, mine on the excel did and i could not get them to fit snug enough, one tube of high temp black silicon (£4 ish E-bay) solved that. didnt use the silicon on the stacker joints in case the stackers sealed together, with use the joints have sealed sufficiently.
persevierance, percyvierence, perseverance.......(???) keep at it.

[slatts]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but........

Are you sealing the doors shut with the silicone or running a bead around the edges then letting it dry and closing the door into it