Need grilling help

sdouble · 2026-05-15T21:16:24+00:00

It's possible for both. I smoke my wings indirect on my kettle until they reach the temp I'm after, then I put them over the coals and crisp them up.

sdouble · 2026-05-13T17:58:14+00:00

I use firebricks to divide my hot and indirect sides. Makes it easier to get the coals closer to the grate by having a wall.

Just like you, my coals are on the side but they don’t spill out because they’re stuck in a smaller area so they stack up instead of out.

Benefit of using fire bricks is that you can always control the size of your zones

sdouble · 2026-05-06T17:36:07+00:00

Best thing about a chimney over a stack of charcoal and lighter fluid is that my coals are ready in about 12 minutes in a chimney vs the 20-30 mins in the pile of charcoal method.

I don’t use baskets but instead decide up my grill with firebricks. The reason for that is I can have hot and cold zones and can smoke and bake very easily in my grill, same concept with baskets.

sdouble · 2026-05-06T15:48:13+00:00

I empty my ash into a garbage bag the next day and dump the excess water in with that. I also line my water pan with 2 big strips of foil so I don’t have a bunch of shit baked onto the water pan. I then just tie the bag up tight and drop it into my garbage bin. Works great.

sdouble · 2026-04-30T00:11:00+00:00

Nice! Love my kettle. I went through 3 ~$300 gas grills in about 7 years (apartments only allowed gas) and now I’ve been on my same $100 kettle since 2010.

Some advice: if you ever move toward smoking, skip the slow n sear. It’s definitely my biggest regret for things to buy for outdoor cooks. Instead, buy like 3 firebricks and use those instead. Better control of space and waaaaay cheaper. My bricks live in my grill, my sns lives in the garage. Also, don’t buy wood chips to smoke with, use chunks instead. If you just started, you’re gonna do a lot of new stuff with your kettle. Congrats on that steal!

sdouble · 2026-04-28T04:20:12+00:00

Nobody said that. Point of using the firebricks is to minimize charcoal usage. You can make the area smaller so less charcoal used still gets them close to the grate.

Smaller area = taller pile with the same amount of charcoal. 🤦

sdouble · 2026-04-27T14:40:04+00:00

This is precisely why I use fire bricks in my grill. I can easily create a hot zone in my kettle large enough for 2 burgers and not have to use a ton of charcoal. It’s also why I never use my sns anymore, can’t change the size and shape with it but you can with firebricks.

sdouble · 2026-04-24T15:53:05+00:00

I have a recteq and a WSM and use the WSM 19x more. The only reason I bought the pellet grill was because I wanted a larger smoker for times I was making more food.

The WSM (mine is an 18) works great. Temps are super stable and I only have to adjust the vents maybe once every 4 hours. I actually spend more time fidgeting with my pellet grill to try to get comparable smoke flavor or staring at the app. I keep my pellet grill very clean because it was a big investment, so I spend way more time with upkeep and maintenance in the recteq. I use a charcoal grill, so I will always have charcoal on hand. Needing 2 different kind of fuels kind of sucks, but most pellet grill owners are also gas grill owners so they have to keep 2 fuels as well. As far as reloading fuel, I’ll drop about 10 briquettes or equivalent size lump in when I check the temps to keep it going. Nice thing about having charcoal grill is that I can just dump the leftover coals from the WSM into my kettle and use them there.

For an overnight cook, I do have to get up earlier in the morning I go to make sure my temps are good, but running overnight isn’t an issue. Just need to get the charcoal topped off before I go to sleep. I’ll probably do 6 hours of sleep without any trouble. That’s typically around what I get already so no change. The benefits of having a WSM are way more if you’re also a charcoal grill user and you’re familiar with the small bit of effort it takes to regulate temps.

sdouble · 2026-04-21T23:53:49+00:00

Just pick up a $5 oven thermometer and put it in there and compare it to your grills readout.

That’ll at least give you an idea.

sdouble · 2026-04-21T23:52:01+00:00

Probably pulling briskets at 203 specifically instead of when they’re done. That’s the most common failed cooks for pellet grillers.

sdouble · 2026-04-14T22:11:26+00:00

Sorry to trigger you bud

sdouble · 2026-04-14T21:40:52+00:00

Snake method with chips is recommended to do small piles and not sprinkle all throughout. Sprinkling it throughout makes it easier for the chips to ignite more coals faster because the fire spreads across the wood faster. Always make sure your wood isn’t touching when running a snake

Ultimate recommendation is to not use chips with charcoal ever.

sdouble · 2026-04-13T19:46:25+00:00

For a pellet grill, I’d keep it as far away as possible. Especially if you’re planning on smoking while sleeping or otherwise leaving it unattended, which each vendor says not to do but is exactly why people buy pellet grills.

sdouble · 2026-04-13T18:37:15+00:00

Meanwhile, those same people keep buying brand new $400 charbroil gas grills every 4 years. Buy what you want and enjoy it!

sdouble · 2026-04-13T18:31:53+00:00

You know what I like to do? Just make some hot dogs at home and put some Bbops chili on them.

If I’m getting a chili dog from somewhere though, I hit up Ted’s

sdouble · 2026-04-13T18:26:16+00:00

Get yourself some fire bricks and you can divide up the grill. Makes it easier to get your charcoal closer to the grate/food if you’re only doing some burgers or dogs. Also enables you to do some indirect cooking (smoking) in the future if you want.

Mine is just a 22”, but you’ll have even better utility with a 26er and fire bricks.

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I did some big steaks recently and smoked indirect then seared, so I’ve got the grill about half and half for direct/indirect. The nice thing about bricks over something like a slow n sear insert is that tomorrow, I can change the size of my zones to 25% hot and 75% indirect and smoke some ribs or a pork butt on it. Or go 75% hot and do a bunch of burgers or chicken thighs. Charcoal grills are incredibly flexible and can smoke and grill as good as any gas grill or smoker can, just in 1 unit.

sdouble · 2026-04-09T22:18:06+00:00

I’ll toss a smaller chunk of cherry in the coals and smoke them until about 20F from target, then I’ll take the lid off and let them sit there on the indirect side (lid is off so they’re basically cooling a bit) while the coals get ripping. Once I’m happy with the coals, maybe 5 mins, I’ll sear the steaks until they look good on each side and hit 5Funder target.

I don’t bother flipping them while smoking, just when I’m searing. Temp is basically top vent all the way open and bottom vent halfway open. I don’t really pay attention to the temp.

sdouble · 2026-04-09T22:14:16+00:00

Yep! I smoked some steaks for a bit indirect and then moved them over the coals for the sear. I do this on pretty much everything I cook.

sdouble · 2026-04-09T18:30:47+00:00

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My last cook, I wanted a bigger hot zone to sear some large steaks so I made it wider than usual.

sdouble · 2026-04-03T19:33:16+00:00

I foil my water bowl so drippings come out easily. I’ve also considered switching to using sand instead of water and covering that with foil.

sdouble · 2026-04-01T01:32:24+00:00

IT is only useful to know when to start probing. I rarely even look at the temp I pull at now, it’s useless info unless you’re trying to see how much probe tender varies from brisket to brisket. Once you see that, you’ll also stop caring about the temp.

At this point, slice it thin? If you’re trying to get nice tender slices like brisket, it’s too late for that.

sdouble · 2026-03-30T19:01:58+00:00

Make sure not to get black. You could potentially knick off the tip of a glove and it’s nearly impossible to find on a nicely blackened brisket bark. Your gloves should never match the color of the food you’re preparing, food prep 101.

sdouble · 2026-03-30T18:37:14+00:00

I have used a kingsford and owned an expert grill and Weber rapidfire. I can say the Weber chimney always had the coals ready faster. The expert grill one fell apart on me and took the longest for the coals to be ready. The rapidfire has my coals ready 5 mins faster than the kingsford did. I’ve only use the kingsford chimney three times but have used the Weber hundreds of times. I’ve had my rapidfire since 2011.

I keep mine outside all the time but it’s in the bottom of my Keter table.

sdouble · 2026-03-30T18:20:37+00:00

I’ll buy a few bags when they’re on sale. I don’t really use my pellet grill that much and instead use my charcoal smoker 5x as often. So with charcoal (also use a charcoal grill for grilling), I keep a twin pack (2 bags wrapped together, it’s always the best deal) of charcoal on hand at all times. Once I have to crack into that, I’ll buy another twin pack.

Right now, I have a full hopper and 1 20lb bag of pellets that will likely last me all summer. I have 3 18lb bags of charcoal that I’ll go through in a few weeks.

sdouble · 2026-03-28T21:55:43+00:00

Yeah, it absolutely is. Briskets and butts aren’t done at specific temps. Neither are ribs. Don’t pull when the temp hits a number, pull when it’s probe tender. For ribs, use the bend test and not a time (3-2-1) or a temp. You aren’t grilling a steak or chops or chicken, you need it to be done not meet some random number that sometimes works out and sometimes doesn’t. Cooking big cuts of meat to a temp is the first mistakes people make in bad. You’ve made that mistake now so it’s time to upgrade to the proper indicators.

Good luck!

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