After a weekend with no bbq in KC I tossed a pork butt on the smoker with the Stoker on Sunday evening. It smoked at 215° for 20 hours – completing Monday afternoon then rested wrapped in foil in a cooler for a couple of hours. This is the first time I've had a butt that didn't require any chopping. Usually I can pull most of it, but have to chop portions. The other thing I wanted to test was how long the Stoker and my Weber bullet could hold a temperature using the Minion method. See for yourself:
Sunday 7:00pm – load smoker with 12lbs of charcoal, roughly a dozen pecan chunks spread throughout
Sunday 7:30pm – put 20 lit coals on top of other coals, assemble smoker, fill water pan,put on the meat
Monday 7:00am – turn the pork, refill the water, stir the coals
Monday 3:30pm – remove pork, stir coals
Monday 7:00pm – stir coals
Monday 10:00pm – decided to shut down the fire
I was blown away that a large load of charcoal held the temperature within 3% variance of 215° for over roughly 27 hours. I had the top vent open 50% and the other vents were closed (except for where the Stoker connects). My guess from the amount of fuel remaining was that there would be another hour or so of heat available. The computer controlled draft system really does make the smoker like a big oven.