Johnieboy Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 Hi everyone! I have working my way through a bag of Aussie Heat Beads and I finished it yesterday. Whilst they do last longer than any other briquettes I have had, I have found them hard to work with. Has anyone else had any problems with them? I have experienced: Difficult to get lit Hard to maintain a steady temp I'm running a slow n sear in a Weber Kettle and have always been able to maintain a steady 250F/120C with other briquettes, but I have found it incredibly difficult if not impossible to do with the Heat Beads. For me they take forever to get past 200F, stick at 250F for about 30 minutes then begin to shoot past 300F. If I close the vents a little they drop down to 220F. Is it just me? Am I doing something blantantly wrong that I can't see?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul6057 Posted May 4, 2020 Share Posted May 4, 2020 (edited) I use them in my 57cm Smokey Mountain. I've suffered I think with not lighting enough to start with so the temperature took a long time and a lot of work to get up to where I wanted it, but once I've got the temperature stabilised, I've found that they're pretty consistent for 8 - 10 hour smokes. With the amount of fuel that I've been using (about 1 and a bit bags per cook), I haven't tried getting the temperature over about 110 C, but with my WSM, I could see that being a challenge if I wanted to try it. I have also used heat beats for direct grilling and found that they light really easily in my chimney, and they get perfectly hot to grill up some crispy skin chicken thighs and burgers. They didn't last as long as I was expecting, but I think that's down to the fact that my smoker is really big, I've only used it a few times, and my expectations were based on watching people in Texas when it's 40 degrees, rather than in Surrey on a slightly cool spring day. Edited May 12, 2020 by paul6057 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomcat Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 On 5/4/2020 at 10:58 AM, Johnieboy said: Hi everyone! I have working my way through a bag of Aussie Heat Beads and I finished it yesterday. Whilst they do last longer than any other briquettes I have had, I have found them hard to work with. Has anyone else had any problems with them? I have experienced: Difficult to get lit Hard to maintain a steady temp I'm running a slow n sear in a Weber Kettle and have always been able to maintain a steady 250F/120C with other briquettes, but I have found it incredibly difficult if not impossible to do with the Heat Beads. For me they take forever to get past 200F, stick at 250F for about 30 minutes then begin to shoot past 300F. If I close the vents a little they drop down to 220F. Is it just me? Am I doing something blantantly wrong that I can't see?! Hi there, I cook with heat beads and I had similar issues in my Weber kettle with the slow and sear. It never occurred to me that is the heat beads as i was fighting the vents quite a lot. I got a fornetto to 18'' bullet smoker and I have no problem maintaining temps low or higher with the heat beads, using the modified minion method. Not so sure if that helps, but i never persevered with the weber for the low and slow and long cooks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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