Thanks for all the replies. I do not have a chimney at the moment. I got rid of it when I got rid of my first charcoal grill. I will pick another one up soon but my first few cooks with this thing I just filled the charcoal baskets that came with it and propane-assisted them.
I decided to start experimenting.
One charcoal basket filled with 20 briquettes was able to maintain a temperature of 250- 279 degrees for approximately 45 minutes before it started losing temperature. I threw a couple of unlit briquettes in the basket as soon as I saw the temperature start to go down but the remaining charcoal was unable to light it in time to help bring the temperature back up and it continued to drift below 250.
So 20 briquettes, by themselves, will likely net me about an hour of 250+ degree temps, and in order to maintain that, I should be adding the additional charcoal further ahead of time.
Tomorrow night I'll try and see what 40 briquettes get me, then 60 and 80.
Then I'll experiment with snakes.
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