u/enanram

I have one of those cheap thin bullet smokers from Lidl. I've had some good results with it, but wanted to ask if anyone has experience using these at lower ambient temperatures and at what point you would put it away for the winter? I'm in Scotland so I imagine it will probably be unusable in the depths of winter but I'm hoping to do a few cooks on it while the temperatures are above 10 degrees. Just don't want to experiment and potentially waste meat if it ends up not getting to temperature.

I have the fyra 12. I've been using wood pellets so far (a mix of oak and hickory). Has anyone had success using whole lumps of wood or even charcoal? I would like to be able to get it a bit hotter if I can. The highest I've been able to get it is about 400C.

I noticed in my latest booking that Ryanair now have max dimensions for checked baggage. Does anyone know if these are strictly enforced? Does it depend on the airport? In this case it's PIK and FAO.

I've just ordered my first paella, and it's bare carbon steel. I have several carbon steel pans, that I use regularly, and keep well seasoned. I know not to use them for acidic sauces as I've seen what happens when you do. I have found several articles detailing how to season a paella, but any video recipes I see tend to include unseasoned pans. Can anyone talk about their experiences either way? Is an unseasoned pan going to stay rust-free between cooks with a coating of oil?

I keep my brewing stuff in the garage, and it gets very humid through the winter. In the spring I end up having to take my mill apart and carefully clean mould off. I'm hoping I don't have to take it into the house (where I could end up with the same problem anyway), but short of a teardown and deep clean after every brew during humid times, is there anything else I can do that won't risk leaving loads of residue in the nooks and crannies?

My named driver was in an accident about a year ago. My car was written off, and my insurance company wouldn't cover the new car due to an aftermarket spolier (and it wasn't Hastings!). So I started a new policy. Surprisingly this was only about 10% more expensive than the previous one (I declared the claim of course). It's now time to renew and the case hasn't been fully settled yet. The renewal quote from my current insurer is back to about the same as before the accident, so that's good. The accident was a Grace v Tanner situation with my named driver on the outside. So it may be settled 50/50 or potentially a fault claim. If it ends up being a full fault claim, should I expect my next renewal to go up again or do these things tend to have less of an affect as time goes on?

I'm looking for advice on where to find lump charcoal with decent sized (for the grill) or very large (for the smoker) pieces, as the stuff I get in b&q or the supermarkets is mostly dust. I found one on Amazon but the price was a bit crazy. Also ideas for where to source good meat joints would be nice. I did a search on the sub but most of the links were dead.

Anyone based in the UK here? I'm looking for advice on where to find lump charcoal with very large pieces, as the stuff I get in b&q or the supermarkets is mostly dust. Also ideas for where to source good meat joints.

I just got my first smoker. The bullet kind I think. Just a basic one to see if I like it. I've a couple of questions. I've been watching some YouTube videos but I'm a little unsure of a couple of things.

I'm used to grilling with lump charcoal - I tend to get a few hours of burn, but for a whole day of smoking are you topping up the charcoal every few hours or is it eventually just wood that's burning? I'm also a bit unsure about how often to add wood and how much. The beginner videos I've seen so far don't seem to cover that in much detail.

As for meat, the briskets we get here in the UK are much smaller than the ones I see in American videos. Can smoking/roasting/resting times be cut proportionally or is it more complicated? I'd appreciate any resources that can give approximate times based on weight for different meats (though I always go by temperature, it's good to have an estimate).

As for wood - does it need to be totally dry? I do some green woodworking and have loads of cherry that has split, some a year or two old but I wouldn't expect it to be very dry yet as I left it in big chunks (I know better now). If it needs to be dry I'll go buy some.

First, please let me know if there's a better sub for this. I couldn't really find one aimed specifically at people going on holidays abroad from the UK.

I'm looking at booking a holiday with my partner. We are flying to Faro and the resort is about an hour's drive away. In the past we have booked packages with jet2, but pricing up ryanair flights and the resort on booking.com it's looking a lot cheaper. Googling "faro airport transfers" takes me to a few sites that are looking for about £250 return for transfers. Even uber looks cheaper. I could rant a car but I'm waiting to hear back from the resort if I can park there (it's in Alvor if anyone knows what parking is like generally there) and to be honest it seems a waste as I don't think I'll use the car except to get to and from the airport. Not to mention the possible added headache if there's an accident. Just thought I'd check if there are any other things people would suggest. Any thoughts on car rental companies? Hertz seems reasonable, and I know there are cheaper ones but I don't want to end up being hassled over tiny scratches that may or may not have been there before the rental. Cheers

Bit of a weird one. For context I've a vented hot water system. I've just installed a kitchen tap that has two outlets (a rigid one and a hose). Each has its own lever, separate to the mixer. So the mixer can be turned on with nothing coming out of the tap. I've realised that if the mixer is opened in the middle, and the two outlets are off, water is flowing - the mains is going back through the hot tap up to the cylinder and eventually the cistern.

My worry is that there are birds nesting in the soffit, and they've pushed the end of the overflow pipe in. I'm not sure how far - it could be in the attic. So if someone accidentally leaves the mixer on in the middle it could flood one of the bedrooms. I can't fix this until the birds have left - probably a few months. I know it's a remote possibility but it worries me. Are there non return valves that don't restrict the flow so I can fit one to the hot? The pressure is already very poor so I don't want to make it even worse.

I've a granite sink and the instructions say to knock the hole out with a punch and hammer. I've seen people say these can be a bit sketchy. Is it safer to just use a diamond hole saw or something? Or is it fine if you're careful? Any tips?