Controlling temp

[Tommy B]

I know it's an old post but wanted to give my two cents.

I think there are two schools of thought for controlling temps. One is the draft/vacuum effect crowd that use the top vent and the other school of thought is the bottom vent airflow adjusters.

Fire requires oxygen and oxygen is sucked into the bottom vent and the smoke/heat travel through the cooker over the meat and out of the top vent. True for any cooker no matter how it is operated.

The draft/vacuum group sets the bottom vent and only adjusts the top vent during the cook. Harry Soo is in this group. Oxygen is sucked in to the bottom vent and out of the top vent and the theory is the top vent will control how much of a vacuum effect is caused inside of the cooker. If you close the top vent smoke/heat will stay in the cooker longer and less air will be pulled into the bottom vent. If you open the top vent more heat/smoke escapes quicker  causing the vacuum effect to pull more oxygen into the lower damper causing the cooker to heat up.

The other group (what I use) leaves the top vent alone and only adjusts the bottom vent. Their theory is if you allow more air into the bottom vent the fire heats up and if you shut the vent down less oxygen gets to the fire and it cools the cooker down. I think this group also believes keeping your top vent open causes smoke/heat to get out of the cooker faster which is advantageous to burning a clean fire avoiding bad smoke and creosote.

Everyone has their own methods but no matter how you cook I recommend small adjustments with one damper. If you make big adjustments with multi dampers you won't know what truly worked or more importantly didn't work.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Everyone has their own methods but no matter how you cook I recommend small adjustments with one damper. If you make big adjustments with multi dampers you won't know what truly worked or more importantly didn't work.

I totally agree that adjusting both vents results in having no clue how to reproduce what you did!  Stick to adjusting one vent (the bottom one in my case) for sure!

[Tommy B]

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I totally agree that adjusting both vents results in having no clue how to reproduce what you did!  Stick to adjusting one vent (the bottom one in my case) for sure!
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I had a buddy ask why his temp changed so much and come to find out he was completely closing all vents when the cooker got too hot and when it got too low he would 100% open them all up! he did that 10-12 times and got pissed and said the kettle was a piece of junk!

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I had a buddy ask why his temp changed so much and come to find out he was completely closing all vents when the cooker got too hot and when it got too low he would 100% open them all up! he did that 10-12 times and got pissed and said the kettle was a piece of junk!

As funny as that is to me, it probably happens all of the time.  If it weren't for impatient people like this, we wouldn't be picking up barely used kettles on CL all of the time!

[toolhead]

I always leave top vent open..on kettles and wsms...and use bottom vent as the control vent (s).

One note....the top vent is always wide open to prevent stale smoke from building up in the grill/smoker

[Tommy B]

Good point! If you take some time and read about how your cooker works and have a little patience it doesn't take an award winning chef to put out some good food!


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[Tommy B]

One note....the top vent is always wide open to prevent stale smoke from building up in the grill/smoker

I think that theory is most of the reason people only adjust with their bottom vent. I keep top vent open all the time but honestly I don't think closing the top vent down half way is going to be enough to cause creosote or a bad taste. That's just my opinion.

I think this group also believes keeping your top vent open causes smoke/heat to get out of the cooker faster which is advantageous to burning a clean fire avoiding bad smoke and creosote.

[Jon]

We are in the time of year when I will attempt to control temperature using the lid vent. It does work, a bit, but isn't ideal, at least for me. If you start closing the lid vent down, the air flow changes and the temp and smoke get less predictable.

I blame this on the precession of the equinoxes. Or axial tilt. Or Daylight Savings Time. Trying to deny me the midweek cooking on charcoal experience.

Or: "It's dark and I can't see what I'm doing so I'll just close the lid vent down."

[MikeRocksTheRed]

@Jon - I like your last excuse!

[CharliefromLI]

I had a buddy ask why his temp changed so much and come to find out he was completely closing all vents when the cooker got too hot and when it got too low he would 100% open them all up! he did that 10-12 times and got pissed and said the kettle was a piece of junk!

As funny as that is to me, it probably happens all of the time.  If it weren't for impatient people like this, we wouldn't be picking up barely used kettles on CL all of the time!

Amen.

[Jon]

@Jon - I like your last excuse!

Well, it is the real reason. The others were all about why it gets dark so damn early.