Heat control

[jtimm]

Been using a Weber kettle grill for years. But a little confused on the best way to control the heat.


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[MrHoss]

Close the vents down and you have less air flow = less heat
Open the vents and you have more air flow = more heat
Start with more lit charcoal = higher initial heat

Good luck.

[AZ Monsoon]

Can you give a little more info about what you're having problems with?

The simple answer is amount of charcoal and vent adjustments.
About a half Weber chimney full of coals will give you about 350 degrees at the grates. Don't shut down the top vent completely when trying to lower temperature. I would go bottom vent before top vent, but more likely you will need a combination.

For maximum heat when I'm doing steaks,  I'll offset the lid a few inches for additional airflow. It really gets the kettle cranking. This also works well in more typical situations where you need more heat. Just adjust the offset as necessary.

Unless I'm doing low and slow, I seldom adjust the vents. I kind of just know how much charcoal with the vents wide open is going to give me approximately the temperature I'm looking for. 

A cheap oven thermometer placed on the cooking grate work well to know what the actual temperature is where your food is cooking. The lid thermometer gives you the dome temperature, so there will be a variance at the grate. In the case of my Performer, it ends up being about 50 degrees.

[jtimm]

I have to Weber grills. One is a performer and the other just a standard kettle. I have to adjust the vents completely different on both grills to achieve the low temp that I want. The performer I have the bottom vents wide open and adjust with the top vents. The other one top vents closed and adjust with the the bottom vents. Just didn't make any sense to me.


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[Travis]

By chance are your sweeps jacked up on either of them?
They should both work the same.


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[kettlebb]

Take us step by step how you setup for a cook and we might have a better idea about what's going on. How much charcoal. How long you let it burn in the chimney. Are you doing a minion or just a full lit chimney?  Knowing your setup and process can help a bit here.


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[AZ Monsoon]

A rock solid method for low and slow is the snake method, and you can set it up and start cooking right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ehH4php-3A