Let's Talk BBQ
Outdoor Cooking Equipment => Grills & Smokers => Kamado Style Cookers => Topic started by: scrowder on June 08, 2019, 07:30:34 PM
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I bought a brand new Pit Boss kamado-style grill and even if I barely have the top and bottom vents open, I can’t get the temp much lower than 270/280 at the grate level.
Has anyone experienced this on the same grill and figured out a fix?
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I have not cooked on that specific kamado... but I have done a ton of cooking on Kamado Joe’s. Can you describe your startup procedure? Also, once your kamado is sitting at 250°ish, what do your vents settings typically look like?
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I use a chimney starter and let the coals get good and hot and then dump them in the firebox. Then I add more lump charcoal and some wood chunks and drop the heat deflector in and close the lid with both vents barely open. Temp still goes over 280.
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Here is what I do with my Akorn Kamado. I will fill my firebox with lump. I put one starter cube in the center and light it. Once the initial smoke dies down a little (I give it about 3 minutes) I add a few chunks of wood around the fire and put a couple of small pieces of lump on the fire. I then put on my deflector, drip pan and grate. Both my top and bottom vents are wide open. I monitor the grate temperature with a digital thermometer. I use the Smoke from thermoworks. Once the temperature hits around 150 I will close both vents to about 1/2 open. When the temperature gets to 200 I close both vents to about 1/4 on the bottom and between 1/4 and 1/2 on top. This will maintain temperatures between 225 and 235 with my Akorn for several hours. You will get spikes when the wood catches, but I ignore them. I don't touch the bottom vent at all after the last setting. If needed I will adjust the top vent a little. Make sure you give it at least 10 minutes to adjust to the new settings. Hope this helps.
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Yep, that’s solid advice ^^^^
Start there and tweak as needed. Sounds like you are starting off w/ way to big a fire. Kamados require a tiny fire to keep them running in the low/mid 200’s. Start small and allow the fire to grow a bit from there vs starting big and trying to choke the fire back.
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Do you close the lid right after you put the deflector and grate on?
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I always did with vents wide open. Start making vent adjustments when you are 30ish° from your target.
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Thank you both! I will try this and update the thread.