See below for a couple pictures of the access to the fire pot. I have not had a flameout while cooking anything yet but if I ever do, I do not have to remove the food, grate, and drip pan to access the fire pot. I simply remove the "flame tamer" and the fire pot is right there.
Well over the weekend I did a little testing. Using the SSII with the fan on high I was able to maintain 350* with a temp swing that was about 350 +/- 15 using outL=20 and outH=35 and I did a biscuit test. I used CookinPellets.com's 100% hickory pellets for the test. Here are the results:
Raw:
Tops:
Bottoms:
I then did the same 350* biscuit test with the fans on low. To get a similar temp swing I had to drop outL to 16 and outH to 24. Here are the pictures. I forgot to take a raw picture so here is the top picture:
And the bottoms:
I am not sure if you can notice it in the pictures but with the fans on low, the biscuits cooked a tad more evenly across the entire grill. The cook with the fans on high was a couple minutes faster than the cook with the fans on low. A couple minutes ain't much but on a 20 minute cook or so it was about 10%. I am quite happy with my results thus far.
After the biscuit test, I cooked 2 Boston Butts. They were right at 9.5 lbs each, bone in. I also cooked a couple sausage fatties for the biscuits that I cooked. See below for a list of the duration, temperature and pellet consumption. I wish I would have skipped the 240 altogether but I did not. I cooked at 200* until the Butts reached 140 which happened to be at 2:30 in the morning. I am not the best thinker at 2:30 am. The low during the cook was mid 40s and the high during the cook was mid 60s.
Using the SSII with the fans in low mode.
8.5 hours at 200*
6 hours at 240*
5 hours at 250*
Please note that both of the 9.5 lb Boston Butts finished at the same time and both reached an internal temperature of 198. That seemed a little too consistent to be real but that was the case.
The result was I used 21 lbs 12.5 oz of pellets ~ 21.78 lbs of pellets for the 19.5 hours. That equates to a pellet consumption of 1.12 lbs/hr. Not bad for the "pellet hog" the Yoder YS640 is known for.
I have a hunch using the fan on high will result in higher pellet consumption, a smokier flavor in my food and a faster cook. When I have a chance to cook a couple more that I bought at the same time, I will post the results. The only difference is there were only two 9.5 pounders and the next cook will be a couple 8.5 pounders. I will keep you posted on my next cook.
Side Note:
I "cooked" a couple of frozen Chimi Changas I had in the freezer last night. I was able to maintain well above 400* using the
fans on low without any black or white smoke at all. To be honest I am not sure what the high temperature this grill, with mods, can reach using the fans on low.
Stay tuned...