Leaderboard

Some more pics of the setup. After years of neglecting the Yoder smoker and not treating it the way I probably should have, I built this gazebo just for the Komodo kamado. My space is tight here (8'x8'), so between these three workhorses, I should have all my needs covered. Additionally, I modified the Napoleon propane grill as well, so I removed one burner and replaced it with an infrared burner that gets over 1000⁰F in 30 seconds. Between that and the Ooni pizza oven, I will never have the need to cook with hot temperatures in this Komodo kamado, and that will preserve the longevity of this beautiful masterpiece.

Nice! I haven't noticed a problem with the ash at temperature, the fan doesn't usually kick on at high speed while maintaining a low-and-slow. But I did get a face full of ash when testing it. FWIW, here's mine - I needed to cut slots for the Fireboard mounting rails.

If I'm trying to get going a bit quicker than usual, I'll open up the top more until I'm about 100F below target. Then set the vent for the target. Like you experienced, if you get too close to your target before you close down, you will likely overshoot a bit. No worries. As we've said +/- 50F is nothing to fret about. Happy cooking!

Very nice setup!

Thanks for sharing. your experiences. My understanding is that once the grout has dried, you can treat your KK as normal. I just went through the process of repairing cracks and filling in the grout. It was a lot messier than I thought it would be (this is a function of my ineptitude). With that said, I used my fingers to push/smooth the grout into the cracks while the KK cooled down from 500F. There was one instance where the tiles were sticking/pushed out and in that situation I used the syringe to squirt into the pocket and pushed in the tiles from the impacted area. Other than that, it felt more manual and I used my fingers to smooth in the grout in cracked areas. My understanding is that the materials (once the tube has been opened) has a short lifespan. I plan to 1) make sure my KK is covered now at all times when not being used and 2) cook as much as I can in the next weeks to check for cracks and fills in with the grout.

The FireBoard is nice, especially with their new wireless probes. I agree using a different fan may be easier, I had to hack together an adapter for it using a Thermoworks Universal Billows Mounting Kit (TX-1611X-M3) and a Dremel, but it works great.