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I took delivery of a 21" Supreme last week, so I am at the very beginning of my journey. First the apology. The first time I fired it up, there was smoke leaking out from the front of the main seal. I couldn't find any real reason, tried lowering the catch, and finally texted Dennis for guidance. He called me within a minute, and asked me to describe the situation. He must have asked me at least three times if the hook was on the second catch, and I responded yes each time. It wasn't. Even though I had already read several of the many posts on this forum that said to make sure it was on the SECOND catch, I had developed some sort of cognitive blind spot and was accepting that the first catch was as far as things went. The light bulb finally came on as I was taking photos to send to Dennis for troubleshooting. Doh! @DennisLinkletter, I am really sorry for bothering you with a truly dumb question (They do exist!). First question: Is there a rule of thumb for determining when "heat soaking" is effectively complete? Some length of time? When the tile surface reaches some temperature? When your significant other says "Get on with it already!" ? Second question: I did the cure/vent process yesterday. I decided at the last minute to roast a whole chicken while I was at it. The KK had been at or near 500°F for five hours when I put the chicken on. The temperature dropped to about 400°, but I figured things must be pretty well heat soaked by then, so I expected the temperature to recover, and made no adjustment to the vents. There was plenty of fuel left. The temperature didn't really come back up until I took the bird out 2⅓ hours later. I only opened the lid once, an hour and a half after I put the bird in. My best guess is that the humidity being thrown off by the chicken was suppressing the temperature. Does that seem reasonable? Do you all anticipate and compensate for this? Thanks! Randy Wright

Hello, everyone. Well so far so good. I've had my 32" Big Bronze for about three months now and I've been cooking up a storm. I'm interested in trying jerky, but I've found that holding steady temperatures under 200 F to be difficult. Even the smallest airflow and a few coals puts me at about 200 - 225, and to go with even fewer coals would demand refreshing the basket before my cook time (I anticipate ~ 4 hours for jerky) is up. Any suggestions? What techniques have you used to hold low temperatures? And how low can you go and remain steady? Thanks.