Damper Instructions

[btctin42]

All,

I recently reclaimed my weekend hours from work and so am back to learning how to use my 23" grill after a several year hiatus.    I have a few questions for the forum.

1.  Does anyone have instructions for the dampers and where to set them for the different temperatures?   I lost mine during somewhere in my last 3 moves.   Yes the Komodo travelled with me through all three.   For instance for 225...is it 1.5 turns up top and 40% on damper below?   Any good videos on youtube on how to set temperatures....would be great if there were.   

2.   The white residue on the tile due to water leaking through grout which I just repaired thanks to Dennis.  Is this where I use the maguire polish? 

3.   Any idea for how to get the grill up to speed quicker for a 225 degree cook?    Would love to know tricks as I am not very patient and this is likely the one thing that has held me back from using the grill more.

Thanks!

 

Bruce 

 

[tony b]

Welcome back, Bruce!

1. Every grill is a bit different, so there's no "universal" damper settings. Looks like you're going to have to set up the cooler of adult beverages and spend an afternoon re-learning your grill!  

But, your initial guess at 225F is pretty off - at least on mine (23"). It's like a 1/8 turn (just barely off the seat) on the top. Bottom vent opening isn't critical, as long as it's open enough for the airflow needed to support the temperature you're shooting for. One and Half turns on mine would get me somewhere around 550F or higher.

2. The Maguire polish is only for esthetics, not for any required maintenance on your KK. Patching the grout is the only thing you need to do. 

3. I open my top vent a couple of turns during initial startup to make sure the coals are going OK. Once dome temperature gets within 50F of my target, I close it back down to where I think it should be. Normally, I only light one spot of charcoal for a low & slow cook, but if you want to speed things up a little, and don't mind burning up a bit more charcoal, you can always light a couple of spots. 

Have fun re-learning your grill. Post pics of those amazing cooks that are coming!

[btctin42]

Thanks Tony.   You are correct...am on my 2nd glass of a nice IPA as I write this.   I did just figure out the settings after trial and error which your post just confirmed.   Had an old thermometer telling me my dome temp was 100 degrees when it was 300...I could tell that when probe was too hot to touch...  Cooling KK down took another 1/2 hour so am now behind my cook by an hour so time for one more beer.     Anyway, I then backed it down to the 1/4 turn with 1/8 open on bottom and that seems to have been the trick to keep it at 220 temperature.    I will try your 2 turns and 50 degree cushion next weekend when I do my first brisket in 5 years.  Last one was amazing so hope I figure it out again.

 

 

[bgrant3406]

To echo Tony's "Every grill is a little different", on mine, if the tabs on the damper are at 3 and 9 o'clock, if I"m targeting 250, I grab the 9 o'clock tab and move it counter clockwise to the 6 o'clock position, so ~ 1/4 turn off the seat. On the bottom, I have the lager vent open so about 1/2 of it is open.

On firing it up, it depends on what you are going for, a long low and slow or a hot grilling session. For a hot grilling session I open the top damper fully open and pull out the bottom vent to allow as much airflow as possible and light multiple area's of charcoal, once i see the dome temp come up to ~100f I will come back in 5 minutes or so and bring the top damper back to desired position and push the bottom damper back in, then set the left rotary dial so it is 1/2 open.

Regards.

[btctin42]

Thanks ....  I have another quest...do you guys generally fill the charcoal basket all the way up for ribs or a brisket or do you manage any differently?   I have some of the coco char on order but am using Big Egg now.   I seem to run out of charcoal in the past and it feels as though it takes forever to heat back up but I just recently learned through the forum not to use the big concrete deflector in my grill so that may have been why. 

 

[MacKenzie]

2 minutes ago, btctin42 said:

Thanks ....  I have another quest...do you guys generally fill the charcoal basket all the way up for ribs or a brisket or do you manage any differently?   I have some of the coco char on order but am using Big Egg now.   I seem to run out of charcoal in the past and it feels as though it takes forever to heat back up but I just recently learned through the forum not to use the big concrete deflector in my grill so that may have been why. 

 

I always fill up on lump and that concrete deflector makes a good stepping stone.  

[btctin42]

My KK came with an ash deflector stone and a pizza stone....right?   I know one of them decayed due to moisture so suspect the one left is the ash deflector and of no use...  right? 

[tony b]

The pizza stone (if you ordered one, not standard equipment) has a very smooth surface and is shaped like the grates. The "deflector stone" is not polished and round. Like MacKenzie said, makes a nice stepping stone in a garden or a base for a bird bath. No one, not even Dennis, uses it for cooking. The only reason he keeps making them as part of the "standard equipment" is that converts from other kamado grills are used to having them with their old grills. 

[mguerra]

Well, my heat deflector that I just bought from the KK store is OTB, or grill shaped, not round. After years of using creative alternate heat deflectors, I am back to using it. The fact it is huge and thick seems a good thing to me. It has a large thermal mass, and radiates heat evenly. A lump fire is always going to have hotter and cooler spots. My guess is that translates straight through a few thousandths of an inch of foil. I want even radiation coming up from below for my roasting and low and slow cooks. Once that big mass comes up to thermal equilibrium, it should provide precisely that. I don't buy the theory that it burns up excessive charcoal coming up to temp. Maybe a little. The proof is in the cook. With that huge paving stone in my KK acting as a radiator/heat deflector, I have PLENTY of charcoal left at the end of a long low and slow. And the cooks don't seem any longer than using any other heat deflector. I have used pizza stones, pizza pans, cast iron griddles, baskets of lava rocks, a stainless round pan, and foil as heat deflectors. Now I have come full circle back to the huge thick grill shaped deflector, it gives me the result I want, and I'm sticking with it.

On 5/25/2020 at 4:22 PM, tony b said:

No one, not even Dennis, uses it for cooking

No one but me. And I'm buying a spare.

[Wingman505]

11 hours ago, mguerra said:

Well, my heat deflector that I just bought from the KK store is OTB, or grill shaped, not round. After years of using creative alternate heat deflectors, I am back to using it. The fact it is huge and thick seems a good thing to me. It has a large thermal mass, and radiates heat evenly. A lump fire is always going to have hotter and cooler spots. My guess is that translates straight through a few thousandths of an inch of foil. I want even radiation coming up from below for my roasting and low and slow cooks. Once that big mass comes up to thermal equilibrium, it should provide precisely that. I don't buy the theory that it burns up excessive charcoal coming up to temp. Maybe a little. The proof is in the cook. With that huge paving stone in my KK acting as a radiator/heat deflector, I have PLENTY of charcoal left at the end of a long low and slow. And the cooks don't seem any longer than using any other heat deflector. I have used pizza stones, pizza pans, cast iron griddles, baskets of lava rocks, a stainless round pan, and foil as heat deflectors. Now I have come full circle back to the huge thick grill shaped deflector, it gives me the result I want, and I'm sticking with it.

No one but me. And I'm buying a spare.

You bought a heat deflector, or baking stone?  Two different components with very different composition and function.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Wingman505

[mguerra]

https://komodokamado.com/collections/23-ultimate-spare-parts/products/23-heatdeflector

On 5/27/2020 at 10:49 AM, Wingman505 said:

Two different components with very different composition and function.

They can both function as a heat deflector, irrespective of their purpose or design. Mine however is designed and sold as a heat deflector. A pizza pan, a flower pot saucer, some bricks, and an innumerable multitude of things can function as a heat deflector, and apparently, some people believe a tissue thin piece of aluminum foil can as well!

[tony b]

20 minutes ago, mguerra said:

and apparently, some people believe a tissue thin piece of aluminum foil can as well!

Being one of "those people," I'd like to explain that there's science behind it. All you are trying to accomplish is to block the direct infrared radiation from the hot glowing coals - hence, indirect cooking. A "tissue thin" foil accomplishes that with ease, not because of its mass, but because it's shiny. Just like a mirror reflects visible light, the foil is reflecting the infrared radiation back down and not absorbing it. So, it's not consuming much energy itself (this is where the low mass comes into play), and significantly impacting the overall heat up of the grill. The side benefit is that it also catches the drips from going into the fire. 

The vast majority of the cooking in the KK is due to convective heat transfer from the hot air flow around the meat. There is some secondary cooking from the radiative heat transfer from the walls/dome, which a heavy slab of similar material underneath the cooking grate will contribute to. But, radiative heat transfer drops off dramatically with distance. (Hence, it is most effective on the upper grate where the food is close to the dome surface.) So, by placing the deflector on top of the charcoal basket handles, while allowing the deflector to be closer to the heat source for faster heat up, isn't contributing a whole lot if you're cooking on the main grate. Placing the deflector on the lower grate will result in a closer proximity to the food and some increase in effectiveness, but being further away from the heat source, will take longer to heat up - about the same rate as the walls/dome. The small incremental mass of the deflector stone is stealing BTUs of energy from the rest of the grill during heat up, with not much payback in overall cooking efficiency. Unlike the walls/dome, which are contributing to holding the heat inside the KK once at thermal equilibrium, the deflector, being wholly inside the grill isn't helping with that.

So, the bottomline is - what does the heavy deflector bring to the table that makes it better than the "tissue thin" piece of AL foil?     

[mguerra]

Time for some science.

[mguerra]

Oh the heck with it, it’s not worth buying the instrumentation. We all have our heat deflectors of choice, on to the next mental meander. And cook.