Incoming 32"BB to Melbourne, Australia

[remi]

Yeah- had the stone in there for 50min before putting the pizzas on...the dome temperature behaviour still has me a bit confused, but pizzas were great so no big issue that's for sure.

[tony b]

That's just how it behaves. It will do the same thing if you heat it up without the grates and once you put them in, the temperature will drop noticeably. You're just adding cooler mass inside and it absorbs the heat, so the air temperature drops. 

[Basher]

Remi for your first question, yes the zero point is fully closed.
Over a short time you won’t feel the gasket for the first 90 deg turn.
For all cooks, open lower and top vents to get your fire going, when you are 15% short of your target temp, set the vents where you think it should settle at target( this will take a few cooks to know these positions), then only adjust the top vent for finer controls.
No target is applicable for grilling, just ensure the fire is establish before putting food on. The fire will burn a bit of bad smoke while it is building to be established. It’ll also burn bad smoke for a short while if you snuff the fire back by significantly winding vents down.
Like everything it’ll take a bit of practice of a few different cooks.
Excellent looking pizza for your first crack. As mentioned, the stone is a heat sink for the first hour, put it in once your fire is lit and half way to target temp.
Also, fill your basket with all cooks. When you finish cooking, close it down and the remaining charcoal will be preserved for the next cook for topping up. I’ve been caught short of charcoal in the basket only once during a cook…. never again.
When refilling charcoal, push the smaller half burnt pieces to the outside edge of the basket and refill bigger pieces into the middle.


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[remi]

8 hours ago, tony b said:

That's just how it behaves. It will do the same thing if you heat it up without the grates and once you put them in, the temperature will drop noticeably. You're just adding cooler mass inside and it absorbs the heat, so the air temperature drops. 

Thanks Tony- yes, I understand all of that. What was interesting was that after the stone was added in (even after being in there for 45min), I never got a dome reading above 400F. When I noted that first time around and pulled the stone back out just for interest, the temp rebounded from 400F to 500F dome very fast (barely a minute or two)- but then when stone was replaced I was down at 400F and stayed there for the rest of the cooking time even with top and bottom vents essentially wide open.

So for next time around- it sounds like it may be better for the stone to be there from very early on in the heat up phase, such that it heat soaks at the same time as the KK. My only concern with that approach is that I had read posts from other users who found they were unable to get the KK up to 500F+ pizza temps if the stone was in place from the beginning.