heat control

[john noble]

Had my KK for five days, done three cooks since.

Interested in the ways to use vents for heat control.

Older post about this topic

And I like Dennis' point in the above postings, about closing the hat until it touches the gasket, then opening just half an inch. That would certainly slow down the fire.

When starting up, and waiting for the temp to climb up, both the bottom vent and the hat must be open, certainly. But what vents do we use to halt the progress?

Before my KK, my method on my wsm was to have top and bottom vents full open and watch the temp climb. Then, when about 50F below the desired temp, I'd close most of the bottom vents. Top vent stayed fully open. With the bottom vent only allowing a touch of air in, the state of the top vent didn't matter. Whether partly or fully open, the top would only release the tiny amount of air squeezing in from below. The restricted air flow would cool down the roaring fire, the speed of inrushing air would slow down and the machine would stabilize at temp.

As long as the machine is air tight, using either the top or bottom vent shouldn't matter. Restricted air flow is restricted air flow.

So my question is whether that method carries over to refractory cooking. I"m going out to practice this of course, but comments appreciated.

[DennisLinkletter]

Re: heat control

The big difference is that in your KK the body needs to get heat soaked before you can stabilize your temps.

If you build a larger fire than you need there is always the chance of heat soaking at a higher than your target temp and then you won't be able to get it down with any charcoal burning..

So for lets say 220º what you want to do is light only about a tennis ball worth of charcoal, crack your top about a quarter to half turn and open the lower airflow wheel a bit more than the thickness of a quarter (the coin;-)

Now grab a frosty beverage and just wait.. Always take note of the airflow settings every time you have a temp stabilized because it will always be the same. I usually use the lower airflow control to strangle airflow for temps under 400º and the damper top to control high temps..