Best practice for hitting midrange temperatures?

[wilburpan]

In the month that I’ve had Smaug, I’ve found it pretty amazingly easy to hit the temperatures that I want. For low and slow, I crack the lower vent barely open and open the top vent a minimal amount, and I’ll be in the 200-250ºF range. For high heat direct grilling, I just open up the lower and upper vents a good amount, and I’ll be at 600ºF pretty quickly.

 

For temperatures in the 300-400ºF range, this is what I’ve been doing. I’ll get the charcoal started with the lower vents about halfway open, and wait about five minutes with the grill lid open. Then I’ll close the lid, dial the lower vent to barely open, open the top vent about 3/4 of a turn, wait, and fine tune the temperature with the top vent.

 

The rationale for doing that is that the first step gets the fire going in a relatively short time, and the second step is about where I wind up with the vents for 300-400ºF. I picked up the “leave the lid off to start†technique from the Kamado Joe YouTube channel, as that’s how they seem to get that particular grill up to temperature.

 

I understand and am convinced of the idea that you can set the vents on a KK grill the same way each time and you’ll hit your final temperature. But I find that if I start with the vents in the final position and close the grill immediately after lighting the fire, it takes a lot longer to get to my target temperature than if I give it a running start.

 

My question is, is this best practice? It certainly works for me, but I’d be interested in how others bring their KK grills up to a final temperature in the 300-400ºF range.

[tony b]

My only challenge is patience - or lack thereof. I have a tendency to overshoot medium range cooks because when I open vents too far for my final temp (300F - 400F range) to "jump start" the cook, I let too much charcoal get going and even though I close the vents back down to final positions when the dome temps reaches 250F, it's too late and I end up higher than my target. As long as I catch it early, before the KK heat soaks, I can usually turn it around; it's when I get busy doing prep work in the kitchen and thinking all is well on the grill to finally discover - OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN! (sorry, bad Brittany pun.) So, I've tried to learn more discipline and just start the KK earlier and let it come up to temps "naturally," rather than jump start it. YMMV. 

[mguerra]

It's a time thing. Open it up and then shut it down if you are in a hurry. But you have to stay RIGHT on top of it if you do this. If time is no problem, start and end the cook at the final vent position.

[wilburpan]

My only challenge is patience - or lack thereof. I have a tendency to overshoot medium range cooks because when I open vents too far for my final temp (300F - 400F range) to "jump start" the cook, I let too much charcoal get going and even though I close the vents back down to final positions when the dome temps reaches 250F, it's too late and I end up higher than my target. As long as I catch it early, before the KK heat soaks, I can usually turn it around… 

 

 

It's a time thing. Open it up and then shut it down if you are in a hurry. But you have to stay RIGHT on top of it if you do this. 

 

So it sounds like as long as I don’t let the jump start go too long, it should be alright? As I said, I’ve only been letting the fire go with the lid open for five minutes before closing the lid and setting the vents. I could easily do that after three minutes as well.

[DennisLinkletter]

Always remember the hot air leaving the chimney creates vacuum.. so regardless of what your lower setting is the top determines the (vacuum) pressure of air going into the grill..

Open the top completely with enough charcoal lit and the vacuum will suck air around the edges a completely closed draft door.. 

Another way to get to temp is to start to take note of hoe much fuel is burning for different cooks.. If you are going to 500ºf get out the hair drier.. you'll be shocked at how fast that gets things going..