Old timer at a competition told me I was choking my fire and that changed everything about how I set dampers

My first year doing a KCBS comp, this guy walks by my setup and says 'you got your intake choked tighter than a frog in a jar.' I had no idea what he meant. Turns out I was running my offset with the exhaust damper wide open and the intake barely cracked. He showed me his rig - intake wide, exhaust barely 1/4 open. Tried it on my brisket and my temps stopped spiking all over the place. Anyone else get one piece of advice that totally rewired how you think about airflow?

2 comments

2 Comments

reese_singh8711d agoMost Upvoted

Bro same thing happened to me with my Weber kettle and it totally clicked for my cooks too.

valthomas11d ago

Oh man I had the exact same lightbulb moment with my old kettle last summer. I was doing a brisket for the first time and kept lifting the lid every 5 minutes like a maniac. Then I just sat on my deck stairs and watched the temp settle into a groove like it was supposed to. I felt like such a dummy for overcomplicating it for years. Now I almost feel bad for all the dry chicken I made before I figured out the whole "leave it alone" thing.