Intake Markings

Just a quick inquiry. I see a lot of logs indicating 25%, 50% open etc. Does anybody mark there intakes? I can see this until you reach a level of comfortability. Any pictures? I'd like to be spot on.

I've never seen or heard of anyone actually marking their vents like that. I don't. When I make notes like that, it's just an estimate from a quick look. Also, vent adjustments will vary wildly from smoker to smoker and even from cook to cook, based on things like how airtight your smoker is, the fuel you're using, how much food you're cooking, the outdoor temperature, wind, humidity, sun, shade, and such. This also means that you shouldn't rely too heavily on notes from someone else's log in deciding how to set your vents. My vent settings almost never match up with what I've seen in others' notes, with the exception that I think a lot of folks end up closing two of the three bottom vents completely and controlling the temps by adjusting one vent. I do this, unless I'm doing something at high heat and really need to open it up and let it rip. One of the nice things about smoking is that you can make some excellent BBQ without having to be all that precise. Close counts for a lot of the things we cook (with the possible exception of brisket), and you'll learn not to worry all that much about occasional temperature fluctuations of plus or minus 10 or 15 degrees.

There is a comment where someone did the vent markings on the bottom of this page: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/ventdamper.html

Andrew, most if not all of us just eyeball it. I'll mark the sweeper arm on my OTG cause I cant visually see the dampers with a load on, but for the WSM's a close guesstimate is good enough.

Tim

@thoey

That's perfect. I realize its eyeballing mostly ....cheers!

Andrew, what type of grill are you using? I have made markings on my platinum performer with a magic marker.

Thanks for the ideas. I think I may mark my OTG for the reasons that Tim mentions. It's a pretty small range of motion to go from 100% open to 100% closed, and I can't see the vents when making the adjustments.