George Payne
TVWBB Fan
Leave your top vent about 1/4 open and set it and forget it. Sleep well while your DigiQ does the rest. Trust me, I learned the hard way.
Originally posted by NickB:
Greetings Learned Forum:
After reading many posts and recipes from this site, the conventional wisdom seems to be "always leave the top vent fully open." In fact, I have not found a single recommendation to the contrary.
Well, you have a recommendation to the contrary now. I have a 18 1/2 WSM and a Guru DigiQ 2 Temperature Controller. I close ALL my vents except I leave the very top one on the lid half open. The little fan puts oxygen in from the bottom onto the coals and the top vent half open allows some of the heat to escape. My temp controller always stays "Nailed" on my target temperature. I have never done it any other way and I get good solid stable temperatures with a half-open top vent using the DigiQ. I hope this helps and happy smoking.
But by adding an ATC into the equation, does this change things? Are there instances where partially closing the top vent is helpful? Or is fiddling with the top vent the "third rail" of good BBQ? Any thoughts and experiences are greatly sppreciated. Thank you.
NickB
Originally posted by r benash:
A.J. - I would rather think you skillfully selected the correct components and have come up with superior design![]()
George, just curious if you experimented with closing down the fan port using the slide first if you would have reached the same result (with the top vent full open).
Actually, I have the damper half closed on the DigiQ fan on all my smokes, as that fan is plenty big for an 18 1/2 WSM. The top vent half open, and the fan half open has worked very well for me and the temp stays nailed for the entire smoke, whether it 6 hours or 14 hours. Just have to play with it, but anyone using a DigiQ probably should plan to close the slide damper on it to half open, especially on a 18 1/2 WSM. Hope this helps somebody.
Not suggesting one way is right or wrong at all but just thinking that the root issue may be with the Guru fan putting out full 10CFM that your problem is being resolved by cutting down the total draft/flow by 50%. This can be accomplished I believe by either cutting the input or damping the stack flow IMHO.
In the end you solved your problem and that's all that matters.
Originally posted by Stefan B:
Anytime i use my DigiQ i always leave the top vent wide open and all lower vents 100% closed.