Help! Kamado Summit e6 heat control

[OmarH]

recco for LAS cooks only: load coal as my pic showed in the linked thread. you needn't fill the entire lower coal grate unless you need 24-30 hours cooktime.

This was an excellent idea. About midday when adding extra fuel i placed both the charcoal baskets which meant that all coals were alight at the end of the day. When using it previously often coals would move away and remain unlit or barely lit by the end of the coook

light fire with greasy napkins or starter cube. let fire sit for 5 minutes with bottom vent open and grill lid open.

Ahh ok, i think i left them too long

if you don't have a protein in the cooker, your temps will rise as you don't have anything absorbing the heat. it's not a valid test to hold 250F without meat inside the cooker, IMO. that's not a real world cooking scenario.

Very very good point, completely overlooked this fact. By the same virtue when you're at desired temp (Say 250) and you place your protein on the heat, do you adjust the vents to accommodate the slight dip? Or put the protein on slightly higher (260-270F) anticipating that it will fall to 250 F?

pop back in with more questions. glad to help if I can.

I cannot tell you how helpful yourself and the rest of the thread have been.

 

[DanHoo]

basic rule; don't overshoot to bring down.

This is the way

 

[JWorden]

I don't have the kamado but I do have a WSM. It's the same idea. I always start with about 15 light coals and slowly bring the temp up and close the vents once I get close. I also add the meat once the grate temperature is over 200F.

By lightning a portion of the coals you are doing a good thing getting started. Now you just have to dial in the timing of when and how much to close the vents. On my WSM I used the bottom vents to get the temperature about right and if needed, I'll adjust the top to fine tune it. I used to be more picky about this.

If you want to do more tests without meat you could just add a couple aluminum casserole pans filled with water. Or just get a inexpensive pork shoulder to test with.

I would actually suggest a water pan with all your cooks until you get comfortable. You may use more charcoal but the water will help regulate the temperature. You are basically using training wheels until you get this sorted out.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

I will admit, I was cooking with my kettle for 2 years before getting the E6.
They are totally different animals........in fact I run the E6 temp control completely opposite of how I run the kettle....
It's odd and it took me more cooks than I want to admit and some help here with suggestions.....we were all fairly new to the new cookers at that point....if you want to check my threads from about 2 years ago there is information there.....

With my current knowledge now I know it takes about an hour to get the fire started and the charcoal heated up and the dirty smoke to clear.
I also had a terrible time maintaining low temps...it was squeaky clean and new and that didn't help...I also was uneducated.
Now I know patience is key.....making small changes takes some time, hardcore changes like opening the top vent has very quick reaction time....but holding a 240 to 255 is easily done, and I can adjust temps within that range with success.......

It possibly is the best cooker out there, I am a little bit biased of course....and have little experience with other brands.

 

[Todd K Wisc]

Here is a thread I started when I got my WSK and got great help from Brett and many others. Maybe there is some info that can be learned from it. The biggest thing I learned on low and slow is to distribute the smoking wood throughout the coals for a stronger smoke flavor on the WSK. Good luck!

Weber Summit Kamado - new owner questions / help needed

I had an 18.5 WSM and 22" kettle that I purchased used. They've been great and I used my weber genesis gas grill so little I traded that to my brother-in-law for woodwork Anyway, I have been wanting to get an upgrade. I love the WSM, but it really is for low and slow only and hated the way...

tvwbb.com

 

[John K BBQ]

for a low and slow (LAS) cook start, load your coal. depending what you're cooking and for how long, i invert my charcoal baskets (CBs) so I don't have to fully load the coal grate.

for a brisket, i'm using 2/3 of a full load (9-10 hours easily of fuel). for pork belly im using 1/3 a load (4-5 hours fuel, easily).

i load the coals and wood (wood sandwiched in between the coal layer).

then i remove around 5 coals (briquettes are what I use for LAS, not lump charcoal), and then place 2-3 napkins with bacon grease, cooking oil, or any fat inside those napkins. and then i use a small crème brulé torch and light the greasy napkins. (napkins in the US are like a paper towels for your hands and face, not ladies products).

i start the LAS cook with the lower vent in the fire position, all the way open. once i see i have flames going, i then lid the WSC and pop open the rapid heat top vent to have maximum airflow.

after 10 minutes, you can then place the deflector in place, or you can place the deflector in place before you first close the lid. i prefer to wrap my deflector in heavy duty aluminum foil for easy clean ups when done cooking.

after 15-20 minutes, i'll then dial down my bottom damper to SMOKE setting and close the rapid heat vent and open that vent to 70% or so.

get your meat on and monitor temps for 40 minutes or so. then make fine tune adjustments.

you can see in my cook graph on my link what my grill temps were. basically i held less than 275F for the majority of the first 5 hours. https://cloud.thermoworks.com/shared/wxTmJqX9hwZgTLfleUlY

for a low and slow (LAS) cook start, load your coal. depending what you're cooking and for how long, i invert my charcoal baskets (CBs) so I don't have to fully load the coal grate.

for a brisket, i'm using 2/3 of a full load (9-10 hours easily of fuel). for pork belly im using 1/3 a load (4-5 hours fuel, easily).

i load the coals and wood (wood sandwiched in between the coal layer).

then i remove around 5 coals (briquettes are what I use for LAS, not lump charcoal), and then place 2-3 napkins with bacon grease, cooking oil, or any fat inside those napkins. and then i use a small crème brulé torch and light the greasy napkins. (napkins in the US are like a paper towels for your hands and face, not ladies products).

i start the LAS cook with the lower vent in the fire position, all the way open. once i see i have flames going, i then lid the WSC and pop open the rapid heat top vent to have maximum airflow.

after 10 minutes, you can then place the deflector in place, or you can place the deflector in place before you first close the lid. i prefer to wrap my deflector in heavy duty aluminum foil for easy clean ups when done cooking.

after 15-20 minutes, i'll then dial down my bottom damper to SMOKE setting and close the rapid heat vent and open that vent to 70% or so.

get your meat on and monitor temps for 40 minutes or so. then make fine tune adjustments.

you can see in my cook graph on my link what my grill temps were. basically i held less than 275F for the majority of the first 5 hours. https://cloud.thermoworks.com/shared/wxTmJqX9hwZgTLfleUlY

All - work and life have been pretty busy, I've not been on the forum much at all lately but I really hope everyone is doing well!

Brett - thanks for doing the above post. I printed it out and followed it pretty close on my WSK (added a water pan on the deflector, with foil ball spacers underneath) like you've mentioned in other posts) and finally got my WSK to run between 250 and 275... made some killer beef ribs as a result.

 

[Brett-EDH]

All - work and life have been pretty busy, I've not been on the forum much at all lately but I really hope everyone is doing well!

Brett - thanks for doing the above post. I printed it out and followed it pretty close on my WSK (added a water pan on the deflector, with foil ball spacers underneath) like you've mentioned in other posts) and finally got my WSK to run between 250 and 275... made some killer beef ribs as a result.



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That’s perfection. Good on you! Now your family will expect this all the time. Lmk if you need a professional sampler. I could fly out and volunteer.