Top vent


 
T

tmfast

TVWBB Super Fan
Hey all,
Iv'e been smokin for less than a year now. But have reached the status of the main BBQ guy in my circle of friends thanks to this site. I know it will take years to become a GOD like "K Kruger". I enjoy every session.
This may sound like a dumb question, but. Does anyone regulate the top vent? There are lots of advise on regulating the bottom vents., but none on regulating the top vent. Can anyone reply?
 
I leave mine full-open about 99.8% of the time. The other times I damper it down (no more than 50% and for no more than about 15 minutes) to drop the heat very quickly. The fire needs an exhaust to prevent creosote from depositing on your meat.

If you build and tend your fire correctly, you can manage your temps very easily on the intake side and never have to touch the top vent.

I hope this helps,
John
 
My top vent is fully open but I have a thermometer stuck in one of the holes. You could probably say my top vent is 1/3 closed.
 
I'm like John - leave the top vent open almost all of the time. However, when the temp gets too high and the fire's out of control, I'll shut the top vent. I've closed it 100% for a short period of time when I wanted the temp to go down and have never noticed it affecting the taste of my food at all.

Generally, once you get familiar with your WSM and have a little more experiance, you don't let the temps get out of control and the top vent stays open.
 
what everyone said is good advice. The smoke needs a place to evacuate, so leaving it open is good.

That said, something I learned alot about as we began making our big ole custom rig was about the airflow issues. Closing the top vent partially helps significantly in bringing down the temps (if you've preceded that by closing down the bottom vents) because it means you'll be sucking less air into the system, because less is evacuating as rapidly.

John's comment is correct - you will get creosote if you do this completely and for an extended period. But for an "emergency" heat reduction and for a small amount of time, you won't have any problem. Plus, reducing by only around 50% won't hurt (on the creosote front) because you'll still have plenty of air moving to get that smoke out in a reasonable time, and can really help in bringing down the temps.

All this, of course, is under the assumption that you aren't burning TONS of smoke wood (which would be a problem unto itself) and that you have a relatively tight ship there with no huge gaps between sections or from the access door.

Cheers...
 
My first few burns I had trouble keeping the temp down. But now I never have to mess with the top vent. It's always left wide open.
 
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