Vent settings demystified


 
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Rita Y

TVWBB Emerald Member
In the archives I came across a post by Rodney C (posted 02-21-2001) who asked about marking vents to determine their settings.

My cooker is usually in the shade and the vent settings are pretty hard for me to see, let alone gauge.

You pros might laugh at me, but I've had really good luck with using 12-inch lengths of various sizes of dowel rods. I just place one in the vent, snugging it into the squared-off corner of the hole, tapping the vent cover closed till it hits the rod, and then removing it.

By doing a little careful measuring and calculating, I've come up with the following:

1/8-inch rod = 10% open
3/16-inch rod = 17% open
1/4-inch rod = 25% open
3/8-inch rod = 40% open
7/16-inch rod = 55% open
1/2-inch rod = 66% open

I hope this helps, Rodney. It takes the guesswork out of the process and it works for me!

Rita

[ 10-05-2001: Message edited by: Rita Y ]

[ 10-06-2001: Message edited by: Rita Y ]
 
Hi Rita,
Looks like you've got those vent setting percentages down pat. I'd like to ask you a question about these percentages that I don't understand. When I'm q'ing with my WSM I adjust the vents to adjust my temps. I know that's what we all do, but why bother with the percentages each vent is open? The guages I use to determine how much my vents are open are my thermometers. The vent opennings vary depending on weather, wind, how much meat is on the grates, etc. I'm sure I'm missing something in this, please inform me so I can get it in my thick head the importance of these percentages. :)
Thanks
 
Hi Johnny,
All you say is true -- no thick head there!

Being fairly new to the process, I enjoy charting my cooks as Chris suggests elsewhere on this wonderful web site. By knowing just how far open the vents were, the relationship between vent changes, the temp of the WSM, and lag time become more apparent. Certainly, they'll change as the weather changes, but here in the South it's not as much of an issue as it is up North.

My WSM sits in the shade and it's hard for me to see just how far open a vent is (black interior against black WSM). And when I tap a vent to change a setting, I sometimes overshoot and can't tell where the original setting was. This way, if the vent was set at 10% and I need just a little more air, I can be sure it's at 17%, not 50%. It's helped me keep my temps more stable and I hope it will also help other newbies to more easily see what's going on with their WSM's.

Rita
 
Rita
I wish you had come by sooner, I kind of do the same thing but I stick my finger in the vent. Use my finger as the gauge, yes it burns, but some us like that. ;)
Jim
 
Well, pros and chefs seem to have an immunity to pain. That distinguishes the Pros from the Newbies!
Rita
 
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