New User - vent question

[weekendsmoker]

Hi all,

Glad to be here and I have lots of questions and have already learned a lot from the forum.  I have the DBS and was wondering if you could shed some light on the vent.  Not all recipes tell you how far to have the vent open and I was wondering what the real purpose is.  Is it to control the smoke?  heat? or both.  Thanks.

As well, in the recipe they don't always tell you how long to smoke for vs. cook for, is there a rul of thumb besides personal preference?

[Arcs_n_Sparks]

weekendsmoker,

Welcome to the forum. The vent opening is how experienced members here steal your food...  :D

The vent helps regulate heat, smoke, and moisture control. Usually it is more open in the beginning as moisture comes off, then gets necked down. Most keep it closed enough to maintain temperature, but open enough to avoid back-flow through the smoke generator (a bad thing).

Arcs_n_Sparks

[Mr Walleye]

Hi WeekendSmoker & welcome to the forum.

Arcs has ya covered on the vent. The only thing I would add is somethings like chicken are very high in moisture and require the vent to open a little more. I usually keep my vent between 1/3 and 2/3 open depending what I'm doing.

As far as how much smoke goes it is a personal thing. I would start off on the light side as opposed to the heavy side. I typically use about 4 hours smoke for butts, 2 to 3 hours for ribs, 1 hour 20 minutes for jerky just to give you an idea but it's definitely a personal thing.

Mike

[KyNola]

Welcome to the forum!
If you see smoke coming out where the smoke gen goes into the tower, your vent isn't open enough.  I typically run mine about half open unless like they said you are doing chicken, turkey, etc..  Then I run it pretty much wide open to allow the moisture to escape.  Play with it.  You'll get the hang of it!

KyNola