Yoder Smokers Community Forum

Hey all.. I"m super happy after 3 long months I finally have my Kingman.. I got it seasoned up and did my first cook this past weekend. I didn't start slow.. I did 3 rack of ribs -2 big rack of beer ribs and a 9lb butt. I will say some of the better Q I have ever done - everything was nice and tender and tasted amazing. Few question for the group - this is my first offset - I have cooked for years on a BGE - but I grew up burning fires in wood stoves so def comfortable working with a fire and I get the concept of drafting and more air produces cleaner burn etc..

So I have a 1/2 cord of oak and hickory - burned great.. I was playing with different fire sizes and door openings to keep my temp right around 250. with the head management plates i could keep pretty consistent temps - so my question - the gauge right next to the fire box low right where the fire comes out of the firebox - reads one temp.. I know the heat plates forces the heat / smoke along and it rises in the holes.. The temp on the stack gauge was right around 250 as well.. though I put my own probe on the lower rack on the far left hand size.. I was surprise that temp gauge was way hotter than the both the other gauges.. by my own reckoning I would of thought is should be consistent maybe a little lower than the right most gauge? Is the higher temp on the left hand side lower rack to be expected? It was a good 20 - 30 degree higher - which means my cooking temp for the area on the left was 280 ish.. When you cook do you base the temps on the gauge plus - so in order to cook at 250 I should keep the gauges at 225 on the right side? Also before I installed my gauges I put them into some boiling water to see how close.. my insta read read 212 on the nose but the gauges were just a smidge over 200 - is this to be expected and I just add 11 degrees?

Thanks for humoring me on these questions.. lots to learn - and I love my Kingman.. its a beast!

I am sure you figured it out by now. I think the most important thing to do is put a high quality digital probe at grate level inside the cooker and use that during the cook. When my digital reads 250, sometimes the in-lid thermometers says about 275 while the one further from the firebox is about 225 but those fluctuate. Best to rely on the grate level, digital one. Of course, make sure you don't lay a hunk of meat on the probe accidentally, that will throw the temp off.