Yoder Smokers Community Forum

Hi all,

I'm the proud owner of a YS-1500. This thing is a beast. It's huge, it's massive, and its amazing. However, I'm having a little trouble adjusting to it from my green egg clone. On my kamodo-style cooker, I could say "I want ribs at 225 for 6 hours." I would adjust my temps till 225 and let the ribs ride. Even using a BBQ guru (the fan thing with a temperature gauge) it would keep a perfect 225 and cook well. Furthermore, the temp on my bbq guru and the temperature gauge on the egg matched perfectly.

I'm not having the same luck on my YS-1500. For my first cook I set it to 225 and put my ribs in. At six hours, they weren't remotely cooked. The beans I had in there for six hours were honestly "warm" and that's it. The temperature gauges were reading in the mid to low 100s. I did the same thing with two different briskets. I put a 6' brisket in at 225 on the digital gauge and it took almost 20 hours to cook to 203'F. I tried another brisket 2 nights ago. I set it to 315-325 and the top left pit thermometer read 250ish and the right lower thermometer was around 215ish.

So, my question is, it seems that the set point of the digital gauge is useless. If I set it to 225, I know for a fact my pellet smoker is not cooking everything at 225. It simply isn't. It seem sthat I have to set it around 75' higher than what I want for the grill to actually reach that temperature. I'm just curious if this is "working as intended", and, if so, how do you calculate what you set your temperatures to compared to what you actually want. I mean, if you want 250, do you set it to 325?

I guess I don't understand why on my egg I can set my BBQ guru think to 225 and reaches a perfect 225 per my thermometer and the device, but on my $4000 YS-1500 if I set it to 225 I actually reach a temperature on the thermometer of like 150. I understand where it takes the readings is different, but it sure seems odd that there is such a difference.

I would appreciate any insight... Thank you. (I'm not trashing this grill. I love it. It's awesome.)

To get you better in tune with your YS1500, I would suggest that you do this test, and follow the instructions exactly: download/Best%20Practice%20and%20how%20to/Yoder%20Pellet%20Temperature%20Test.pdf

Second, this is our best practice for cooking on Yoder pellet cookers: download/Best%20Practice%20and%20how%20to/Recommend%20procedure%20for%20starting%20up%20a%20Yoder%20pellet%20cooker.pdf The verbiage between step 13 and 14 is very important, and can explain why you are seeing a difference from what your other cooker does. By heating up the entire metal mass of the cooker first (you have first hand experience with how heavy the cooker is), you will get much better temperature control.

Here is an article explaining the differences in temperature with the gauges: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=621

Here is some essential information: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=454 and viewtopic.php?f=36&t=786

I cook ribs at 275 degrees, and never wrap, and they take approximately 4 hours +/- 45 minutes. At 225 degrees, you are looking at 8 hours if you don't wrap. If you follow the 3-2-1 method, ribs take 6 hours at 225 degrees.

Hi there, thank you for the reply.

Two questions:

1. I think the smoke stack lid may be my culprit. I've been leaving it closed the whole time. In the manual it says to keep it closed during the heat up process. But I've read other posts (I think from you) saying to keep it open. So, after the start up process (turn it on, walk away for 30 min), should I set the temp I want and open the smoke stack all the way up? Half way open? How exactly does it affect the temperatures in the bbq pit?

2. When you write that you cook your ribs, or whatever, at xxx degrees, are you referring to the temperature on the temperature control unit?

Thank you

Folks leave it open pretty much. I don't have a 1500 I have a 640, and I have no stack cover. If I remember right, it has been mentioned here that they have learned it's best to leave it open 100% and it's now just a 'dust cover' to keep the squirrels out.

xxx degrees? Yep, set the temp and go. It's best to have a digital thermometer like the Mav ET-732 or something like that to see what the grate temps are. I cook BB ribs at 245 on the controller. Adjust temps as you need to for your cooking methods.

The chimney damper should never be closed more than 50%. Leave it wide open, unless like the article I linked for you, you are trying to change the side to side temperatures. If you haven't read the articles, I urge you to do so.

I set the controller at 275 for ribs. I don't use any thermometers in the cooker, and don't pay attention to the lid thermometers. I use a hand held quick read thermometer, but mostly only to use the probe to feel if meat is done or not.

I normally cook my ribs 3-2-1 on 250, im using the digital display, thats bang on the money, my mechanical gauges are like just some degrees of the digital one. I find my pit to be most accurate from side to side if i fire it up to the temp i want to like 250 instead of 350, and ive been using my pit from 80f to -10f with superbe accuracy, ive logged it as well for many hours and it it super accurate on the temps. In the extreme cold weather i just start is as normal, i dont adjust to cold weather start up