Yoder Smokers Community Forum

I keep GrillGrates in place almost all the time rather than sliding back and forth, which is also a nice technique herb describes in a thread below. Thus, I use them like as pictured in the yoder ys640 product pix example, with the regular grates to their right.

Since the new thermocouple design places it just an inch above the Grillgrates area, does this have any consequence in its ability to regulate temps throughout the pit?

Since Grillgrates can raise surface temp over 100 degrees at higher thermostat settings, any issues found? I cook 2/3 of the time with the GrillGrates flat side up, yielding great Maillard reaction. So that's a hot surface as compared with the overall pit.

An inch above GrillGrates at thermocouple level is far less hot, but still accurate for pit temp, right? For example, I might do chicken at 350 on the regular grates on the right side of grill. Or, for steaks, I'll do a short reverse sear smoke on the right side of pit before pulling the meat out as temp is raised to 495, and then return meat to the GrillGrates side to finish.

For chicken I use GrillGrates with the typical grates up setup and for beef and chops, flat side up, all with great results.

One quick follow up...now that 2015 and 2016 ys640s have the very latest thermocouple design mounted on the upper hopper wall, I'm guessing this would mitigate any issues re older thermocouple location very close to GrillGrates surface right?

From the description of your cooking style, I don't see any issue with the way you have your cooker setup. The grill grates do change the airflow in the cooker, but in your case, should not cause anything negative for your cooking style.

So you just use Grillgrates on half of the grill? Is there any negative to using them on the entire main cooking level?

If you are wanting to grill on the entire surface, with 2 sets of grill grates, I would remove the diffuser, no matter what version of the diffuser you have.

I would suggest always removing the grill grates when not grilling.

I thought a full set of grillgrates made the temperature more even throughout the grill?