Yoder Smokers Community Forum

Can anyone with more experience give me a quick tutorial on where you place your meats in the smoker and what temps you usually run at? I just got this thing and am trying to figure it out. I know it runs different than a stick burner in that the higher grates are at a lower temperature.
Also, should I leave the damper closed if i'm not grilling or should this be opened up some when cooking things like chicken? Thanks for the help!

Not many people on this forum huh?

I tend to cook everything around 280f set temp. I find the meat tends to be much drier if I cook low around 220f possibly due to the large amount of air constantly being pumped through the cooker so hot and fast works best for me. Top shelf is cooler so if you use it you need to factor that in too and I find the back of the cooker (opposite the doo) tends to be hotter also.

Im only just now experimenting by closing the chimney damper to about half in an effort to keep some more smoke and heat in. And yeah this forum seems to have tumbleweeds blowing through it at the moment.

If you have or can pick up a Maverick 732 you can place the probes on the different cooking grate levels. When you run your smoker, you can compare the Fireboard temps to the Maverick temps for each cooking level. The Maverick will have the actual grill temp, and then you will know what temp to run the Fireboard to get the desired (Maverick) grill temps for whatever you are cooking.

I don't have a Yoder yet, but will soon I hope.

Pick up a fatty and put it on and experiment. Enjoy!

Maybe this is related to this thread. Could someone provide some guidance/direction as to how the position of the chimney damper (fully open, half open, etc.) and the position of the sliding plate on the first heat management plate affect cooking temperatures and the uniformity of heat/temperature across the pit for a YS1500 ACS?. Or refer me to a previous thread that may provide this information. Thanks.