I’m posting this for anyone trying to maintain very low temps on a Kamado smoker. There is not much information out there when it comes to running these below 170 so I thought this may help. All Kamado are a little different but I would think this could work for most of them. I have a BGE and a Acorn that I have added some mods too. I decided to use the acorn for the test as it’s a little bit easier to get temperatures down if they rise .
This is what I used to to this.
- Hard lump …I used the smallest pieces I could find and I made a snake design on the outer part of the basket
- Deflector plate.
- PID with a fan
- Wood chips.
- 5lb snack sticks( I didn’t want to do to much for the test)
I started just a few coals on the left side closest to the air inlet that the fan is on. Put my deflector on and grate. opened up the top vent about half. I set controller to 130. Once temps got to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit I closed the top vent with only a slight opening about 1/4 inch.
It maintained 130 degrees for one hour then set controller to 145. I opened up the top damper to half again. Once temps started rising I closed it back 1/4 inch open. I ran it another hour. After one hour I added my wood chips . After I brought the temp to 155 for 2/12 hours. I probably could have brought the temp to 175 and finished the cook but I decided to finish off in water.
The Kamado and PID controller did well maintaining the temps. The ambient temp was about 40 degrees so that maybe helped as well. I also kept the lid closed as much as possible. I had two probes I used for meat temp and one for pit temp. The stocks turned out amazing.
Things I would do different
I could have probably added more smoke. Next time I’m may add my smoke tube. I also may add a pan of water with sponges on the diffuser at my 155 cook. I also will try doing this now with the BGE as it can hold more meat.
I hope this helps anyone that has the same kind of set up I have.