What is the best way to light the cooker and connect the control?

Place enough unlit charcoal into your firebox or charcoal ring to get you through the cook. Use a torch fire starter or chimney to light a few coals on the top of the pile. Once the coals are lit on top of the pile, connect your control and place the pit probe to the cooking grate. Set the temperature on the control and close the cooker up. Allow your control to bring your cooker up to temperature.

Note: If you are cooking a lot of meat, you may want to start with a slightly higher cooking temperature set point to account for the temperature drop when the meat goes on the cooker. Using the BBQ guru will help with recovery time as well.