How should I set the dampers on my cooker/grill when using BBQ Guru?

Modified on Tue, 07 Mar 2023 at 01:12 PM

The BBQ Guru fan will supply all of the air entering the firebox area so you should close any other inlet dampers. The top damper or exhaust can be used as you normally would. Slightly open for low temperatures and open more as needed for higher temperatures.


Our fans, with the exception of the PartyQ, come with a built in damper. Because natural draft may affect cooking temperatures on the blower's off cycle, we recommend testing on different settings.


As a general rule, it is best to keep the damper completely open on medium/large to larger BBQ cookers such as offsets, non-insulated cabinets, and 22” barrel/bullet-style cookers.


Throttle the damper 1/2 way down for small to medium cookers such as XL ceramic grills, 18” and smaller barrel/bullet-style cookers, and kettles.


For small-large sized ceramic grills the fan damper should only be about 1/3 of the way open to make sure the fan doesn’t allow too much air to enter the cooker.


This might take a few cooks to get this dialed in but if you are seeing the cooker overshoot the temp you need to close the dampers more. If the fan is running at 100% for long periods of time then it’s struggling to keep the pit temp up and you should try opening your dampers a bit to allow more air to enter naturally.


Close the damper completely or remove the fan and insert the kill plug to extinguish fire after cooking is complete.

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