jrocketrn1

Were you having problems with temp control? Is that why you had to create this seal?

Did you get a new vision? Did you have the same problems again? Vision's customer service seems reAlly good, they sent me silicon. Unfortunately it did work and I will be callin them again tomorrow. Grilling is great on mine but smoking is near impossible as the temp always goes up even with the vents shut down. I would be interested for a follow up to your story as I am in a similar situation

Thank you everyone for the advice, I definitely think learning curve is a part of it. I did talk to Vision and they sent me silicon to put around the rubber gaskets for the ash box. I am currently doing my first cook after the added silicon. This time when I shut it completely up the temp actually started to fall after some time. I am grilling today, but plan to do a slow cook in the next day or two to see if it goes better

That looks amazing, I just did my first cook today and I aspire to doing super juicy briskets soon. Hopefully I can soon post a similar looking pic.

I am new to charcoal and to my Vision Kamado S. I learned my first lesson that the grill can get very hot very fast but I was able to control the temp and keep it in the 350-375 range to cook 2 chickens. I am a little worried about trying to smoke at lower temps though. Even with all vents closed, it seems to hold temp. I cooked the chickens with the top vent almost closed and the bottom between 1 and 2. Is the key to lower temps not having a lot of the lump lit at the beginning? I used a chimney this time. Last question is, if I completely close all vents, how long should it take to choke out the fire? If it burns through all the lump does that mean I have a leak somewhere? Sorry if the terminology is wrong and sorry I didn't take pics of my first cook! Oh and one more thing, when finished, with both vents closed I still see a lot of smoke coming out of the top. Does this mean the top isn't sealing properly?