len440

Looks like my first one and the replacement kamado Joe replaced it with.Cleaned the grease off sanded the rest of the finish off and it works great nothing to worry about once all the finish is gone. Wonder how a polished aluminum would look?

We have those butts here once in a while the netting feels like rubber bands so i take it off add rub and tie with butcher's twine. comes out just like a normal butt , but i miss watching the bone pull out so easy.

Just another thought about air flow perhaps when you added the new charcoal to the glowing coals maybe you could have knocked enough ash loose to clog some of the vents, this is just a wag

MAybe all of the above . Not familiar with the slo roller . But i would look at the charcoal I use rockwood and it doesn't get as hot as royal oak anad it does take me longer than 25 min to get hot for pizza

$0.02 worth since you owned a primo i assume you know about fire management i would suggest you do a large chicken or a small turkey to test how the Joe cooks no surprises on turkey day. I've put together a christmas list for the boss Ash basket ,soapstone 1/2 moon and asa outside chance joetesery. I use a heatermeter i built to control the grill after a few struggles i put it away the blower part till i learned how to control the fire without it .Did a 8 hour butt last thursday wow it worked great for that .Good luck with the Joe.

try this

Perhaps you are starting too much charcoal in the beginning. I light 2 cotton balls with bottom vent open and lid open after 10 min os so add deflectors on bottom of d&c rack add grates and close lid. Temp comes up to 170 close bottom vent to 1 inch open and top to first mark as temp rises close bottom and top vents as needed . My final setting for 225 -250 is 1/2 inch bottom vent and 1/4/ to 1/2 inch on top,your grill settings may be different. How are you measuring the 250? The hard crust could be from the deflector plates may not be together and allowing heat from the coal to hit the briskets, or if your thermometer is off and the grill is really hot the plates will be hot and this might over cook the brisket . Iv'e only had my joe for 15 months so i am NOT an expert. The big thing is not to give up keep trying You can do some dry runs to learn the vents and fire starting John Seltzer has a good video on this

My top vent has been loose since i bought the grill a little over a year ago and has caused no problem whats so ever. I think i only used the slide about 2 or 3 to light the grill i then i started just taking the top part off to light the grill. If it's hot when you need to take the top part off you will need gloves and just place it on the shelf on top of one of the gloves till it cools

Just a few thoughts CK i think the word your searching for is a bi metal thermometer for the dome I agree about the extreme temp weather change affecting the calibration it's been known to get down to -20 f here. I think Dizzy answered his question with comment number 4 when he said the flame boss measured 50 degrees hotter shows his dome thermometer is out of whack. I know this is kind of late but i've been reading the posts today, while waiting for some ribs to do their thing

Just another thought. Not familiar with classic III does it use ceramic deflector plates? If it did were they close together with no gap between them? If there is a gap and the probe is above this you could be getting a high reading . I agree with John pay more attention to the dome temp.

Your dome thermometer could be off I take it that the dome thermometer didn't read 185 when you went to bed so i'm assuming that perhaps the fire died down and the ceramics cooled off and when the flame boss finally got it going again the grill temp showed the heat from deflector plates but the ceramics were still cool affecting the dome thermometer Does the flame boss app show a temp graph? I had something like this with my heater meter. I quit using the blower till i learned how to control the fire with just the vents . JUst like learning how to control the vents you also have to learn the flame boss.

I light two cotton balls (use 91% alcohol) placed off center of coals let it light coals with lid open when going (about 10 to 15 min) place deflector plates close lid wait till about 175 0r so on dome close bottom vent to about 1/2 top the same as temp rises close bottom vent and top at 250 my kamado runs with 1/2 inch bottom and 1/2 way to first mark on top vent. Each grill and brand of charcoal will be different .These grills don't need a lot of lit charcoal to run at temp. If you overshoot the temp it will take a while to cool the grill down. I keep a small book on the grill and note settings and temp along with type of charcoal new or used what i'm cooking and how long. After each adjustment it will take a while for the grill to settle down so be patient. Enjoy

Great short ribs i may have to mosey on down to the butcher

Thinking about getting a ash basket for my classic II Any brand recommendations and will there be a problem with them during a high temp pizza cook and a high temp cleaning, i saw one brand that says not to use during high temp cleaning.

I can't answer this maybe a email to Kamado Joe might help