ScoutHikerDad 143 Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 Greetings all-I see it's been over 2 years since my last post. I've been busy in other areas of my life (I was assigned Department Chair of my large suburban high school English department along with 2 AP English courses and all that entails, for one thing), but have still managed to do quite a bit of smoking here and there. In fact this week's smoke of 20 chicken legs on my 5 year old Akorn revealed a rusted out fire bowl. Rather than try to scrounge another one, I just gave it away, and my loving wife decided to gift me with the Vision Pro S for 799$ from Home Depot. We also got the electric starter and the lava-stone and hangers accessory. I am very impressed with the build quality and features relative to price when looking at similar competition. Yesterday, I lucked onto a 10 lb. choice-grade packer brisket from the Evil Empire known as WalMart. Still, I've had great luck with their Excel choice-grade briskets in the past, so that will be the Vision's maiden voyage one day this week. I've watched all the Vision videos, done my homework on here, and read their instructions, which are kinda basic (don't operate the smoker with the cover on-make a note, lol!). So I'm familiar with the fundamentals from 5 years with an Akorn, but just curious about vent settings for a classic low and slow smoke at 225-275. I've got my extra bag of Royal Oak, my rub made (a Texas-plus rub, basically), and my chips are ready. So if anyone is willing to share the vent settings for both top and bottom dials, I would appreciate it. I assume to start out open, and gradually close it down as the temps start climbing. I guess the 2 bottom vents kind of confuse me. If the top vent goes to 1ish on a long, low and slow smoke, do both bottom vents need to be open just a peek? One more than the other? It kinda reminds me of the gain and volume knobs on a tube amplifier-just a hair more complicated than a single sliding vent. Thanks in advance for any thoughts! Aaron Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RVA Smoker 44 Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Because of air leaks everyone has different settings. It will need a few smokes to seal up those but once it does it will hold great. My Pro C works great without any modifications. I thought it was leaking bad but a few smokes in and easy to control. ScoutHikerDad 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
keeperovdeflame 10,077 Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 I learned to kamado cook on a Vision Pro C, which is pretty much identical to your grill except for the shape of the ash drawer assembly. Mine was a dream to cook on, although it leaked air around the ash drawer from day one. You learn the vent settings by trial and error over time and experience. My advice is set the vents to where you think you should for 250F, light the fire and then sit back and watch what happens over the course of an hour. Have a beer or two, listen to music, looks out over your back yard and enjoy the experience and learn at the same time. Use what you learn to set the vents for your next cook. And so on, and so on. Happy Cooking. My advice is don't mess with mods to seal it up, it is a never ending pursuit, just learn to cook on what you have, it will work out in the end. Trust me. I cooked on a stock Vision Pro for probably 4 years and turned out some great cooks. ScoutHikerDad 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Floridajetsfan 0 Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 On my Pro S I usually set the upper to just below 1 and the left lower to about 2 and it holds around 230-250 for hours. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dakoota 0 Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 I recently got the Pro S and have only smoked a pork shoulder so far, but was able to maintain ~240° for 6 hours easy with the top vent fully closed (0 on the dial), the bottom right vent fully closed and the bottom left vent barely open (between 0 and 1 on the dial). The little guide included with the grill provides a good starting point: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tracksoup 3 Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 On 4/5/2020 at 2:19 PM, Floridajetsfan said: On my Pro S I usually set the upper to just below 1 and the left lower to about 2 and it holds around 230-250 for hours. that's just about how I set mine up // TM Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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