Kamado Vent Simulator
Vent position is the difference between a controlled cook and a ruined one. Pick your deflector setup below — direct, indirect, or double indirect — and adjust the top and bottom vents to see roughly where your temperature will land. Use it to plan your setup before you light the coals, or to sanity-check your vents mid-cook if the temperature's drifting.
Interactive Kamado Joe style BBQ diagram showing how the top exhaust vent and bottom intake vent control fire temperature, airflow and smoke colour
Fire size
This is the size of the fire you light to start with — how many firelighters you use and how they're arranged in the charcoal. Small: one or two firelighters close together in the centre. Large: three or four firelighters spread across a few spots around the centre. The size of this starting fire sets a floor on how low a temperature you can bring the kamado down to later.
Grill setup
Tip: move both vents together. Whatever change you make to one, make roughly the same change to the other — they should almost always sit at similar positions.
Intake and exhaust are reasonably matched, so heat builds smoothly and the burn stays clean. Intake sets the ceiling, exhaust fine-tunes the draw.