Today I’m showing you how easy it is to set up your Yoder Smokers 640s with Competition Cart and perform the initial burn-in! Minutes to set up and soon enough you’ll be your own backyard pitmaster!
The Newest Yoder Smokers Brand Ambassador
Y’all I couldn’t be more excited!!! I’m the newest BA for Yoder Smokers. It is such an honor to be a part of the team. I’ve smoked on charcoal before before but this is my first pellet smoker.
I’ve seen these in action a bunch of times and honestly, this had been on my bucket list for quite some time. From an Engineering standpoint, this thing is truly unmatched. From the welds to the structural integrity, both myself and Mr. Fantabulous (another Engineer who works in metal fabrication for race cars), were impressed.
The Chef and PitMaster in me – I did my first cook on it the other day and honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever make meatloaf any other way!
The EASIEST Smoker Install Ever!
From how this was shipped and attached the 2×4″ pallets to how little we truly had to put together, we both were so impressed. The only help I needed in this whole thing was having my neighbor help my hubby take it from the pallet to the ground. That took maybe 15 seconds. Having the main components including the 8″ pneumatic wheels already attached – GAME CHANGER!
Now because it was 114F outside and the metal was sharp, my hubby wore gloves.
- First, grab the heat diffuser and place that into place. You’ll see where the tab goes into the slot on it.
- Next, put in the access door followed by the grill grates, top rack, and the chimney.
The Heat Diffuser
As you see below, the heat diffuser plate actually angles downwards. This is by design. As food smokes and drippings happen, they fall onto the plate and then slowly roll down off of the plate into the grease drain. That’s where you’ll put your grease bucket to catch it all.
Competition Level In Your Own Backyard
The last 2 steps were installing the 2 stainless steel shelves and closing the lid.
Seriously this took all of maybe 10 minutes to put together. Yoder Smokers really do all of the hard work for you. Their goal is to get you up and running as quickly as possible!
With 1,070 square inches of cooking space PLUS almost 12 inches of headroom, you can cook a feast on this bad boy! We’re talking multiple briskets or pork butts. Beer can chicken to full turkeys plus sides! I’m already thinking of making my entire Thanksgiving dinner on this!
What I love about this smoker is that the temperature range is from 150-600+F which means you can do low and slow to firing out pizzas! Oh wait.. didn’t I tell you that part?
THEY HAVE A PIZZA OVEN for the YS640 TOO!!! You can sear a killer steak on this or do the long haul or a 12-hour smoke!
Let’s Do The Initial Burn-In
Now that the YS640s is all put together there are only 3 things left to do:
- Plug in the smoker
- Fill the hopper with your favorite wood pellets
- Press start and let it ‘burn in’ for an hour.
For the burn-in, it really doesn’t matter what ‘flavor’ pellet you use. Your purpose in doing this part is to help burn off any residue/oils used in the fabrication or foreign materials that may be in there.
Fill up the hopper about 1/2 way. This will be more than enough but I err on the side of too much than not enough.
- Press the Power button. As you can see it will display YS.
- Next, press the Start button (make sure the lid is closed) and let it go for 1 hour.
By default, the temperature is 350F. You do not have to change this.
After 1 hour, press the Power button again to shut it off. The fans will continue to run to cool the system down. This should take 20 minutes.
After this, we’ll move into seasoning the smoker. That’s coming up in the next post!
Your New Smoker and BBQ BFF!
To my ladies and folks that love smoked meats, cheeses, veggies, and foods but are a bit fearful of doing it themselves, I got you! I’m here to help you conquer that fear and become your own backyard pitmaster! I’m your new BFF when it comes to this.
I’ll walk you through getting started, explain things in plain English (like Bark, Injection, The Stall, Fat Cap, Blue Smoke, and so forth), and, get you on your way to being the boss of your smoker and grill!
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