How to Work with the Vents of Your Charcoal Grill

Temperature control plays an important role in grilling. In order to deliver exceptionally delicious grilled results, you need to work perfectly with your grill vents.

Here we talk about the vents of charcoal grills. Before that, I’d like to describe briefly the temperature control of gas grill. With turning the knobs on gas grill, you are able to adjust the heat from low, medium, to high level, simply as it when you work with oven.

Royal Gourmet charcoal grill with offset smoker 

Although the shapes of charcoal grills are different from each other, the whole heat transfer system is exactly the same. Some charcoal grills come with the vents on both top and bottom, while some come with a door in front.

The vents regulate the temperature. When open the vents, you allow more air in, which leads to a higher temperature. The idea is, oxygen helps burning. When the air comes to your charcoal, it brings more oxygen which helps burning. In contrary, when you close the vent, the oxygen supply is cut down, and the heat is, as well, cut down.

Therefore, when your grill becomes too hot, close the vent; if you want more heat, open the vent. Just let air go through the grill, keep oxygen in grill and keep your charcoal hot. Of course, you can also keep the vents half open, accordingly.

And remember, make sure to close or open the vents on top and on bottom at the same time, so that air can go through efficiently.

As long as you master the use of vents, you are close to a unique flavorful result of your own!