Am I bringing my WSM up to temp correctly?

I am curious if only opening one vent causes the charcoal to burn unevenly since the air is coming in from only one direction. I am not an engineer and I hope one replies. I am a bean counter and everything has to balance for me, my OCD. I use all vents open the same and temps hold where I want them. Cold and Wind do affect my temps and it seems that there is no one method that works in all conditions.

fantomlord said:

what's the easiest way to get that mid section back in round? I think I may have that issue as well--just haven't gotten around to checking it.

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I could also be a case where the base itself may be out of round due to being dropped along the way. That was the case with mine. All it took was a little "persuasion" with a big old piece of cherry wood to get the rim back to round.

Tons of great advice given. I will just add you can run in any range you want. I will just add its not just about shutting the vents down at an early temp. The faster you get to that initial temp means the fire got some momentum and is harder to slow down. I can maintain 200 for bacon if I start slow