My Yoder Smokers YS1500 has arrived! (Very picture heavy)

Ron_L said:

So...

The HMS is the sliding plate on the left, correct? And the handle on the front left allows you to adjust it while the pit is in use?

Are the graduated holes on the right side adjustable at all or are those fixed?

Also, did you have any grommets added for thermometer probes?

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The HMS (heat management system) is the whole diffuser plate itself, the sliding damper and the damper on the stack, it works in three functions.

Function one is the plate. It's whole function is to make the pit even, side to side and front to back, it WORKS.

The second function is the sliding damper. It can be moved at any point, before, during or after the cook. The more you slide it open, the more hear comes out making the spot hotter the more it is open. If you want do have direct heat for a steak, or crisp up chicken skin, or set a glaze, open it up to the desired amount for the heat you want. Close it back up, you go back to an even pit.

There third function is the stack damper. It can be closed up to half way without affecting the smoke. What that does is slows the hear down from escaping and creating a hot spot while the air waits to escape.

So you can create a totally even pit with the slider closed and damper wide open. Or you can make a direct heat hot spot by sliding the plate open. Or you can make an indirect hot spot by closing the damper down. Or you can create two hot spots by opening the slider and closing the damper a bit. It gives the cook a ton of heat flexibility.

Or if you want to grill something, slide the damper open and direct heat access is there. Plus you can still purchase GrillGrates for it if you want a very large direct grill that is super even with the HMS plate completely removed.

The graduated holes are fixed. And I did add a probe port on the left side. It can be seen in this pic. It is much larger than the ones on the YS640.

indianagriller said:

What do you think realistic capacity is for butts? I am guessing around 8 - 10 maybe...

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My guessing is maybe a dozen with our squeezing them in and depending on the size of the butt. I think you could put in even more, and I hope to have a better idea after this weekend.