In addition to curing the gasket, learning where to set the upper and lower vents is a good reason to do a cook or two without food. You want to bring up the temps slowly with any kamado because if you get it too hot, it takes a while to cool down. Be patient and allow 15-20 minutes to get the temperature stabilized before you tweak it from there. You will also find that it doesn't like to run much lower than about 260°. At that temp, the lower vent and daisy wheel on top will almost be shut. Opening the vents slightly from there can move the temps up fairly quickly. If possible, I prefer to leave the daisy wheel wide open and control my temps from the bottom vent but as I said, below about 275°, you will need to restrict air flow on top as well. You will get the hang of this quickly and you will love how flexible it is. With a full batch of good lump charcoal, you can smoke something for 12 hours one day and cook a pizza at 700° or higher on another.