Hey Coach, my 980 has been hard to cool down because the coals took so long to go out. I folded the foil like you did and fired it up. NO SMOKE leaking out! After shut-down it cooled down remarkably fast. Thanks for the tip.
Got mine for $280. The plate that says gravity fell off during delivery. The original buyer didn't want it like that, so it was returned. I bought the 3 missing bolts from Lowes and was in business
About a month into owning the 980 I purchased some oven seals (hi-temp fabric straps with a high-temp adhesive) and applied them around my hopper lid and cook barrel lid. Made a big difference in losses and efficiency. I'll say, I do love a good budget friendly mod! Thanks for all the great advice on this awesome cooker.
This trick is something I've been using since you first mentioned it and it works great . I also only put the amount of charcoal that i will need for that cook so when its shut down time there is not much left to keep burning
I went online and purchased a fire gasket material. I put it around the top of the fire box and the cook chamber sealed it up like a charm. I think everyone of these units will leak smoke around the lid seals..(Most commercial smokers will). I spent 25 bucks for enough material to do both lids. If i would have seen this video i would have given you idea a shot. but i didn't see it until i already did the gasket. But i think a gasket around the smoke chamber is a must also... Good video, thanks!
Thank you! Found this because I just got this grill and first thing I noticed was the leaking. Will be adding the foil after cooldown (all I've done so far is burn off)
Man, I just bought one of these and had two failed attempts to get the temperature above 200 (took like 4 hours). Just put a piece of tinfoil and now I am watching the temperature rise way faster as I was losing a lot of smoke from the hopper. This is my first smoker and I thought it was normal that it had been smoking so much. Do you think I should contact them about getting something replaced to cut down a smoke? Also I’m noticing a good amount of smoke coming from the main grill. Both of these pieces came assembled. Thanks for the video! Going to enjoy some good steak now because of you
I replaced the useless fan flapper with 1/16" ceramic fiber paper rated at 2300 degrees and haven't had a burn out yet. I'm thinking now about changing the vent section in the bottom of the grill, closing the exhaust at the back and adding another closer to the charcoal section to make it reverse flow. Should be interesting.
Is there a danger of the hopper becoming a rocket stove? That is my biggest fear. I just this and can’t wait to use it and compare it to my offset and pellet smoker!
How do you like it now? I'm debating getting this I too will be trying to replace my offset and pellet grill. I read alot about the slide or something by fan or somewhere going bad and burning food?
So I’m running a canon M50 with either a sigma 16mm or sigma 30mm lens on it. It’s a wired lav mic, I can’t remember the name of it but there are a lot of options there I just run an extension cable to it, and I use Adobe premier pro for editing.
Coach, I'm having a problem with getting my temp to go up. I shut down as directed but the last two times I've used the grill, it will not go over 350 degrees and it took over an hour to get to that temp. Any suggestions?
Great video. I do have a question about temp. Have you noticed the controller's temp way higher that the air temp inside? I found that the manifold is open at that end where the probe is. I put aluminum foil and pocket a few holes and that decreased the temp dramatically which matches very close to real air temp. I just wanted to know your experience. Char griller replaced me the probe but that did not solve the issue until this mod.
So especially when first starting the cooker up there is a difference. I haven’t confirmed this but I believe it does this so the cooker doesn’t overshoot temps. What I’ve also found is given enough time to let it even up the air temp does eventually match up the controller temp.
The internal temp readout is supposed to be different than ambient air, it’s specifically programmed in the software by charGriller. It’s their method of approximating the temp of the center of the cooking area during operation despite the probe being on the left wall. Look at a vid by Tom Horsman here on yt, he mentions it and explains it. You can test this yourself, fire up the cooker and set another probe in the center when it comes up to temp-it should match the readout on the panel-by covering up the panel sensor you’ll actually be running a different temp in the cooker than you are intending to.
Hey Coach, my 980 has been hard to cool down because the coals took so long to go out. I folded the foil like you did and fired it up. NO SMOKE leaking out! After shut-down it cooled down remarkably fast. Thanks for the tip.
Awesome I’m glad this worked for ya👍
Love this. I got luck today. I walked into Lowes and saw this marked down because someone broke some wiring amd damaged the fan. Got it for $187!
Got mine for $280. The plate that says gravity fell off during delivery. The original buyer didn't want it like that, so it was returned. I bought the 3 missing bolts from Lowes and was in business
About a month into owning the 980 I purchased some oven seals (hi-temp fabric straps with a high-temp adhesive) and applied them around my hopper lid and cook barrel lid. Made a big difference in losses and efficiency.
I'll say, I do love a good budget friendly mod! Thanks for all the great advice on this awesome cooker.
Sounds like a great mod. Thanks for checking this out bud 👍
This trick is something I've been using since you first mentioned it and it works great . I also only put the amount of charcoal that i will need for that cook so when its shut down time there is not much left to keep burning
Awesome, glad to hear it’s working for you
I went online and purchased a fire gasket material.
I put it around the top of the fire box and the cook chamber sealed it up like a charm.
I think everyone of these units will leak smoke around the lid seals..(Most commercial smokers will). I spent 25 bucks for enough material to do both lids.
If i would have seen this video i would have given you idea a shot. but i didn't see it until i already did the gasket.
But i think a gasket around the smoke chamber is a must also...
Good video, thanks!
Thank you! Found this because I just got this grill and first thing I noticed was the leaking. Will be adding the foil after cooldown (all I've done so far is burn off)
Great advice Coach !!! Happy New Year !!! 💪🏆😁
Thanks buddy, happy new year to you guys and all the fur babies out therein meadow creek as well.
I’m getting mine tomorrow delivered by Lowes. Thanks for this tid bit of info, I will try it.
Yeh, this is much better than those metal plate mods.
The 980 is my dream grill. Happy New Year😁
It’s a dandy for sure, happy new year
The grill gun part.. haha
Lol that thing is probably a little too much fun 🤣🤣🤣
Man, I just bought one of these and had two failed attempts to get the temperature above 200 (took like 4 hours). Just put a piece of tinfoil and now I am watching the temperature rise way faster as I was losing a lot of smoke from the hopper.
This is my first smoker and I thought it was normal that it had been smoking so much.
Do you think I should contact them about getting something replaced to cut down a smoke? Also I’m noticing a good amount of smoke coming from the main grill. Both of these pieces came assembled. Thanks for the video! Going to enjoy some good steak now because of you
I replaced the useless fan flapper with 1/16" ceramic fiber paper rated at 2300 degrees and haven't had a burn out yet. I'm thinking now about changing the vent section in the bottom of the grill, closing the exhaust at the back and adding another closer to the charcoal section to make it reverse flow. Should be interesting.
I enjoy your video.
Is there a danger of the hopper becoming a rocket stove? That is my biggest fear. I just this and can’t wait to use it and compare it to my offset and pellet smoker!
How do you like it now? I'm debating getting this I too will be trying to replace my offset and pellet grill. I read alot about the slide or something by fan or somewhere going bad and burning food?
Thanks for the tip Steve! Side question here, what camera, mic, and video editing software do you use? Thanks in advance!
So I’m running a canon M50 with either a sigma 16mm or sigma 30mm lens on it. It’s a wired lav mic, I can’t remember the name of it but there are a lot of options there I just run an extension cable to it, and I use Adobe premier pro for editing.
Coach, I'm having a problem with getting my temp to go up. I shut down as directed but the last two times I've used the grill, it will not go over 350 degrees and it took over an hour to get to that temp. Any suggestions?
I seen a 980 with two temperature gauges on the lid, is this a mod or was it bought like that
Sweet
Can you shut off this grill? Or do you have to burn thru all your coal?
Yessir you can absolutely shut this grill down and save your unburnt coals
@@Cookoutcoach how?
Great video. I do have a question about temp. Have you noticed the controller's temp way higher that the air temp inside? I found that the manifold is open at that end where the probe is. I put aluminum foil and pocket a few holes and that decreased the temp dramatically which matches very close to real air temp. I just wanted to know your experience. Char griller replaced me the probe but that did not solve the issue until this mod.
So especially when first starting the cooker up there is a difference. I haven’t confirmed this but I believe it does this so the cooker doesn’t overshoot temps. What I’ve also found is given enough time to let it even up the air temp does eventually match up the controller temp.
The internal temp readout is supposed to be different than ambient air, it’s specifically programmed in the software by charGriller.
It’s their method of approximating the temp of the center of the cooking area during operation despite the probe being on the left wall. Look at a vid by Tom Horsman here on yt, he mentions it and explains it. You can test this yourself, fire up the cooker and set another probe in the center when it comes up to temp-it should match the readout on the panel-by covering up the panel sensor you’ll actually be running a different temp in the cooker than you are intending to.
My 980 stops burning when I shut it down amd close the vent door and place that metal plate back into it. Mine stops burning.
Have you done anything with the fan flap yet?
On one of my gravities the flap did need replaced and I just went through the standard char griller warranty to replace that
I replaced my warped flap with an exact cut out from a grill mat. Works perfectly!
Damn, $600 and it leaks. 😢😢 not worth it then.
Please stop all those hard cuts on the editing.