AUTO cooking mode is suitable for most indirect heat cooking on the grill racks, including low and slow smoking, roasting, grilling and baking.
Using AUTO Cooking Mode
Auto cooking mode is the top of the menu, so nice and quick to access. Below are the steps to go through to set the target temperature and smoke level.
Press MENU, the use the control knob to rotate and press to confirm settings.
While firing up and cooking, press the control knob at any time to adjust the temperature and smoke settings again.
Temperature Range
- Temperature range from 70℃ to 300℃ (158℉ to 572℉).
- The lowest target temperature the grill can be set to will change based on the ambient temperature (measured inside the pellet hopper), as the smallest wood fire provides around a 60℃ temperature rise.
- <15℃ minimum temperature is 70℃ / 158℉
- 16 to 25℃ minimum temperature is 80℃ / 176℉
- 26 to 35℃ minimum temperature is 90℃ / 194℉
- >35℃ minimum temperature is 100℃ / 194℉
- The maximum temperature of 300℃ (572℉) can be reached in ambient temperatures as low as 5℃ / 41℉, thanks to the double wall insulated design of the S1 grill.
Heat Up Time
The heat up time will depend on the target temperature, how cold it is outside and what wood pellets are being used (slower with oak based pellets). The temperature should reach the target within 10-15 minutes, and 20 minutes for high temperatures (220℃ / 428℉).
It is possible for the grill to heat up much faster, but the temperature can overshoot significantly and take a long time to settle back down – so the control logic has been adjusted to get to temperature quickly but not so fast that a huge overshoot occurs.
Low Temp Operation
- At target temperatures of 135℃ / 275℉ and below, only the wood pellet fire is used (no heating element)
- Smoke levels (LOW, MEDIUM & HIGH) can be set.
- The three smoke setting will ALL still produce smoke as the fire is small to maintain the low temperature.
- HIGH – 26% fan speed and lowest minimum pellet delivery for a smaller fire with maximum smouldering smoke.
- MEDIUM – 27% fan speed
- LOW – 28% fan speed and higher minimum pellet delivery for a slightly larger file with less smoke.
- What smoke setting to use? By default we recommend using the LOW smoke level, but it is great to experiment with the levels to find which works best for your cooking style and the types of pellets being used.
- If the fire sometimes goes out (temperature drops far below target and then spikes back up), try the LOW setting which has higher minimum pellet delivery than MEDIUM or HIGH smoke settings.
High Temp Operation
- At target temperatures above 135℃ / 275℉, the electric heating element may also contributes heat (depending on the smoke setting).
- The wood pellets provide the remaining heat needed to reach and hold the target temperature.
Smoke Settings
- Smoke levels (LOW, MEDIUM & HIGH) can be set at temperatures up to 300℃ (572℉).
- LOW smoke does NOT use the heating element for temperatures below 261℃ / 502℉), thus using the wood fire only for minimum smoke level.
- MEDIUM and HIGH will engage the heating element for some base heat load, allowing for smaller (and smokier) wood fire.
- Examples for 200℃ (392℉) target temperature:
- LOW: No heating element, wood fire only for larger, less smokey fire.
- MEDIUM: 360W from heating element (remaining heat from wood pellet fire)
- HIGH: 720W from heating element (remaining heat from wood pellet fire)
- Using the HIGH smoke setting reduces wood pellets usage significantly.
- At higher temperature, even HIGH smoke setting may yield little smoke as there is a large fire to maintain the temperature – but there will be significantly more wood fired flavour that if the grill was wood fired only (no element contribution).
Shut Down
At the end of the cook, press and hold the POWER button, then with YES selected press the control knob to confirm.
The fan will run for 10 minutes to put the fire out and then the grill will turn itself off.
Temperature Fluctuations
It is very normal for the temperature to overshoot the target by as much as 10% and then gradually come back down to settle close to the target.
This is actually a good thing as normally once the grill reaches temperature the lid is opened to place food in, at which point the temperature drops a lot – so a small overshoot helps with faster recovery.
During operation the temperature may cycle above and below the target by as much as 5%, which again is very normal operation.
At very low temperatures only a tiny fire is burning and it can sometimes go out resulting in the temperature dropping, the pellet ignitor turning on to relight it and a subsequent spike in temperature. If this is happening frequently try a higher target temperature (slightly larger fire) and also check to see if the wood pellets are very long, or very ashy.