Firepot placement

[Piter]

Hello, does anyone know why the firepot on pitboss are in the middle ( the one ive seen anyway) and the louisiana the firepot is on the far side of the grill? And which is better to keep temperature the same everywhere on tje grill?

 

[bregent]

One goal is to try to keep the auger length at a minimum - keeps less pellets in the tube, less motor torque required, etc, so some have the firepot closer to the hopper. You would think a centered firepot would make temp more even, but there are grills with centered pots that have big variances, and those with offset pots that have less.
My preference is for grills that use a drop chute system. But again, some are centered and some offset.

 

[bill1]

A lot about the heat distribution in pellet cookers isn't logical. With an asymmetric crucible in the lower corner, you'd think they'd put the exhaust in the upper opposite end, but no, Lousiana puts uniform holes along the top cover. And even for Masterbuilt, who keeps thing pretty symmetric, the same model will see periodic changes including moving the smoke stack, using louvers instead, etc. along with merely cosmetic changes in wheels, legs, etc. And it's hard to get uniform temperatures in these when sometimes you have a big round pork butt and other times a bunch of flat burgers.

My preference is to have a symmetric thermal design, arrange your meat symmetrically and adjust for center to edge variations by plugging off exhaust vents with aluminum foil or the choice and placement of the lower heat diffusers.