225 vs 250

Now,you're into personal feelings,timing,personal technique,product being cooked,and how your pit works IMO.

With a therm setting of 225� you are probably cooking in a range of 210�-240�.

That's a pretty good area to hang out, for many things.

For ribs ,some folks may like to cook a little hotter ,and chicken a lot hotter.

Fish you may want lower.

There are folks that feel the longer you set in the plateau on butts and briskets,the better you break down collagen and the more fat you may render.

Sometimes timing may cause you to want to speed up passing through the plateau and 25� more will speed it.

There are folks that feel you need to cook about 60�hotter than your internal temp,so they increase their settings throughout the cook.

Now,I've given you a lot to ponder upon.

JMO is cook at 225�setting ,take good notes,make small changes and let experience and personal taste be your guide.

Boznad, as Tom stated most of this temp at 225 is personal preferences. I do mostly butts and have found a method I really like. I always start my butts the night before with the temp set at 200. That gives the meat a good 8 hours of lower than usual cooking temp. My opinion (and it's only that) is that this gives the butt a longer time to hang in the plateau, rendering more of the fat and collagen out of the meat. When I get up in the morning I usually crank it up to the traditional 225 and finish it off to 195 internal. The smoke taste and texture suits me just fine.

With ribs I usually go the first couple hours at 225 then crank it up to 250. This seems to give me a little better bark which is something I love on my ribs.

Experimenting over the years, with both my ECB and SmokinTex and taking good notes has led to great BBQ (IMO) for me and the Mrs.

So, experiment a little at a time with temp and times and find out what works best for you. As long as you and the ones you cook for are pleased with the results, nothing else matters.

My 2 cents...