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Winter Cookery: The Thermal Jacket for the Yoder YS640s

February 14, 2022 By Ms. K

Winter Conditions
Winter Conditions

Nothing says Christmas Holiday Dinner like baby back ribs.

Okay–maybe not.

But then again, why not? If you’re like us, the answer up until now is that for a big chunk of the winter, it’s just too darn cold to be thinking of smoking meat low and slow outside. That’s why we were excited to come across Yoder Smokers’ Thermal Jacket for our Yoder YS640s pellet grill.

YS604S with Thermal Jacket
YS604S with Yoder Smokers’ Thermal Jacket

The jacket is an insulated cover custom-made to fit over the cooking chamber of our YS640S. It’s a three-piece system that easily attaches to the unit and to the other jacket pieces with simple hooks straps.



Another View of Thermal Jacket on Yoder YS640S
Another View of Thermal Jacket on Yoder YS640S

The idea is that when the cooking chamber is insulated, your smoker won’t have to work as hard – i.e., consume more pellets than necessary – to fight cold outside temperatures.

Note that the thermal jacket is specifically designed for low cooking or “smoking” temperatures (below 300 degrees). Yoder recommends that you remove the jacket for higher temperature cooking.



Prepping Some Holiday Ribs
Prepping Some Holiday Ribs
December Cooking
December Cooking Never Looked So Good

We gave our insulating jacket a whirl on December 23rd when the thermometer dipped to -9 degrees Celsius (about 16 degrees Fahrenheit). It definitely gets colder than that around here, so we’ll be updating you on our experiences with more frigid temps.

Thermal Jacket Keeps Heat Low and Even
Thermal Jacket Keeps Heat Low and Even

As you can see from the time and temperature chart above, we were able to keep a low smoking temperature (~225 degrees) nice and steady for hours – exactly what our Holiday Ribs needed. Despite the cold temperatures, we went through an average amount of pellets and didn’t have any problematic temperature swings.

(BTW – we’re totally loving our smoker’s built-in FireBoard wireless temperature monitoring technology, where the screenshot above is from. It lets you monitor what’s going on with your grill via an app on a tablet or smarthphone. Handy all year round, but especially welcome when it’s cold outside! Read more in our Yoder Grill overview.)

Fit For a Holiday Feast
Fit For a Holiday Feast

Ribs in late December is no longer just a dream thanks to our new Yoder Thermal Jacket. At about $270 US, it’s not cheap but it saves pellets, constant checking, and the potential for weird temperature swings when what your meat needs is consistency. In our books, it’s a win.

We definitely recommend that cold-weather citizens of Grill Nation with Yoder Smokers’ pellet grills check it out.

Merry Christmas, Grill Nation!
Merry Christmas, Grill Nation!

Filed Under: Grill School Tagged With: baby back ribs, Cold Weather BBQ, Fireboar app, Fireboard thermometer, Insulating jacket, Pellet Grill, Thermal blanket, Thermal Jacket, Yoder Smoker YS640S, Yoder Smokers

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