That kinda matches what I found about not heating evenly. If the racks are not very full it can get hot up top. If the rack area is really full then it can be warmer down below. But I don't have a probe for the scientific approach you took. Big either goes top (not a lot of coverage) or bottom (full racks), 2nd biggest the other, and smaller in the middle racks. Usually too lazy to rotate them, and I dropped a rack doing it before.I always used to do that, on the theory that it would be hotter near the heating element, but then I did some experimenting with temperature probes. The temperature was actually highest right at the top of the smoker, and lowest at the center of the bottom rack (heat rises and all that). The difference was only a handful of degrees though, so now I don’t care which pieces go where.
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