Give the cooker at least 3 feet of open space on every side with open sky above, keep it off wooden decks (or put a paver pad under it), and set it dead level on concrete, pavers, stone or packed earth. Put a wind break to windward and point the vents away — a steady breeze into the vents can run a charcoal fire 50–75°F hotter than you wanted. Keep it out of the foot-traffic path with the smoke drifting away from doors, windows and neighbors, and the spot’s doing its job before you ever light a coal.
Before you think about rubs or wood or what temperature to run, there's a decision most people skip: where the cooker actually goes. Get it wrong and you're fighting wind all afternoon, scorching the siding, or hauling a hot grill off the deck mid-cook. Get it right and everything downstream gets easier. Here's how to pick the spot — for a quick grill session or an all-day smoke.
The one rule that isn't negotiable: clearance
Every grill and smoker throws heat, and the manufacturers are clear about it: keep it well away from anything that can catch or melt. The working numbers:
At least 3 feet of open space on every side — more is better — away from walls, fences, railings and furniture.
Never under a low roof, eave, carport or umbrella. Grease fires flare without warning, and radiant heat alone will scorch a soffit. You want open sky above the lid.
Off wooden decks where you can. If a deck is your only option, put a grill mat or paver pad under it to catch grease and stray embers, and keep a charcoal cooker especially far from the rails.
Away from the path everyone walks. Kids and dogs plus a 500°F steel box at shin height is a bad mix. Tuck it out of the through-traffic.
None of this is fussy — it's the difference between a good cook and a call to the fire department.
Read the wind before you light
Wind is the variable nobody plans for and everybody fights. A steady breeze into the vents can spike a charcoal fire 50–75°F hotter than you wanted; a gust across the lid can stall it just as easily. Two minutes of thought saves an afternoon:
Put a solid wall or fence to the windward side as a break — but keep your clearance. A break slows the wind; it shouldn't trap heat against the house.
Point the vents away from the wind on a charcoal cooker so it feeds the fire steady instead of blasting it.
On a gusty day, expect to run the pit a little higher to hold your number, and check your fuel — wind burns through charcoal and pellets faster.
A cooker full of hot food and hotter coals wants to sit dead level on something that won't shift. Concrete, pavers, stone or bare packed earth — not soft grass that a loaded kamado will sink into, and not a slope where a kettle can tip. Level also matters for the cook itself: a smoker sitting off-kilter renders fat and pools grease to one side, and one end runs hotter than the other.
Think about the long haul, not just the light
A 20-minute burger cook and a 14-hour brisket are different problems. For anything low-and-slow, also weigh:
Access to the cooker in the dark and the wet. Long smokes run overnight and through weather. Somewhere with a bit of overhead shelter nearby (a porch to stand under — not over the grill) and a light you can flick on makes 2 a.m. fire checks bearable.
Power, if your cooker needs it. Pellet grills and electric smokers need an outdoor-rated outlet or a heavy outdoor extension cord — plan the spot around the plug, not the other way around.
A landing zone. A heat-safe table or side shelf within arm's reach for the tray, the thermometer, the wrap and the spritz. You don't want to be walking hot meat across the yard.
Smoke drift. Point the exhaust away from the seating, the open windows, and — if you value the peace — the neighbor's laundry line.
Balconies and small spaces
Renting, or all you've got is a balcony? Check the building rules first — many ban charcoal and open flame outright, and some ban gas too. Where grilling is allowed, an electric grill or a small pellet cooker is usually the sanctioned route: less flare, less smoke, no live coals. Keep the same clearance from the railing and siding, use a drip mat, and never leave it running unattended in a tight space.
Power reachable (if needed) and a table within arm's reach?
Smoke drifting away from doors, windows and neighbors?
Tick those and the location's doing its job — which means you get to spend the day thinking about the meat instead of the fire — set up a two-zone fire, run your first cook, and pull at the numbers on the temperature chart. Which is the whole point. Taste the meat, not the heat.
The CEO's Bottom Line
Clearance first: 10 ft from structures, nothing overhead, never enclosed.
Read the wind before you light — break to windward, vents pointed away, exhaust downwind of people and windows.
Level, solid, heat-safe ground; a paver mat fixes a deck.
Out of the traffic path, table in reach, power reachable if the cooker needs it.
Grillmaster John learned live fire the long way — kitchens, backyards and smoke pits around the world — and settled on one rule: taste the meat, not the heat. Every guide on this site gets cooked, temped and tasted before it gets published. Got a cook that beat you? Send it through the contact page and we'll sort it out together. — GJ
