New 1100 Question

[Lweekly]

I just replaced my 850 with an 1100. The 850 worked great as a smoker, but the grilling option was futile. My question about the 1100 is what are the holes in the smoker cover for? Won't they allow a lot of smoke and heat to be lost? The 850 didn't have them

 

[MikeInFla]

I have an older Pit Boss 340 that has those same holes. It's basically in place of a smoke stack. I did try placing thermal tape over three of them to keep in more smoke but honestly I haven't noticed a difference