Drip pan causing temperature difference between grid and dome ?

fairchase

I have been trying to figure out the temperature difference between grid and dome on 250 deg indirect cooks , as well as why some people see a difference and some don't.

 I think I might be on to something. Here is what i've observed.

  I first started out with my xl , plate setter legs up , egg feet on the plate setter , aluminum drip pan on the feet, liquid in the drip pan , grid on top of plate setter legs. With this setup my grid temp was always 20-75 deg less than the dome temp.

 After a few cooks I decided to not use liquid in the drip pan to try and aleviate my temperature differential. Still there was a 20-75 deg temp differential.

 One day I decided to try it without any drip pan just an uncovered plate setter. Temps between grid and dome stayed within 5 degrees throught the whole cook.

 

 So has anyone else noticed the drip pan to be causing wider temperature variations between grid and dome ?

gdenby

There are many reasons why the grid temperature and the dome will be different. In general, don't suppose that the the temperatures at the 2 places are the same. If you were to not use the 'setter at all, you would probably find the grill is as much as 50 degrees hotter than the dome. If you put a temperature probe on top of the platesetter, I would not be surprised if it recorded 600F when the dome therm recorded 250.

FWIW, when I tried similar measurements in my kitchen oven, I had even greater discrepancies than w. the Egg.