Hi!

Medicman627

Got my LBGE Tuesday, and first grill was yesterday.  Made some jerk chicken.  Came out pretty good.  When I first started her up, she went right to 600 degrees, I was able to bring her back down to 300 without any problems.  However, once I got dome temp to 350, I put the chicken on, the temp took about 10-15 minutes to return above 300 degrees.  Any suggestions for having the temps come back quicker?  I was under the impression that once I got to the temp I wanted, no further adjustments needed to be made.  Also, is there anyplace out there that gives info on draft door and daisy wheel opening sizes?  Does one affect more than the other?  Also, anything special with placing the lump in the firebox?  Just dump it in, or place big on bottom, etc?  Really looking forward to ribs and brisket this summer!!!!!  

Eggcelsior

Here is a visual guide of vent settings.

NecessaryIndulg

Hi & welcome!

SWVABeanCounter

Welcome to the zoo.  When you open it up and put on "cold" meat, it's going to take a few minutes to get back to temp.  If you had it stabilized at your desired temp, before, don't mess with it.  Chasing temps is the worst thing you can do.  Most cooks I just dump in the lump.  But when going for longer cooks, I'll usually take care to put some larger pieces on the bottom to aid in the airflow. 

Where you from??

smokesniffer

Welcome aboard. Your going to love your new toy. Puts out awesome food.

RAC

Welcome!

Skiddymarker

Welcome, just in time for the long weekend - now go out and singe some arm hair!

Medicman627

Ha!  First time I opened her with a fire going, I made sure to burp it slowly, then burp it again, then opened it, and promptly took the hair off my knuckles, no flashback, just lots of escaping heat..... Fire gloves from that point on.  Thanks for the welcome and the photo's of vent/temp settings was exactly what I was looking for! 

henapple

Your vent opening can vary with things like brand of lump and wind. Crank it up and play around with the temperature. Hit 300 then close to 1/4 inch top and bottom then go up.

Welcome

chris123stock

Welcome, hope to see some good cooks. You will love egg and might even love this place, very good info, and real nice people. 

Charlie tuna

Newbie problems getting right temp.

One of the main things to understand is "what" stabilization means. Stabilization is the operating temperature you want to cook at. To reach it requires you to get the entire egg to that temperature. "Entire Egg" means the ceramic walls all the way to the outside, and all the inside parts and pieces. Getting to this temperature, and remaining there for say 30 to 45 minutes without adjusting anything. Thats stabilization. Why do you need stabilization? So any heat load, like opening up the dome, or placing a 40 degree, ten pound pork butt inside, or maybe even a rain storm, the egg will try to compensate and bring back to that set temperature first from it's "mass" and then more slowly by the adjusted vent openings. If you try to load the egg before reaching "stabilization", you will be over compensating for this cold meat load, then as the meat gets hot and the actual load begins to lessen, the egg temperature will go up way beyond what you are shooting for. Many here will recommend you to play with your egg to attain different temperatures, and get used to the way it acts. You will learn how fast it can increase and how very slow it takes to come back down. And you can't memorize setpoints by vent openings, because so many things continuously change, thats why i think you need to get the "feel" for how to control temperature. My $.02

bbqlearner

Welcome.

+1 for leave it alone once you get to a stabilized temp. The loss of temp is either because the temp is not stabilized yet or it just takes longer because of adjustment after the meat is in (meat temp or chicken temp in this case).