dome vs grate temp?

bucky925

I gave away my dig g que account I didn't like it.   Anywho I've been reading about themp between the grid and dome.  I like do use my AR on a lot of cooks.  My question for the brain thrust is which is hotter on a four or five hour cook?

lousubcap

No idea as only only run with the dome but this thread link may help:
Correlating dome and grill temps  I would get used to how the BGE behaves with one indicator and go from there.  You can overload on temperature info-btw, your clock box has thermal variances within as well.  We just don't routinely instrument it up to find out.  FWIW-

lkapigian

On longer indirect cooks , providing you don't constantly open the lid, I find the variemce insignificant ...none the less, dome will be slightly higher that grid

bucky925

lousubcap said:

No idea as only only run with the dome but this thread link may help:
Correlating dome and grill temps  I would get used to how the BGE behaves with one indicator and go from there.  You can overload on temperature info-btw, your clock box has thermal variances within as well.  We just don't routinely instrument it up to find out.  FWIW-

Thanks for the link, I actually did a search and found this.  As I read it my pea brain started spinning lol.   In any case I still enjoy the journey. 

Carolina Q

The egg comes with one thermometer. Use it.

I have been for 7+ years. Don't know what the temp is anywhere else in the egg. Don't care. 

bucky925

Off topic, since I aquired my BGE and joined this forum, I still get the notion to post a link to ammo or optics when typing AR....lol

lkapigian

Carolina Q said:

The egg comes with one thermometer. Use it.

I have been for 7+ years. Don't know what the temp is anywhere else in the egg. Don't care. 

True, the things that get obsessed over. I cooked for way to many years without any kind of thermometer and everything was fine ...I guess a bit like relying on Spell Check or Calculators 

Dobie

Dome always, everytime. 

bucky925

Dobie said:

Dome always, everytime. 

I understand but is the dome more or less temp wise than the grate?  That's what I'm trying to wrap my brain around. 

Dobie

bucky925 said:

Dobie said:

Dome always, everytime. 

I understand but is the dome more or less temp wise than the grate?  That's what I'm trying to wrap my brain around. 

The reality is that difference changes over the span of a cook. At the end they equal out.
What I'm saying here is that grate temps are irrelevant, most every recipie calls for dome temps. Don't  worry about the difference. 

Skiddymarker

Simple, grid is hotter than dome on a direct cook, it is closer to the burning lump so it is hotter. Dome is higher than grid on an indirect cook as the grid is in the shadow of the "setter" heat deflector. As the indirect cook proceeds, the temps should get closer together. 
BTW - the grate is hot as hell as that's the thing that holds the charcoal, a grid holds the food....

Jeepster47

There is no correct answer that covers every situation. 

Here's a Pork Butt cook where I was bored out of my mind and read the data manually every 15 minutes.  The black curve (DigiQ) shows the temp at the grill.  The DigiQ readout "snaps" to the set point when the temp is within 5 degrees of the set point, so the smoothness of the curve is somewhat artificial, but it still represents a reasonable readout of the grill temp. 

The green curve shows the temp at the dome thermometer.  You'll notice that it stayed much lower that the grill temp for the first 11 hours of the cook ... with the exception of the two-to-three hour period where it looked like it and the DigiQ were going to equalize.

Now, notice what happened during the 10-to-11 hour period ... the dome thermometer showed the temp starting to fall off.  And then, suddenly, during the 11.00-to-11.25 hour period, the dome temp jumped up almost 50 degrees.

The fire for a low-n-slow cook can wander around in the pit ... as the lump is consumed, some shifting and collapsing takes place and the center of the fire can move.  There can be some plugging from ash that will move the fire around.  How the lump is piled in the fire box can cause the fire to move as it consumes the lump.  There are lots of reasons for an inconstant burn.  If the the dome thermometer isn't fully in the shadow of your plate setter - ie one of the legs is facing the front of the egg - the resultant temps will be suspect.

The point is that there is a general trend that the grill and dome temperatures follow, but it's not an absolute relationship! 



PS ... a 50 degree swing in the egg is nothing ... your electric oven swings +/- 30 degrees during normal operation ... seriously!

Carolina Q

STOP IT with the graphs and charts! Unless you're an anal engineer. If the cook calls for 250°, set up the grill so the dome thermometer reads 250°. If it's a 400° cook, do that. The egg comes with ONE thermo. USE IT!

Jeepster47

Carolina Q said:

STOP IT with the graphs and charts! Unless you're an anal engineer. If the cook calls for 250°, set up the grill so the dome thermometer reads 250°. If it's a 400° cook, do that. The egg comes with ONE thermo. USE IT!

Says the guy who cooks on a black rock in the sun!!!  Cheers mate.

Carolina Q

Jeepster47 said:

Carolina Q said:

STOP IT with the graphs and charts! Unless you're an anal engineer. If the cook calls for 250°, set up the grill so the dome thermometer reads 250°. If it's a 400° cook, do that. The egg comes with ONE thermo. USE IT!

Says the guy who cooks on a black rock in the sun!!!  Cheers mate.

Never tied that. Good idea though.

bucky925

Pic's plated for the "black rock" 

blasting

grate is where the food is...

the dome is an idicator, but there ain't no ribeye stuck up on the dome.

bigalsworth

I'm with @lousubcap get used to one indicator.  As a matter of fact even tho some say "most recipes use the dome so use what you got" most people on here will agree that the protein is done when the protein is done, general guidelines help with some timing, but they are only guidelines.  Cook, learn how long $hit takes to cook, rinse and repeat

jtcBoynton

blasting said:

grate is where the food is...

the dome is an idicator, but there ain't no ribeye stuck up on the dome.

Actually, grate is where the charcoal is. 

bhedges1987

Carolina Q said:

The egg comes with one thermometer. Use it.

I have been for 7+ years. Don't know what the temp is anywhere else in the egg. Don't care. 

Agree 

Carolina Q

blasting said:

grate is where the food is...

the dome is an idicator, but there ain't no ribeye stuck up on the dome.

And there ain't no thermometer stuck down on the grid.

Jeepster47

Carolina Q said:

blasting said:

grate is where the food is...

the dome is an idicator, but there ain't no ribeye stuck up on the dome.

And there ain't no thermometer stuck down on the grid.

Damn Domers ... such an archaic religion!

lousubcap

Perhaps but we are calibrated for success.

OhioEgger

I generally use the dome thermometer, but I love to use my Flame Boss 200 for low and slow cooks. Since that uses its own temp input, I figured out that clipping it to the tip of the dome thermo works great. They always stay within 5°F of each other and I don't have to do any mental heavy lifting.

Carolina Q

OhioEgger said:

I generally use the dome thermometer, but I love to use my Flame Boss 200 for low and slow cooks. Since that uses its own temp input, I figured out that clipping it to the tip of the dome thermo works great. They always stay within 5°F of each other and I don't have to do any mental heavy lifting.

Yep. Been doin' that for years.

Youngster

One hour into 4½ lb. brisket point cook with ConvEGGtor.  PartyQ probe attached to grilling surface 250°F.  Dome temp 240°F.  Meater (sticking out of the side of the brisket about an inch above the grilling surface) ambient 220°F.

What is it they say about a man with two watches never knowing what time it is?

Anyway, all of the temps are in the right zip code for what I am trying to do.  The only one that is really important is the one in the middle of my hunk of meat and I love using the Meater for that.

Nature Boy

All the above responses are correct The best way I can explain it, and the way I explain it to my students, is that every situation is different, so you need to be able to adjust. When you are cooking indirect, and there is a barrier between the fire and the meat, you have an eddy. Just like in a river, the downstream side of the rock has an area where the water is not moving very much. That's where the fish hang our waiting for food to flow by and swirl into the eddy. So, on your EGG, when there is a bunch of cold meat in that eddy, your dome temp will most likely be reading higher than your grid temp (sometimes substantially). So many factors. Volume of cold meat, size of barrier, how air is flowing through the EGG. When competing I would spend a lot of time monitoring the gris in different places and trying to even out temps. What I've found over the years is a simple solution. Just start off hotter if you are going by dome temp. Once the meat heats up, temps will begin to even out. For example, start at 275-300 for a 250 cook, then work your way back down to 250 over the first couple hours. Just what I've found to work for me. Happy cooking! Chris