temp fluctuation question

Unknown

I've been letting Bruce preheat until the smoke goes away, then playing with the airflow until I get the temp I want. But as soon as I open the lid to put the food in, the temp goes way down and takes a long time to get back. I end up fiddling with it a lot. It seems to take a lot more time than my gasser did. Is this normal, or how do I prevent it? Do I need to keep messing with the airflow or just let it alone?

Celtic Wolf

alb,[p] To prevent the fuddling.. You could have a beer, take a Valium, run a mile, walk on a treadmill, have a beer, watch TV, get frisky with your SO, have a beer.[p]

stike

alb,
you don't stare at the speedo when you drive do you?[p]when you open the dome and see the temp plunge a hundred degrees, that's meaningless. the fire is the same fire. you just spilled the hot air.[p]if you shut the dome, see a low temp and crank the vents open, the fire then grows. and since it was the same fire that was giving you the desired temp, it will now way overshoot.[p]kinda like noticing you are at 55mph when you want 6o, and so you step on it. then as you approach 60 you are accelerating so much that you slam on the brakes, but that plunges you back down. and so on.[p]develop a slow hand. and, as celtic wolf suggests. stick a beer in it to calm it down even more.[p]the thermo is there as a reference. shut the dome and watch the temps. it'll be back to your desired temp without fiddling soon enough.[p]

Unknown

Celtic Wolf,
Or I could have a beer! :-D

Celtic Wolf

alb,[p] YEP!![p]

gdenby

alb,[p]you wrote
>then playing with the airflow until I get the temp I want.[p]No! Don't do as I used to do. Whenever you open the Egg, the dome temp will drop a lot. And when you put the food in, the cold mass will soak up a lot of heat. It is a mistake to think that the dome temperature needs to hold steady all the time. The fire burns quite steadily depending on how wide open the vent and daisy wheel is. When you open the lid, the fire actually flares up a little, though the dome temp drops.[p]If you start messing with the air flow, you will very likely get a temperature teeter-totter. [p]Let the Egg get to the temperature you want. Let it stay that way for maybe 10 minutes. More is good. That way the fire is burning steady, and the ceramic is soaking up heat. Put your food on, close the lid, and let it sit. Often, the temperature will come back to where it was in just a few minutes. Other times. if you've just dropped on 10+ pounds of meat, the meat will soak up the heat, and you'll need to open the vents just a bit more to get to the starting temperature.[p]Also, don't be too fussy with temperature. I had one cook that was just awful. I wanted the dome to be 250. No matter what I did, for hours I could not get it to stay there. I finally gave up. The fire temperature parked at 260 in about 30 minutes, and stayed there to the end of the cook. [p]With experinece you will learn vent and daisy wheel positions that give approximately the temperature you are looking for, and then little tiny tweaks will let you narrow in on just the temp you want.[p]gdenby[p]