New to the Egg...XL...Chasing Temp

Unknown

All night long & had a flare up while I slept. Got up to 350 for probably 45 mins. Shouldn't do irreperable damage to the shoulders, but I'm not horny about that. I bought this specifically because of the reviews which indicated I could finally sleep whilst I smoked.[p]Any ideas on chasing the temp. My assumption is my start is flawed.....I was at 250 consistently for nearly 2 hours with daisy wheel open and bottom vent almost completely open. Stable. Then the temp plunged & I put a hanger up into the holes to clear them. Steadily climbed back to 250 and hung for 25 minutes, whereupon I felt safe sleeping for 2 hours, only to return to a 350 dome temp. I chased it back down, but ran out of fuel...Re-starting now. [p]Any ideas/suggestions??? One other thing. I am using a plate setter with the legs facing DOWN. [p]Thanks.

stike

Greenwithenvy,
350 doesn't constitute an emergency, or even a flare up. it'll be fine.[p]you need more lump than you stared with, obviously. but that will be solved next time.
when you loosened the ash, you allowed more air in, and that allowed the temp to rise to 350. it can tak a long time to climb at low temps, so you probably thought it was stable after 25 minutes, when it could still be climbing.[p]are you using briquettes or lump?

Unknown

Greenwithenvy,
As a newbie myself, I cannot offer concrete advice. I did a first time chicken yesterday. Only cooked for 3 hours, but had no problem maintaining 250 degrees with bottom vent about .75 inches open and daisy vent 3/4 open. This produced VERY little coal consumption over the three hour cook. Maybe one tenth of the fuel was burned. Maybe. [p]I want to try an all-nighter myself, but I believe I'll do an all-dayer that I can monitor before I try it.[p]Judging by my first attempt at using the XLBGE I'm not at all disappointed in my purchase, even though I consider it a failure due to my own experience. The taste was fine. Better than fine, it was other worldly good. Only the skin was beyond my point of liking. [p]I knew going into my purchase that the learning curve would be my biggest obstacle.[p]Best regards,
Vern[p][p]

Electric Don

Greenwithenvy,[p]I'm probably too much of a newbie to be offering advice - but I've had probably 35 cooks with a new XL from this May. I suspect you had way too much air getting in - The XL will sustain 250 with the daisy wheel and the bottom vent open only a fraction of an inch - like a quarter inch, no more. But that's only with a full load of lump, the holes on the grate open, and the ashes down below fairly well cleaned out. After my first overnight, I bought a Maverick 73 probe - tracks both meat and grid temp and gives you a remote alarm - and that seems to work quite well. [p]Good luck.[p]Don B.

dblR

Greenwithenvy,[p]Sometimes that has happened to me also on my XL. What I have found is that when you put the meat on and the lid is open along with the addition of the mass of cold meat the temp drops and the egg will do it's magic and start climbing. You may find that you will want to open the vents a little more to help temp rise. ALWAYS remember that you want to sneak up on your temp. So start closing vents back to your original settings about 40 or so degrees bfore your target* and adjust slowly to reach your temp. I really only do this when I stuff the XL. You probably won't have to do this if you don't stuff it. Remember to not let the XL thermometer touch your meat as this will give you a false reading. [p]Listen to stike on the amount of lump. Do not be afraid to fill to near the top of the firebox. Placesetter goes in legs up. I use an oven liner for a drip pan.[p]I know you may not want to hear this but I got the BBQ Guru and YOU will absolutely be able to get some sleep. It works wonderfully! Of couse you will not be able to sip as much Remy VSOP and smoke a Rocky Patel while you sacrifice your sleep for your family and friends and tell them how you JUST HAD to stay up and wait for the green light and fan to go off! LOL!! Just my 3 cents.[p]dblR

Celtic Wolf

Greenwithenvy,[p] As an XL owner (2 of them) I will be the temp dropped when you put the meat on and you adjusted the vents to compensate. All this does is eat up the lump faster and causes you to chase the temps all night.[p] As hard as it is leave the vents alone. Let the egg come back to temp on it's own. It will and it will do so in a short time (30 minutes or so).[p] BGE says the Plate Setter goes between the fire ring and fire box on the XL. It should be feet down, but it's a major balancing act. It fits better on top of the fire ring, but there isn't any room for a drip pain and it puts the heat radiated from the plate setter too close to the meat. [p] [p]