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New egg & egger question

Bill S
Bill S Posts: 22
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
On my first try with my new XL I have run into a problem with temp control. With the metal top closed and the bottom damper practically completely closed the dome temp climbed to about 375-400 a couple of times. This happened a few times during the course of a 3 hour period. I don't think this is normal, and while I am sure that my technique will develop to offset these fluctuations I am curious as too what an enlightened opinion might be. Thanks.

Comments

  • BENTE
    BENTE Posts: 8,337
    well reading all the threads here lately about a thermometer i would check to make sure it is calibrated first Here is a How to link



    then i would think that maybe you started off leaving the dome up too long after lighting... what you should try to do is sneak up on your target tempurature slowly... then stop messing with the dampers... turn your daisey wheel so that the screw lines up with the handle so when you open it you will not mess up your damper settings....


    then again maybe none of this happened and i am an idiot :whistle:

    happy eggin

    TB

    Anderson S.C.

    "Life is too short to be diplomatic. A man's friends shouldn't mind what he does or says- and those who are not his friends, well, the hell with them. They don't count."

    Tyrus Raymond Cobb

  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    Not an XL owner. Nevertheless once your temp [ul]is established[/ul] your XL should be close to holding rock solid. The only the temp would drop is if you were out of lump and the only way it would climb would be if some air gets into the egg.

    . Was the egg temp established?
    . Is it possbily your do not have a tight seal at the gasket level?
    . Did you open the dome and then the temp went up?
    . Do you continually adjust your vents in order to get to temp?

    I would suggest you double check the seal around the gasket level.

    GG
  • dhuffjr
    dhuffjr Posts: 3,182
    If you had smoke leaking out around the dome then you've got an alignment issue which is letting in air and causing your temp spike.

    Beyond that if you've got the top closed and the bottom almost closed it should not have climbed like that if you were not opening the dome.

    ......so I'd check the thermometer like others have suggested.
  • Mahi-Mahi
    Mahi-Mahi Posts: 162
    I have a XL and I have had very good luck by starting the lump only in the middle and letting it build slowly.
    I let my BBQ GURU pump to much air to begin with on a start up and I poured water carefully around the outside of the charcoal to get it to 225. I also poured water into my drop pan to get the temp down till the charcoal slowed up. IF you let a lot of coals get going on the XL and you have no load on it, meaning no food in it yet it will climb up to 350 and not come down for a fairly long time.

    I put black marks on the SS part above the sliding screen door on the bottom of the egg so I know where 225 is normally or 400 normally.
    When cooking low and slow you do need the daisy wheel closed with only about two of pedals opening open slightly.

    If you open the dome and do not get it closed quickly it will climb up for a period of time before it goes back down.
    When I am using the screen door to control the bottom opening it only takes about 3/4 of a inch open to reach 250.

    If you light it in a lot of places and do not get the dome closed quickly it will go way up in temp.
    I would suggest getting a probe to know the temp of your grate and and meat.
    When it was raining yesterday my dome temp was 300 but the grate temp was only 235. When it quit raining my dome temp went down to 260 and I still had 235 at the grate. I was using a controller that would sense the grate temperature and speed up or slow down the fan to keep a constant temperature at the grate. It controlled it for 14 hours with out having to make any changes inside the XL egg. The BBQ Guru controller makes it easy for long cooks. It will make ajustments as the night air makes the inside temp different from what happens during the day.
    After one 12 hour cook for a brisket I was shocked that it only burned a small amount in the middle of the charcoal and the rest was still black around it.

    I would also look at Egg Accessories for the XL. It allows you to move the food higher in the chamber and lower a stone just above the charcoal which makes it much less likely anything will burn. I think these are needed with the XL because it is so short.
  • Bill S
    Bill S Posts: 22
    Thanks for all the helpful info. I think my eggmanship can use some work and your suggestions will certainly help. In the end, I shortening some cooking times (I was making ribs) and they turned out great. In spite of a few Noob errors the final product was fantastic and my first egg cook was a success Thanks again.