HELP!! What did I do wrong?

Sooner Egg

Okay fired up the new large BGE last night for the first time, wife wanted bbq chicken so we fixed some. I load the egg with RO lump, about half up the firebox, lit the lump using some wax starters, waited until the fire was out, closed the lid and waited for temp to come, temp came up to about 600 I loaded the chicken using indirect method, got temp down to around 375 and let the chicken cook.....after about 20 minutes temp was up around 500 I did some more adjusting and got it back down to around 375 again....even with all vents closed and ceramic cap back in place temp still lept climbing, shoot if I wanted to slow cook some ribs there would have no way to keep tempature down around 250 or so.....so what did I do wrong, too much lump? got it to hot to start off with? chicken turned out fabulous but like I said, had I wanted to do ribs the egg tempature was way too hot and wouldn't stay down even with all vents closed? any ideas would be appreciated :(

lowercasebill

sounds like you might have a leak. does it pass the dllar bill test close the dome on a dollar bill there should be some resistance to removing the bill

vidalia1

It is easier to control the temp going up instead of making it come down. Depending on what I am cooking I let the BGE get to about 300 degrees before I set the daisy wheel and bottom vent. You will learn what temps you can get to by the different openings. It is a small learning curve.

Just don't do too much adjusting..that will become a curse..

Bordello

If you have not read the Naked Whiz page on controlling temperature do please do so, it's a big help.

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/tempcontrol.htm

See if it helps.
Regards,
Bordello

Sooner Egg

yup it passed the dollar bill test all around the thing the dollar bill drags to get out

stike

nah. no leak. just had the egg way too hot to begin with and fought temps all the way..

Sooner Egg

thanks for the link, great article on controlling temps, learned a great deal there....perhaps my ceramic temp was too hot

Sooner Egg

thanks for the link, great article on controlling temps, learned a great deal there....perhaps my ceramic temp was too hot

Bordello

You're welcome. When I got my first Egg I had been reading the forum for some time and knew to sneak up on the target temp as it's hard to get it back down if you over shoot what you're after.

I practiced some temp control without cooking anything a few times to get the hang of it. The other thing is the false temp reading at start up. If using a starter cube the fame will make the temp. gauge shoot up but when the flame goes out the gauage will drop. Kind of like holding a match on the stem of the gauage.

Hope it all helps, hang in there, everything has a learning curve and we have all been there. It's an on going thing.

Regards,
Bordello

BobS

I am not sure why you left the Egg open while lighting it.

As people have said, it is easier to control on the way up than to bring it down.

dhuffjr

How many of those starters did you use? For a low and slow cook I start the fire in just a couple places in the lump....actually that is what I do for any temp fire.

How you start with your vents controls how you end up. Sliver of the bottom open and sliver of the top Open up some more to get it higher if needed.

For 250 temps you need just a crack in the top vent.

Bordello

Bob S, I know you were replying to Sooner Egg but I also am in the camp of leave the dome open till the fire is out and the lump is started. No right or wrong way as we have Egger's in both camps.

I don't have to put up so much with the false temp reading from a flame hitting it and the ceramic's are not getting very hot, I like that till I'm ready to close it up, set my vents and then fine tune as need as it come up to my target temp. But that's just what works best for me.

Regards,
Bordello

An open dome starter :silly:

Grandpas Grub

Instruction manual states to leave the dome open for 15 minutes.

BTW, works pretty good too.

GG

stike

i think that is a decent idea with fire starters. they need a lot of oxygen, or they'll often self-snuff, and give you a roiling clod of smoke as they smolder. same for home made chunks that are chopped off from a fireplace log (generic paraffin sawdust log).

but i've found that when i use the napkin/oil starters, they develop a fast draft very quickly, and that shutting the lid and setting vents (for temps over say 350) leaves me with a good draft, quick start up, and the dome temp stops when it gets where i need it.

for a lo-and-slo, i will usually put the daisy on before i go back inside the house so that the fire will top out at 300-350 or so, without getting away from me while i prep the food.

putting the meat in and re-setting vents for 250 will usually drop me right down.

Grandpas Grub

Stike's comment below is most likely the situation you were in.

A word of caution - don't ever leave the egg with the bottom vent full open. Until you know your egg watch the egg if the bottom vent is much more than 1/3 open and the DFMT is off or mostly open. With any of these settings the egg temperature can get extremely hot.

There are a lot of different temperatures cooking chicken.

When first lighting you need the natural draft created by the burning lump. I leave the bottom vent & screen full open and dome open for 5 to 10 minutes depending on my desired temperature. When I close the dome I leave the DFMT off the egg.

When using paraffin squares, oil & paper towel, alcohol when lighting there will usually be a false high temperature on the thermometer. The spike is the flame of the starter material. When the flame dies out the spike will drop and there will usually be a heavy white smoke.

As the temperature climbs from the low (after the first spike) the lower vent should be closed down to control the course temperature adjustment. This should be done about 30° or so before desired temperature. Then put the DFMT on the egg and adjust the slider and petals for the fine control.

The lower vent is the most important control.

On my large, for 250° the bottom vent will be open about the thickness of a credit card apx 1/8" (screen fully shut). DFMT slider closed petals apx 1/4 to 1/3 open. My egg will hold there until the lump runs out - 30 or longer if I fill to the top of the fire ring.

450° screen closed bottom vent 1/4" to 1/2" open, DFMT slider 1/3 open to 1/2 open petals full open.

It won't take long for you to learn your vent settings.

Back to the smoke. As the lump burns more efficiently the heavy white smoke will burn clear or to a light blue color. At that point you should be at your desired temperature or very close to it.

Don't put any food on the egg until you reach that clear or very light blue state. If you are not sure put your hand over the top vent and let the smoke hit your hand. Smell your hand. If the smoke or your hand smells acrid don't start the food. If the smoke smells good, you are ready to cook.

Congratulations on your new egg and welcome to the forum.

GG

Grandpas Grub

I agree, with oil / napkin. If my desired temperature is much above 350° I will leave the dome open for about 5 minutes, then if I leave the egg I will adjust my vents to my known settings for the temperature.

For new users I think they should use more caution and stay with the egg for a bit.

The fire starters & log chips will sometimes take an extremely long time to fully burn, in some cases well into the cook. In the past, once the fire is established I will remove them. I now use oil/napkin, alcohol or torch.

On a side note. I notice the pictures you had on the oil napkin method do not come up any longer.

If you are still hosting those would you repost. I would like to reference the link. If not I would like to be able to host those pictures. Those pictures alleviate a lot of explaining.

Thanks in advance, GG

Bordello

I also would like to see them again as I find it works but still find it messy. (Even with using a little bit, so I may be doing something wrong)

Glad you asked Stike the question, ,hope he still has em.

Thanks GG
Bordello

stike

i don't think any of my pics come up any more. the wellington pics are gone too. those who are not fans of the OT stuff will be happy to learn that the pumpkin carvings are gone, and the various OT stuff i posted over the years.

when i was on here more frequently, i used to have my BGE album as my default photobucket album. when i jettisoned the pod, i moved them into an archive album, and i guess that broke all the links.

Grandpas Grub

sorry to hear all are gone...

would you mind sending me a copy of the pictures or a link to them and I can copy them or ???

kentja at comcast.net


Kent

Sooner Egg

thx for your help, it's very apparent after reading that my egg got way too hot to start off with and i ended up fighting it the rest of the way

Grandpas Grub

At one time or another it happens to all of us.

I received the oil napkin pictures from stike and will get them posted here in a little while.

GG

Bordello

Thanks GG & to Stike for sending you the pictures. Looking forward to you posting them.

Regards,
Bordello

Grandpas Grub

Bob, they are up now, thanks to stike.

Kent