temp variance

Inksmyth

On an XL egg, how much can I expect the temp to vary once I get it set to 250?

texasAUtiger

My large has held 250 dome for 17+ hrs every time I have asked it to so long as I have filled it with as much lump as it could hold and still put the platesetter in with the feet up.

Morro Bay Rich

Once the BGE is set at 250 it will stay there. The BGE is not like your household oven which has to cycle to maintain its temp.

Mark0525

So you start the lump charcoal and once it's ready you adjust the openings every 15 minutes or so until it maintains the temp that you want? Also how do you place the plate setter? does it go at the bottom and then you put the charcoal around it? With the legs up do you place a drip pan on top of that? I know so many questions

texasAUtiger

Mark0525 wrote:

So you start the lump charcoal and once it's ready you adjust the openings every 15 minutes or so until it maintains the temp that you want? Also how do you place the plate setter? does it go at the bottom and then you put the charcoal around it? With the legs up do you place a drip pan on top of that? I know so many questions

Sounds like you might be prepping for a long, low and slow cook... Here's what I do. First I take any used lump out of the firebox make sure all the air holes are clean (of dust and tiny pieces of lump blocking). Then I use my ash tool thingy to get all the ash from the bottom-most part of the egg. Then, I get the largest pieces of lump in my bag(s) and form a base of lump, then as I add layers of lump I go with the next biggest pieces, etc. This creates air pockets for a long cook. I light the lump, let it burn for about 10-15 mins with the lid open. Then I put my grate on there and set my platesetter on the grate so it can begin warming up too. I close the dome with the top and bottom vents wide open.

I give this another 10-15 mins just to make sure the fire is good and established. Wearing gloves, I pull the (now warm platesetter off), the grate off, and insert the platesetter feet up, then a drip pan (with a cup or two of water in it) sitting on the platesetter, then the grate back on. I close the dome, bottom vent about 1 inch open and the top has just the eyelets open.

Usually in about 10-20 mins this has achieved a steady state of about 250. I just kinda know my egg now and where the top and bottom vents need to be for my set up to stabilize at 250. The key is not to try to constantly tweak the settings. Let it get somewhere and stay. If you do tweak, give it 10 mins to adjust.

One word to the wise: do NOT let your temp shoot way above your intended temp and try to bring it down. This is hard to do because of how the egg retains heat. For example, I never let mine get to say 300 before I put the platesetter in upside down and definitely never let it get to 300 afterwards!

Once I've held a steady 250 for 15-30 mins AFTER all my gadgets (platesetter, water pan, etc.) are in there, that's when the meat goes on. DO NOT MESS WITH THE SETTINGS FROM THIS POINT ON. TRUST THE LAST HOUR OF YOUR WORK.

I say this because the temp WILL drop from that 8 lb hunk of cold meat you just threw on there. Don't worry. It will rebound. It might take 1 or 2 hours or more, but it will.

Hope that helps!

Mike in Abita

With everything in the egg at 250, you can expect it to stay there for at least 3-4 hours. Recheck it after that and see if it fluctuated +/- 10 degrees and readjust if you are so inclined.

If you have a 250 dome temp fire going and throw in a 8 lb butt or 14 lb brisket you can expect the temp to drop as much as 60 degrees. Don't do a thing, just walk away and within an hour it will be back at 250. (as long as you didn't change any of the settings when you opened the dome)