Heat control

RICHIED777 · September 2012

Please help... Is their an easy way to control the heat of my egg? I had a hard time maintaining 400 degrees. It sat at 320....... So I opened her up a little more, then it was 500! Is their a rule of thumb? Is it easier to control the heat from either the top or bottom? More open on the bottom... More on top? Thanks all for your help. I need to cook for the firehouse next weekend. I would hate to burn anything, I will get pounded endlessly! Thanks again

odie91 · September 2012

For 300 or higher, take the daisy wheel completely off,and control from the bottom.

Fred19Flintstone · September 2012

+1 Odie. Richie, relax. It's not rocket science, but it is a learning experience. If your target is 400, then follow Odie's advice and have a gentle hand. Small adjustments can really move the temp over a short period of time.

Here's a tip about your temp when you add food to the Egg. It will go down. You are adding a mass of cold food that is absorbing heat energy and bringing down the Egg temp. DO NOT OPEN YOUR VENTS TO COMPENSATE. The temp will come back. It may take a little time, but it will come back. Opening you vents will more than likely lead to overshooting your target temp. Then you will start shutting your vents to try to cool the Egg. That is chasing the temp and it's a viscious cycle.

You might want to consider a little practice achieving and holding a steady temp. If your target is 400 and you achieve a steady temp +/- 20 off target, then that's close enough. You might even put a small pot of chilled (not ice cold) water in there to simulate the food so you can learn what to expect. You have a whole week to prepare. It may cost you a bag or two of lump and some time. Failure is a great teacher and from what I gather, you probably would rather learn in your backyard instead of at the firehouse in front of the guys.

Tjcoley · September 2012

RICHIED777 said:

Please help... Is their an easy way to control the heat of my egg? I had a hard time maintaining 400 degrees. It sat at 320....... So I opened her up a little more, then it was 500! Is their a rule of thumb? Is it easier to control the heat from either the top or bottom? More open on the bottom... More on top? Thanks all for your help. I need to cook for the firehouse next weekend. I would hate to burn anything, I will get pounded endlessly! Thanks again

What are you planning to cook? Great advice above and we may be able to get more specific knowing what you are cooking.

llrickman · September 2012

hope this will help
Vent Settings

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/696662/x/p1

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/718915/x/p1

Skiddymarker · September 2012

I hope I don't confuse you, but I use exactly the opposite of odie91 and fred19flintstone. For grilling, pizza or roasting pretty much anything over a dome temp of 375F to about 550/600F, I leave the bottom open and regulate with the daisy wheel. It is a chimney, air in has to equal air out unless you can throw a cat thru your gasket seal.

The wheel is much easier to adjust then that sliding, sometimes sticking, I have to bend over to regulate it bottom vent.

Try this. Open bottom and wheel off. Light it. When temp hits 500F, put the wheel on with the daisy slid to one side to create a round opening. The temp will drop a bit and then come right back up. If a full load of lump is in it, the temp will go back over 500F. Slide the daisy back over the hole, maybe 1/2 to start. which will restrict the air flow, and then start to fine tune the adjustments. On my stabilized medium, the wheel is only open about 1/2 to 1/3 and the temp is 500F.

FanOfFanboys · September 2012

I'm with skiddy. I control 90% from daisy wheel. Once I get bottom in position I don't mess with again (generally I go vent closed and solid slide about 1/4 to half way depending on temp target).

RICHIED777 · September 2012

Thanks all! We ended up going to a 4 alarm fire, which postponed my deal until October 4th. I'm going to practice both methods with the kettle of water. When you all say, you're leaving the Daisy wheel or bottom vent open... do you mean COMPLETLY OPEN? Because if so, that alone would save a lot of problems alone! you all ROCK!!

RICHIED777 · September 2012

WE ACTUALLY might try smoking ribs..(yikes) For low and slow.. You still keep top or bottom open, and adjust the other for that 200 degrees?

Skiddymarker · September 2012

To me open is wide open. Bottom vent slid all way to right, daisy wheel pushed to the side so the top is a round hole with all the adjustment eyes/petals off to the side. Once you get close to target temp, slide the adjustment wheel over the hole with the eyes/petals open 100%. if still to hot, give it some time, start to close the petals.

The bottom, can be closed to about half way once you are close to temp.

By the way, after you get the daisy adjusted make sure the set screw is lined up with the handle so if you lift the lid, the adjustment does not change, it will slide around.

Hope everyone returned from the 4 alarm safe and hungry!

nolaegghead · September 2012

maybe it's just the fire water talking, or maybe just watching the NFL lose all credibility with the exhibition of "officials gone wild" in tonight's game, but I just close the vents completely to lower the temp, and use a 92+ MPH leaf blower to increase the temp. :) ugh. I'm super tired and I have to do a bunch of work. night.

BakerMan · September 2012

@RICHIED777 As you can see from the various posts there are a bunch of theories and techniques that all have one thing in common - go slow (except for nolaegghead and his hurricane machine).

If the temp gets away from you and you overshoot your desired temp it is a pain to bring temp down. IMHO its better to let Egg heat up about 10-15 minutes with vents set at a conservative setting (once you get a feel for this setting) as the lump starts to light and then start opening the vents to get to desired temp. After the lump has been burring for 15 minutes you can see temp move as you adjust vents and "dial it in".

Here is a post I did a while back to help new people (like me) try to get consistent results when lighting the EGG until you develop the second nature we all acquire after a while. After 10 months of Eggin' I can light the lump, eyeball the vents and walk away and the temps will be within 50 degrees of where I want to be.

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/comment/1145428#Comment_1145428

Good Luck!

Skiddymarker · September 2012

nolaegghead said:

maybe it's just the fire water talking, or maybe just watching the NFL lose all credibility with the exhibition of "officials gone wild" in tonight's game, but I just close the vents completely to lower the temp, and use a 92+ MPH leaf blower to increase the temp. :) ugh. I'm super tired and I have to do a bunch of work. night.

@nolaegghead your use of a leaf blower has become legend, it would appear that BGE and Stihl have partnered based on your innovation, Congratulations!

http://en.stihl.ca/STIHL-Products/Blowers-vacuum-shredders-and-sprayer/Electric-handheld-blowers/22065-1526/BGE-61.aspx

nolaegghead · September 2012

Skiddymarker said:

nolaegghead said:

maybe it's just the fire water talking, or maybe just watching the NFL lose all credibility with the exhibition of "officials gone wild" in tonight's game, but I just close the vents completely to lower the temp, and use a 92+ MPH leaf blower to increase the temp. :) ugh. I'm super tired and I have to do a bunch of work. night.

@nolaegghead your use of a leaf blower has become legend, it would appear that BGE and Stihl have partnered based on your innovation, Congratulations!
http://en.stihl.ca/STIHL-Products/Blowers-vacuum-shredders-and-sprayer/Electric-handheld-blowers/22065-1526/BGE-61.aspx

Hahahah...that's hilarious!

I actually did use the leaf blower the other day to accelerate the lighting of some previously lit lump. Covered my whole back patio with ash...looked like Pompeii after Mount Vesuvius erupted. :)

Hillbilly-Hightech · September 2012

You've already been given some really good advice (sans the leaf blower =))) but here's how I think of it & maybe it might help you:

I think of the bottom vent as being the intake, and the top vent (the Daisy Wheel, aka Dual Function Metal Top) as being the exhaust (chimney). Just like in a vehicle, if you don't have enough intake (ie, your air cleaner is clogged up) then you won't get enough air in & your performance will suffer. Likewise, if you can't get rid of the burnt gases (ie, someone sticks a banana in your tailpipe), your performance will suffer.

Finding the happy medium between too much & not enough is key - as a fireman, you understand that fire needs air & fuel to survive. Your question is about the air part. As stated above, small changes in vent position can mean large temp changes later. And I agree, do NOT get into the bad habit of "chasing" the temp. Also, if your recipe calls for 350, don't worry if the Egg wants to "hover" at say, 330 or 370 - over the course of the cook, it's not going to make that much difference. For whatever reason, sometimes the Egg seems "happiest" at a certain temp, and I've learned to just let it be at that temp, rather than try to dial in the exact temp.

Now, as evidenced above, some folks don't even use the Daisy Wheel for certain temps, and that's fine - it works for them.

But if you wanna use both, you can. That's the beauty of the Egg, is that there are multiple ways to achieve the same end result.

And like w/ anything else - PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

HTH,
HH

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