How much can you close daisy wheel and vent without choking out fire?

coffeeguydenton · January 2014

I have had a problem trying to control low and slow cooks (only on my second) and choking out the first by closing the daisy wheel and bottom vent too much. Can anyone tell me approximately how open they leave the bottom vent in low and slow. I suspect that is the primary source of my problem.

laserdoc85 · January 2014

1/8 to 1/4 of an inch. About half way up a sharpened pencil point. I would start a full pencil width and work down. Play with it about every 30 min until it settles down. I would adjust them when your dome temp reaches about 225 or 250 and see if you can bring it down to where you want it. Trial and error. Adjust both

jhl192 · January 2014

Here two pics of my medium at 250 for the past 10 hours. Hope this helps.

CP92 · January 2014

Good ref that got me started, but there are a ton of variables as you learn "your" Egg.

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/746823/vent-settings-a-visual-guide#latest

SoCalWJS · January 2014

Depends entirely on your Egg - how air tight is everything? If you've done the Dollar bill test and your gasket is well aligned, the amount that you need to open the Daisy will be greater than if some air can escape around/through the gasket gap. Likewise how the tolerance is on the Daisy itself.

You should experiment and find out. It also depends on the type of lump you are using and how clear the Egg is of any old ash in the bottom.

mokadir · January 2014

Agreed. On a 225-250 cook, vent is usually about 1/8" and daisy wheel is less that that. The closer to 225, the more I have to fiddle to prevent eventual choking out. Also, before I got the high que fire grate, I would have to use a wiggle rod to keep the grate free of ash which also adds to the problem.

RickyBobby · January 2014

Make sure you start out with a completely cleaned out(I prefer vacuuming out) Egg, to guarantee the best possible air flow. Also, take the time to build a correct pile of Lump in the firebox. Don't have to get crazy with it, but make sure you don't pour a bunch of Lump dust or itty bitty pieces of Lump that might choke it down. My XL will maintain a fire with 1/8" gap on bottom vent and about half that on the top daisy wheel. Good Luck!

coffeeguydenton · January 2014

Thanks for the input guys. I'm trying my first brisket and it choked out last night. Wasn't out long enough to ruin the cook, I don't think, but frustrating because it's going to add a couple hours to the cook time and cut things close for dinner tonight. I think the culprit is how I was building the fire. Will make sure I use only decent lumps in the future for slow cooks and save the small stuff for high heat cooks. I also noticed a pretty decent pile of ash sitting in front of the vent, which didn't help, I'm sure. Lessons learned!

RickyBobby · January 2014

Smaller Lump is okay too, but just make sure you keep the small stuff on top of the pile of Lump. If it's on bottom of your Lump pile it can choke off air holes in fire grate and cause the fire to snuff out. Also, you can reach up through the ash area with something and hook a hole in the fire grate and give it a good shake. This will sometimes encourage the smaller hot coals to completely fall through the grate and reopen the holes for positive air flow.

How much can you close daisy wheel and vent without choking out fire?

Comments

Categories