Smoking butt, won't stay lit

If the temp is falling, it's being starved of oxygen. Without a controller, I would suggest getting the Egg to temp and letting it sit there for about an hour before you put the meat on. Make sure you have a full load of lump. 

Load the thing up with lump. Get it started an hour before you plan to start your meat. Light your lump in the center, vents wide open, Daisy wheel off. Let it ride til it hits 300 or so. Put your plate setter in or whatever you're using for indirect. Choke it back to 1/2" on the bottom vent, Daisy wheel about 1/4 open. Let it stabilize, fine tune it and it should sit there for the next 16 hours. My egg likes 270-280. Anything less than that and it is inconsistent without a controller. 

What are your vent settings?  On my XL I have it wide open till it greys to 200, then I sit the vents from an 1/8"-1/4".  When it has sat at 225 to 250 for 45 to an hour I put the meat on.  I then stay up for another hour to make sure it is going to stay there.  Now I have a wireless temp gauge I use to monitor the cook.  Alarms are set at 165 for the grate. Now this is mostly for brisket.  

For pork butt I cook it at 275 till it get to about 150 then take it up to over 300 to get it done.   I can do 9 pound one done in about 6 hours.  Plenty of smoke, taste great and I didn't have to cook it a6 hours.

When your dome temp is steady before adding food. Don't adjust immediately after adding food. 

Your meat is cold, and drags down the temp of the system for a while even though the fire is the same fire. 

The dome thermo cools off too when you open it. 

The fire though. Well. It gets bigger (or can), because opening the dome adds a LOT more air than was getting in the lower vent

so. Fire is a 250-sized fire (it hilds at 250). Open dome. Dome thermo gets cooler, and meat temp is cooler. 

Fire gets a big gulp of air and starts growing a bit, only temporarily though (because vents are the same).

shut the dome. Observe thermo. "Crap. Says 200". Meanwhile the fire is actually growing from the extra air, but the meat is a heat sink being mostly water. So the thermo doesn't rise 

Open the vents to increase air flow. 

The fire gets bigger and stabilizes at 250 for a while, but the meat is still pretty cold. And the heat of your now-much-larger-than-250 fire is going into the meat. 

When it finally overcomes the recovery, you'll see the temp climb. Because now the larger fire is heating up the whole system and the dome temp reflects the true fire size

For long cooks, controllers are your friend and a wise investment. My Flame Boss 200 has been a godsend..............set the pit and it keeps it rolling spot-on until the cook is done. 

The FB has been the best investment I've made in my Egg.

I have more "fun" cooking on the Egg without the controller...no doubt about it.  The main reason I bought the controller, was because I usually get 1 day off a week, so I have lots of chores, as well as 3 boys and an active wife, plus a golf game, so the controller was the best investment I have made as well so I could set it and forget it.  I never use it on anything that cooks in less than 2 hours.

I am very glad I did not get it though when I bought the Egg. Even if I got it fairly soon after, I probably had 20+ cooks already, and the knowledge I gained on temp control in that time is invaluable.  

Read @JustineCaseyFeldown post above.  All you need to know.  But to help with that I generally light at least two hours before the protein goes on for an over-night cook.  Stable for at least an hour and then load the meat.  Runs just fine.  With the long distance capacity of the BGE - no need to sacrifice time on the front end of a L&S cook.  At my age, I get a guaranteed wake-up call about half way thru and things are as they should be.  FWIW-

I've only had two fires go out - both were prior to getting a high flow fire grate, and both were when I was trying to make the most out of pulverized bags of lump.

GoodyFH said:

BilZol said:

I always leave bottom vent wide open on all my eggs, just have screen closed. Unless it's windy I don't understand why peopl choke it. On std daisy wheel, once I'm up to temp a dime edge slice will hole 225 for me. Pencil earaser hole on smokeware cap. 

Does this not burn through the lump quicker? I'm still ignorant to all this so that maybe a dumb question 

Btu's are btu's. If you maintain a temp it's not using any more lump then it needs. The vent being open just insures that the oxygen you need is available when you need it. The daisy wheel will regulate how much you need. You've got to have fuel, fire, and oxygen. So if you have lump in there and you lit it on fire you are missing oxygen. 

Let me add though, if it's real windy you may need to close it up some, the wind can act like a turbo or a supercharger and force oxygen in. 
Also, if you use a temp controller, doesn't matter the brand, you have to find a sweet spot in the daisy wheel. If your temps stay high, it may be open too much, if they fluctuate constantly from under to over it may be choked too much. The motor should be able to produce the amount of air your open vent at the bottom would naturally. If you use a 5 copper blower on an XL or an offset for instance it will give you airflow problems equivalent to having lower damper choked too much. 

I ,for one, would think about lousy charcoal as well.  Damp, ton of crumbs, to name a few.  The fact it did it twice makes you wonder.  You get the Egg setup vent wise running constant temps should go for a long time.  I'm old school too, shouldn't need all the electronics to make it work long, low, and slow.  But that's me:):):):)

AD18 said:

I ,for one, would think about lousy charcoal as well.  Damp, ton of crumbs, to name a few.  The fact it did it twice makes you wonder.  You get the Egg setup vent wise running constant temps should go for a long time.  I'm old school too, shouldn't need all the electronics to make it work long, low, and slow.  But that's me:):):):)

Ditto.  I also have an XL, and what works for me (YMMV) is I use 1/2 a weber chimney all red hot, dump it into pile in the center of a cleaned out firebox, then fill it to just over the firebox/fire ring line on top of that. Then push in smoking wood chunks/chips in ridings around that hot center. I put in the PLS, a drip pan (with air spacers), then the grate.  set the lower to ~1/2 inch, daisy to slid open about a nickel thickness with petals ~1/2. Let it set for ~20 minutes, and then throw in the meat.  Then check it about 30-40 minutes later and then go to bed.  I think I had a flame-out once due to damp lump. Each Egg has a mind of its own and a "sweet spot" temp.  Mine is right around 275 and it will stay there for more than 18hrs if necessary.