Rising Temp Problem

tzpinhead · February 2018

I have been using my large egg for about 3 years and love it. I typically smoke on a pellet grill (GMG) or the egg with a Guru attached. In an attempt to get better at controlling a low temp for a long period of time without aid of the Guru, I tried to smoke some ribs at a temp of 180 for 5 hours followed by a 3 hour cook at 225. I had an Igrill remote thermometer attached to watch the temps without being tempted to open the lid. I started the grill the typical way, I use a heat gun, and started 3 very small areas. I was very cautious not to light too many coals to avoid overshooting the temp. I left bottom vent opened 1/2 way and until it reached 140 degrees. I started shutting it down at that point, until we hit 180. At that time, I had just a sliver open, about 1/16 of an inch and the daisy wheel about 1/2 inch open. This took about 45 minutes to get to this temp, so I was confident, I didn't light too many coals. I loaded up the ribs and monitored. It did dip when i loaded, but eventual settled back at 180. But from there, it continued to rise very slowly. 1 degree every 5 minutes or so. I let it thinking it would settle, but it didn't. i let it go to 215, and eventually closed the bottom vent completely. It still climbed, at 225, I took out the ribs and switched to the pellet. I closed the daisy and watched the temp. It did fall after closing the top, but slowly. I switched back to the egg after the first 5 hours so that I could cook it at the higher temp. but opening even a little, the temp continued to creep up.

What is the typical space the bottom vent should be open for 180 and 225? What should I be looking for, in terms of adjustments to keep a steady temp?

fishlessman · February 2018

180 is pretty difficult, i do jerky at 145 and by the time im done its about 180 without peeking. silicone around the lower vent needs to be in good condition and needs to be checked before the cook. every egg is different but im looking at 1/64 open lower vent daisy plus minus 1/16 and i make adjustments with the daisy to hold those low temps. 180 is way too low a temp to cook ribs in an egg, way way too low

Carolina Q · February 2018

Welcome! I have to say though, that I've never heard of anyone cooking anything on the egg at 180° (assuming you mean Fahrenheit). Not many cook at 225° for that matter. Most, for low and slow, cook at 250°. I gave up 250 some time ago and cook pork butt at 320°. Same result, just faster and easier to maintain IMO.

My settings, on my large egg, for 250°; bottom, 1/16", top petals open about the same, maybe less. Also, there's no need to light the lump in multiple places when shooting for low temps. One spot, a small spot, should be plenty.

Photo Egg · February 2018

"daisy wheel about 1/2 inch open"...if you mean the smaller pedals are all open 1/2" then it's almost wide open.
If you mean you have the top cap slid open 1/2" that's open pretty far as well.
I agree with @fishlessman. Except for bragging rights, there is no reason to cook most things at 180 degrees and doing it with any insulated cooker operating entirely on natural heat from lump will be a challenge.
But I would start by only lighting lump in center and giving it at least 90 minutes to stabilize ALL the ceramics before putting the ribs on the Egg.
Your temp will slightly drop when you add the ribs but do not adjust or it will over shoot.

tjv · February 2018

couple things:

light in one spot for large, not three.

as many have said, 180 can be difficult to maintain. one thing to try is to move the heat out as fast as possible......do daisy wide open or off, bottom severely cranked down. It's may become a game of chasing temps, if the air from above can feed the fire. at 180 I would push cook up and not use a deflector plate.

You probably spiked on temp during rib cook because the fire burned down and had easier access to air.

t

GrillSgt · February 2018

We call it climate change now.

Woodchunk · February 2018

Welcome to the forum. One question, why smoke ribs at 180, for 225 the vents would be open a very small amount.

pgprescott · February 2018

folks that come over from other types of cookers are used to different cooking techniques. The egg is very low air flow and moist environment. No need to go anywhere near that low. your food dries out on other cookers at higher temps, but not the egg. LS on the egg is 250-275. There can be great results at much higher temps if you like. you will just have shorter more convenient cooks. Give it a try. Ribs @250 without foiling done between 3.5 and 4.5 hours. With foil, less time. If you foil, you will need to drastically reduce the foil time and the overall cook time. Good luck.

lousubcap · February 2018

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey. Above all, have fun.
Regarding low temp, every fall I do a low temp (180-210*F or so) hot pepper smoke-down. Of course, when whatever cook doesn't really care about low temp it works. I build a pyramid of small lump pieces and light (one spot) it the center. Get a small fire going and then load the hardware and peppers. Vent settings are quite tight but it seems to run right along. FWIW-

Legume · February 2018

With regard to the temp rising, in order for the temp to stabilize, all of the ceramic mass needs to come up to temp. When you have a small fire and are shooting for a low temp, that heat build up is slow and it takes longer to get to get the ceramic temp equilibrated, so time to ‘stable’ is going to be longer. Your temp creep was probably at least partially due to the egg still stabilizing very slowly, 45 min seems short to me to stabilize at a low temp.

Or you have a leak.

When I run at 180 (rarely, just salmon or jerky), I try to let it run there for 30 min before I call it stable and I start adjusting my vents much earlier. At 140 I would probably already have it dialed back to where I expect 180 to be and then just let it settle in.

buzd504 · February 2018

Woodchunk said:

Welcome to the forum. One question, why smoke ribs at 180, for 225 the vents would be open a very small amount.

Yep - ribs are generally done around 190 - 195. They'll never get there at 180.

R2Egg2Q · February 2018

Welcome aboard. I think you’re trying to apply rib cooking times/temps from your pellet cooker to the Egg. Pellet grills have a lighter smoke profile and need to cook at temps like 180 to generate more smoke for a few hours and then increase temps to finish over an 8 hour period. You don’t need to cook at 180 to generate smoke on an Egg (plenty of reasons why you don’t already given by others). If you smoke on the Egg in the 225-250 range you should get a more pronounced smoke flavor than your GMG and shave off 2+ hours off of your GMG cook time.

Philly35 · February 2018

Ribs at 180 dome temp? They will never get done.

tzpinhead · February 2018

Great information, thank you all for the suggestions. I view this as all part of the fun, keep trying to refine until you get a repeatable result that you like. Looks like I have some changes that I will try!

SmokingPiney · February 2018

180 for ribs? Not going to happen. I doubt Eggs, regardless of size, will reliably hold a 180 temp......as you evidenced.

It reads like you're trying to cold smoke and cook out, and getting way too scientific about it.

225 to 250 will suit the cook much better, and your Egg can reliably hold those temps. You can can get plenty of smoke at these temps.

Theophan · February 2018

Strongly agree with others above: the right setting for 180° on the Big Green Egg is DON'T DO IT.

Different cookers are different, and different techniques work better on different ones. Everything is better on an Egg at 250° or above. I don't even try 225° anymore. There's better smoke and smoke flavor at 250°-275°, and food doesn't dry out as it would on another type of smoker.

bgebrent · February 2018

Theophan said:

Strongly agree with others above: the right setting for 180° on the Big Green Egg is DON'T DO IT.

Different cookers are different, and different techniques work better on different ones. Everything is better on an Egg at 250° or above. I don't even try 225° anymore. There's better smoke and smoke flavor at 250°-275°, and food doesn't dry out as it would on another type of smoker.

Sums it up.

Rising Temp Problem

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