issue with temperature control when using plate setter

diver1

I have had my egg for a couple of years now and love it. I have no problem controlling the temperature when using the grate doing ribs etc. But today when I did a turkey I had problems getting the temp to go up to 350. I started with a newly cleaned egg, fresh charcoal. I installed the plate setter, put a drip pan on it and the turkey on the V rack. Put a digital temp indicator in the bird which gives me both meat temp and egg temp. The egg temp around the bird always showed a few degrees colder that the temp indicator in the lid but that is to be expected.  I got the egg to 350 and put the plate setter and bird in. At first I could get it up to 330 but after and hour it fell to 300. I tried opening the vents and it actually lowered the temp on the indicator on the lid. Played with all combinations and still could not get above 300. Any ideas or solutions

Chris_Wang

Air flow was good? No little pieces of your lump were clogging the fire grate holes or firebox holes? 99% of the time, I preheat my egg with the platesetter already in. That large of a piece of ceramic can throw off the temp. That and the massive bird you just put in there.

But after an hour, if your temp was still falling, that seems more like an airflow issue.

SoCal_Griller

Agree with Chris_Wang.  Make yourself a wiggle rod (Scroll to bottom of the page), it has saved me a couple of time already.

dougbacker

Pit probe to close to the bird???? +1 on pre heating with PS and drip pan in place

DMW

Agree with everyone here on pre-heating with everything but the food in the egg. PS, drip pans, grid(s), etc. Not only will the mass impact temp, it will also change airflow properties. So you vent setup for your target temp might be different depending on what's in the egg.