Pitmaster IQ120 Problems

VandyCatGator

After a good year of reading countless posts and learning an incredible amount about my large BGE on this forum, I have my first post and question. 

After several cooks with the pitmaster, direct and indirect, I find it really hard to get the grate temp where I want it. On a wing cook yesterday with a raised direct grid, I set the pitmaster to 315 and the dome after 25 minutes got up to almost 375-400.   I would think the temp probe being raised would make the grate-dome temp differential closer.  

To those who have the pitmaster controller, can you please post how you fire up the egg and what setting on the pitmaster you use?  Do you just set it 50 degrees lower than your target dome temp?  What are your daisy wheel settings?  What do you set the blower on the pitmaster?  If I can't get this figured out I may just return it.  I don't have problems controlling temps manually but the controller was just a fun gadget to have.

Thanks ahead of time!  Now that I am part of the forum I hope to post more and contribute more.

RickyBobby

1st off welcome to the forum! I use a PitMaster 120 religiously for low and slow cooks. Sorry you are having problems. It is perfectly normal to have a little bit of difference between grate temp & dome temp. To me, grate temp is all that matters because this will be what your food is cooking at. Also, just curious if you have recently calibrated your dome thermometer ... or if ever at all for that matter? This could be an indication that your dome thermometer is off and needs adjusting. When I set up for a cook using my PitMaster I light my lump using a torch and make sure its going to take off, then I immediately close the dome and plug it in and throw the daisy wheel on. I let the PitMaster bring my Egg up to temp so that it doesn't overshoot. I close the big section on daisy wheel completely and open the oval slots half way or maybe just a tad less. I leave intake vent on PitMaster almost always set on 2 or 3. Hope this helps! Good Luck.

SoCalTim

@VandyCatGator‌ .. Hey brother, I use my Pitmaster on a regular basis, only for cooks below 300 degrees and to be perfectly honest ... I would never use it on cook as hot as your doing. There's no need as you can easily control the temp manually when you get that high.

VandyCatGator

Fellas, really appreciate the input. RickyBobby, I calibrated my dome therm yesterday and it was almost spot on. My problem may be I don't let the IQ take over until the temp gets moving on the dome therm. Next time I will let it take over as soon as the lump is hot. How long do you plan for the IQ to get to stable temp from the time you light it up (assuming a low and slow cook temp of 225 or so)? Maybe I need to be more patient. SoCalTim, I completely agree and my cook with the wings using the IQ was just to try to figure out the right way to use it after several half baked attempts. Next time I will shut my daisy wheel down more and let the IQ take the wheel earlier in the game.