Introduction and Flameboss 200...

egginNthefreeworld

Greetings, I hail from S. Georgia and LOVE eggin! And love this board! I have been a long time reader and have gained TONs of great info over the last few years, thanks to all, seem to be some outstanding folks around. I am glad to be finally posting my first thread, not sure why it has taken so long. Anywho, greetings!

So, my incredible wife got me the FB 200 for my bday, got it last night. I did get it connected to my wifi and all seems good there and on my phone/pc. I am going to give it my first go this Sunday on a good ole butt for the bowl. Any tips or advice I need on a first time user? Are there any good "FB 200 beginner threads" you can point me to? The more the better.

Thanks in advance and keep on EGGIN!

Bart1434

Welcome - I am sure others will have some much more useful advice or methods but I will share mine...I have a FB 200 and I typical light my fire as normal and let it grow slightly (few mins).  I then attach the FB, leave the daisy will barely open up top and slowly bring it up to temp. EX: If I am shooting for 225 I will set the temp for 180..then 195...210 and so on so the fire slowly builds to the desired temp.  If you shoot for 225 right out of the gate the fire ball will grow and build and by the time the pit controller fan slows down the fire will shoot past the desired temp and the FB is not designed to really cool down the fire with the ceramic designed to hold temps well.  Just my few thoughts as I am sure others will have plenty of helpful tips.

side note on the pork butt - if you want something new and delicious to try I just posted a cook I did recently of two small pork butts and they were the best I have ever made using a recipe from @YukonRon found on this thread

THEBuckeye

Neil fan?

egginNthefreeworld

THEBuckeye said:

Neil fan?

Sure am.

Great advice in the first post, this place is great!

Ragtop99

Ramping up like bart suggests works for me.  Watch for leakage around the wires; you may need to move them or spread them out to get a good seal.

For the daisy wheel (using Bart's example), I leave it pretty open until 195* and then I go out and shut it all the way or almost all the way depending upon leakage.  Once it stabilizes at 225,  I'll look and see if the fan is going around 20% of the time.  If it is up at 40%, I'll open the DW a tiny bit.  I like forcing the fan to do some work, but not that much. If it is at 0% - 10%, I'll close the DW a bit more because that means temps could creep higher as the ceramics continue to heat up. 

Ozzie_Isaac

@Bart1434 hit the high points.

Fill lump up to top of fire ring, light fire in the center, put in platesetter, woo, stone, etc and grate.

Attach flame boss, close the lid, almost completely close the daisy wheel and set temp 20-30 deg below target.

After it stabalizes bump up temp to final temp.  After stabalizes on final temp and smoke is clean throw your butt on and let the FB200 do the work.

If your temp rises above the set temp close your daisy wheel more (even all the way is ok) and make sure the draft door is snug against the fan adapter.

egginNthefreeworld

Used it w/ some good success for my first attempt. Was cooking ribs so...

Could someone post some pics of how the proper bottom vent/blower set up I am looking for? Thanks again, you good people rock!

Jeepster47

Welcome to the fun house.  You might want to read through this article for extra info on the Flame Boss controllers:

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/productreviews/flameboss100200/flameboss-2.htm

On page 2 there is a good picture of the blower installation.

While you're there, you might look around on other stuff that The Naked Whiz has tested and/or reviewed.

egginNthefreeworld

Thanks for all the advice. I have used my FB only 2 times and have determined I got a "faulty" pit probe, their great customer service team got me a new one out yesterday...will report back.

Question for the FB experts though...where is the best play to "clip" your Pit prob though? Obviously on the grate but are you making sure  you clip it on over the plate setter so that its not directly over the flame?

Thanks again!

Jeepster47

If you stand in the shade you'll get a good feel for what the true atmospheric temperature is ... stand in the sun and you absorb the rays and feel much hotter.  Same is true with your pit probe, make sure it is the shadow of the plate setter.

egginNthefreeworld

thanks Jeepster!