Flameboss - Ramping up the Egg?

SmokyBear

Hey, gang..how do you all fire up your Eggs using a Flameboss controller?  Do you first light, get the egg up to 2-250 and THEN turn the FB on, or do you light (I'm using sawdust starter cubes), let the initial flames simmer down, close the lid then turn turn on the FB?

I have a 200 and have never been able to get the hang of using the darn thing.  And, I picked up a sweet 1.25 lb beef short-rib that I'm going to try to slow-cook tonight at 225-250..

Apologies if this is a dumb / noob question but I did search both the forum and google and can't seem to find any decent info (including the FB manual) on what the best way to ramp things up on startup is..

Thanks!

stlcharcoal

You can do it that way, or start/stabilize then put it on.

I fire it up with a torch then get the plate setter and everything set up while the fire is spreading.  By the time I get the lid down and the FB setup, it's usually around 125-150F dome temp.  I'm paranoid about overshooting the temp and getting the egg too hot, so I always set the FB for about 50F under my set point.  Then after it stabilizes and the ceramic comes up to temp, them I ramp it up to 225F.  Last night it was late and I was lazy, so I just went from a cold start straight to 225F......did just fine and didn't overshoot.

Just make sure you have a good seal and the top vent is closed all the way, you'll be fine and it will do all the work.

Also, it doesn't matter if you have a 200, 300, 400, or 500, they all run on the same algorithm since they auto update the firmware.  

SmokyBear

Great - will give it a shot..thanks!

Wpilon

I've got a FB300 and I start the fire with a looflighter. Let it burn for 5-10 minutes, set it up for the cook (plate setter, woo, whatever), then hook up the FB dialled to the final temp. Then sit back and wait til the temp stabilizes.

Photo Egg

I do same as @stlcharcoal
I set a lower temp and then step it up to my desired temp.

dstearn

Once I have lit the lump with the Looflighter I set up for indirect within 5 minutes. Set the FB for temp. It will overshoot the temp by 10-25 degrees but will eventually settle down. If I am setting the XL up for a low and slow at 225 I allow for 2 hrs prior to starting the cook to insure that the temp is stable.

GaBGE

I start my coal with a torch, put plate setter in, set up flame boss and set to about 50 degrees less than what I want it to be. It will overshoot a bit as stated above. I then increase as needed.

GoooDawgs

@stlcharcoal you have the top vent completely closed? I have it opened maybe 1/8th of an inch.  Don't you need a slight draft up top??  Then again my FB has been chasing temps since I put in a KAB, so maybe I do need to have my smokeware shut... 

SmokyBear

Hey, gang..did my cook last night and definitely learned a few things..mostly by mistake/trial and error..

I started the FB around 150 and thought all was well, but made a rookie mistake and for some dumb reason totally forgot that I needed to do indirect (doh!).  So, the fire got away from me somehow even with the FB controlling it and it spent much of the cook at 255+ vs. the 225 I had set it for..probably cuz I had one heck of a load of FOGO and Rockwood in there and as a result, a heck of an inferno even with limited airflow.

Also clipped the FB pit probe to the cooking grid..I seem to remember many of you go through the daisy wheel and clip to the thermometer..is that right?  I'll probably try that next time, as there was a pretty big difference between grid and dome temp..FB said 260 and thermometer was closer to 220/30..

Once things settled down (hours later - definitely takes a while to cool back down once you overshoot by that much), the FB did do a good job of keeping things right around 225..dinn time was approaching, so I did bump to 230 and eventually 250 to finish things up.

I was cooking beef ribs, which to me are basically "meat candy".  I've never really gotten the hang of these as they're incredibly hard to cook - at least to me, but they were still amazing.  Wife didn't like them as they were too fatty for her..so, it's possible that I pushed them too much and the fat didn't render out as much as it should have.  That, or cooking for the first half hour direct vs indirect (I did fix that about 30 min in to the cook) wound up cooking the ribs faster than they would have, so..less rendering out meant more fat.  Even though total cook time for about 1.25 lbs of ribs was still 4+ hours..

Was pretty impressed by my little FB 200, once I fixed my initial mistakes..very cool to have a controller running your rig.  Still amazes me that a piece of gear like that can control temp on something other than an electric heating element like my Cookshack has.  Impressive..

Appreciate all the help!

johnnyp

stlcharcoal said:

You can do it that way, or start/stabilize then put it on.

I fire it up with a torch then get the plate setter and everything set up while the fire is spreading.  By the time I get the lid down and the FB setup, it's usually around 125-150F dome temp.  I'm paranoid about overshooting the temp and getting the egg too hot, so I always set the FB for about 50F under my set point.  Then after it stabilizes and the ceramic comes up to temp, them I ramp it up to 225F.  Last night it was late and I was lazy, so I just went from a cold start straight to 225F......did just fine and didn't overshoot.

Just make sure you have a good seal and the top vent is closed all the way, you'll be fine and it will do all the work.

Also, it doesn't matter if you have a 200, 300, 400, or 500, they all run on the same algorithm since they auto update the firmware.  

Do you have much of an opinion on using grate vs dome temp?  I've never really mucked around with it too much to figure a preference.

stlcharcoal

I always do grate because I usually have the thing packed with multiple pork butts.  That's a lot of evaporation and with the dome temp above all that, it cant be that accurate.  It's going to be a better indication of the temp at the grate.