dry run with Thermoworks Signals and Billows and ConvEGGtor

Zamfir

I am not sure what an acceptable temp swing is. Here is a graph of the dry run today. I installed the bellows fan and signals temp controller and set it to 250 after starting lump charcoal in the center with LoofLighter. It did not take long at all to get up to temp. Very happy with that. I just had the top vent cracked. you can see in the graph it heats up to temp fast and then cycles. When If I average the temp over the main operating time from 9:50 to 2.07 it is 255.7deg F.
Fan cycle turns on at set-point which was 250. The overshoots go to about 260-263 then fall down. I guess I will have to dig into the instructions now to see how to tweak it.

I left the lid cracked the same amount and told it to go full tilt. Max setting on signals is 575. It got there quick..then I opened the top vent full on for a little bit..then got scared and took the probe out fairly quick as I did not want to break it..I need to calibrate the thermometer on the egg. It reads colder than my probe but that sucker got up to 680 after 12 min of removing the probe and letting it rip. I feel comfortable now throwing some meat at it. Having more mass in there will help a little and I just need to keep in mind the temp average will be about 5 deg higher than my setpoint. There is a menu to calibrate all the different probes. I have the probes each color coded with silicone rings. On my phone I can tell Signals which port has which probe and it will compensate for that probes calibration factor. I picked up the Thermoworks instant read thermometer so I will use that as my calibration device in a pot of boiling water and calibrate all 4 probes.

Now I am comfortable throwing in a big hunk of meat!  In-laws are showing up tonight from Lincoln so might have to do some reverse sear thick steaks while they are here...or a turkey..maybe they will buy! heh-heh..

I used a full pile of lump and just got it going in the center.  It will be interesting to see how much is left.  And if this new top vent really snuffed it or not.  Dang.. I guess I was mixing 3 different experiments there so I will not know.  If the top vent closed did a poor job of snuffing, then I will have less usable charcoal left but do not know what to expect on how much should be left after what I did..lol  Ohh well.  Plenty of time to test those two experiments out.  None of this would have been so successful without all the help I found on this forum.  Great stuff here so I figured I would share too!

I love science and BBQ! 

kl8ton

I would not sweat that temp swing at all! 

TexasisBestest

Open the lid even less, you need nearly no hole opening for ultimate stability. Also clipping the probe onto a clips the grate directly also help .  Just make sure its consistently the same spot every cook. Lessons learned from an egg genius. 

Zamfir

So clip the probe so it is touching the grate?  The probe holder is a bent piece of sheet metal in a Christmas tree kinda shape with 2 holes in it. It does not work very well and have been thinking of making something with alligator clips or something. 

pgprescott

Push the point of the Christmas tree thing down in between the SS bars on the cooking grid. Next, install the probe in the sheet metal part with holes. 

Zamfir

Yessir. That is what I did. It just does not want to hold the probe very secure. I have the cast iron grate also and the spacing between the 2 don’t work real well together. Here is the holder. When it is secure on the grate it is not holding the probe well. Like the probe could easily slip out of the holes.  Seems like there has to be a better option