Really Odd Temp Control on my Pizza Cook

BobS

I cranked up the Egg with about half old lump and half new and got it up to 500 with no difficulty. I closed down the vent to about 2" and closed the daisy wheel, so only the small vents were open. The temp in the Egg dropped like a stone to a little under 400. This was in like 15 seconds and without ever opening the top. It then increased in about a minute to 450. At that point I opened the cover and the entire top of the lump was buring with a clean flame about 4" high.[p]I made some more adjustments and the Egg went to 550 over about 15 minutes. I opened the Egg to add the pizza (seconds only) and the temp dropped like a stone to 450. Over the 10 minutes of the cook, I got it back to 470-480 with no difficulty, but those drops were really odd, in my brief experience.[p]I was using Ebon lump.[p]At that point I

stike

BobS,
the first part you described was exactly what should happen.[p]you cut off both the air in, and the exhaust out, both of which control draft, and draft is everything. that's just how the egg should act.[p]the second part you described was two things.[p]one, you dumped hot air just by opening the egg. no biggie. can't cook if you don't open the egg.[p]but think of it this way. forget about cooking for a secondcooking. if you had an egg at 700, then opened it, it'd drop to maybe 500. shut it, and it'll climb right back and stop at 700 again.[p]you have a "700 degree fire" going, whether the (momentary)dome temp says it or not.[p]then, add a cold mass (pizza, pulled pork, cold platesetter), and that'll drag the ambient temp of the whole system down a bit. but it'll recover soon enough. because the fire is still going at the same rate. [p]don't fret. you never even looked at the temp guage on your gasser, so don't worry too much![p]you drive within 5 or 10 miles an hour of where you think you are, and where you wanna be. until you look down and focus on it, that is.