Temparature Control

RickC

After reading all of the posts about Mickey T’s rings I am thoroughly confused. I have a Large BGE with the stainless steel slider door on the bottom and the daisy wheel on top. I have a 6.5 pound pork butt cooking on the egg now. Should I leave the bottom slider door all the way open and adjust my temperature with the daisy wheel alone, or should I be using both the slider and the daisy wheel to get the temperature I desire. I am trying to cook this butt low and slow around 225 degrees.

Chuck

Rick C,[p]I close the slider to about 1/2" and just crack the daisy to hold around 125*. Good luck with the butt.[p]Chuck <><

Painter

Rick C, I crack lower vent 1/8 to 1/4 inch and the daisy wheel open aproximately half way to maintain 250° This is not written in stone but an approximation.
Painter

char buddy

Rick C,[p]i think that's why those temp rings cause a lot of discussion. it is possible - and I am one of those who thinks like this - that the temp rings on top make the bottom vent less critical for controlling temps.[p]But clearly with a daisy wheel the bottom vent is the critical control. if you want really low temps, for example, I'd keep the bottom vent under a half-inch and narrower still for very low temps.[p]cb

Boccie

Rick C,[p]I close the bottom vent to less than 1/2 way, maybe even only 1/4 inch open. The daisy wheel is closed. There is enough leak by with the daisy wheel to allow for that. I can hold 210 deg steady.

WooDoggies

Rick C,[p]I can see how all of this is confusing and there are a load of ways to approach temp control but for me, when using the daisy wheel, the general rule of thumb is:
Shoot for the general target temp with the bottom slider vent and fine tune with the daisy.[p]If shooting for 225 I would start the fire with the daisy off, the bottom vent wide open and the lid closed.
About 50 degrees before the target, close the bottom vent to about a 2" opening and put the daisy on with it's slider closed but the daisy vents wide open. As the temp creeps up keep closing the bottom vent down to finally about 1/4" to 1/8" open. All of this happens for me in about 20-30 minutes. [p]The temp will want to continue to creep up over the next hour so I will fine tune with closing the daisy until it eventually stabalizes at 225.[p]I like keeping the bottom vent closed as much as I can for the slow cooks 'cause wind gusts have caused temps spikes on a couple of my overnighters. [p]So many ways... this is one that has worked for me.[p]Large weekend beers,
WD[p]

hounddog

Agreed