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Hello and odd issue

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Edemitch
Edemitch Posts: 196
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Hi everyone. I haven't posted in a loooong time and wanted to say hello again. I put on 2 butts last night for an overnight cook. Cleaned the egg thoroughly.Loaded it up to the top of the fire ring with new Royal Oak. Stabilized the temp at 250 with my Stoker and let it sit for about 30 min after stabilizing. Added Hickory chunks, plate setter, drip pan with some apple juice in it and the 2 butts. Got the expected drop in temp. The fan kicked in and it started to rise slowly. I checked occasionally and the temp never went over 225. Opened the egg to check it out and I could have made pizza it was so hot. Took everything out, check all probes for temp alignment and they were all ok and no they weren't touching the meat. Set it up for a manual overnight and let it go. Now the temp never went over 190. This was on 3 different thermometers and they were all within 3 degrees of each other. Put the stoker back on and again it wouldn't go over 235 so I left it there. I have never had so many issues with temp going back to my first pulled pork. Anybody have any idea as to what the heck is going on? Oh and I used the hanger to make sure the holes weren't clogged up too and it didn't help :blink:

Ed
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Comments

  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,757
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    have had that happen without a fan device, the cold meat fakes out the dome readings and you chase a temp thats not really there. with 34 pounds meat in an egg i couldnt get my temps past 190 and the fire was maybe big enough for a 1000/1100 dome reading. almost think with bigger cooks, stabilize, watch it, and dont change settings , or in your case turn on the fan if things dont look right. just watch the fire, feel the dome for temp, and cook blind for 6 to 8 hours
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
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  • Edemitch
    Edemitch Posts: 196
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    That's what I ended up doing. OF course this morning I turned the stoker back on and it stabilized at 250 with no problem. The thing that had me going crazy was 3 thermometers all showing low temps when it was easily over 800. Melted the gasket again too
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  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817
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    Ed,

    I don't know about the Stoker but the Digi Q has a damper in the barrel that attaches to the egg. With that damper wide open you would have the equivilent of about a one inch opening in the lower vent. If you have the damper, close it til you have the shape of a of a quarter moon.

    Steve

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

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  • Spring Chicken
    Spring Chicken Posts: 10,255
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    You probably burned up half your lump during that period.

    I had a similar thing happen using a BBQ Guru a few years back. I had four 8# butts on my large Egg and using Royal Oak lump from Walmart.

    I used the Guru to help get the fire up to temperature but something was wrong. The temperature of the Egg seemed to be climbing too quickly and was at 350° before I started getting concerned.

    The Guru would not shut off in spite of the obvious wrong temperature. I convinced myself that it was a temporary issue and would settle down. I had two additional probes in the meat along with the Guru and Egg thermometer showing grid/dome temperature. It never really got 'way' up there, only about 400° from what I could tell. I really wasn't too concerned and went to bed.

    Then I woke up about three hours later and decided to check on it. The dome temperature had dropped to 190° and the Guru was beeping and blowing non-stop. I knew something was wrong.

    I took the butts off and removed the set-up to look at the lump. There was none. ?????? I quickly loaded up again and restarted the fire using a Mapp torch in multiple places. When it got back up to about 300° dome, I reassembled the set-up, butts and probes.

    I watched it stabilize at 275° dome and made sure the Guru fan shut off at 225° grid. I went back to bed.

    A bit nervous, I woke up about 5:00 am and immediately knew something was wrong again. Same thing. So I took it apart again and discovered I was out of lump. It couldn't be out, but it was. And the butts were only at 170° internal.

    So I filled it up again and when I lit it I noticed that the interior of the firebox and fire ring and plate setter were all white. It had to get mighty hot to burn them clean. But why didn't the butts also go up in smoke too?

    I took the Guru off completely and finished up manually.

    It took almost three full loads of lump to do the 20 hr cook.

    I noticed later that there was only the usual amount of ash in the ash pit. I suspect that the Guru helped to drive the temperature up so high that the lump burned quickly. The result was a high-speed draft that took the heat out the top, bypassing the meat.

    I was lucky because my outdoor kitchen is mostly cedar.

    The next time I used the Guru it worked perfectly and there were no signs of overheating.

    Sometimes I think it's the communists messing with me or perhaps a natural phenomenon. I still have no idea which.

    Spring "Super Eggnova" Chicken
    Spring Texas USA
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  • Desert Oasis Woman
    Desert Oasis Woman Posts: 5,604
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    Maybe The Coop is haunted :ohmy:
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  • Edemitch
    Edemitch Posts: 196
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    That sounds exactly like what happened to me. I'm on the 2nd full load now for what usually take 2\3-3\4 of a load for 20 hours and I have just hit the 12 hour mark
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  • Spring Chicken
    Spring Chicken Posts: 10,255
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    It IS haunted. Yes, by Rodney Dangerbird for sure, and a great many nameless chickens that met their fate elsewhere but ended up in flocks and parts here at the Chicken Ranch where they became fodder for the hungry staff. No wonder uneggsplained things happen here for no reason. We're cannibals.

    Spring "There's Always An Eggsplanation For Everything" Chicken
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  • Dnorman
    Dnorman Posts: 117
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    Figure your oven inside (i know no one uses this thing that much) does the same thing. you get it set at a temp and throw in some raw food, the temp is no longer the same it will take a while to recover temps, I have had it take several hours.
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  • Edemitch
    Edemitch Posts: 196
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    I know it takes while to come back up to temp. The problem was the thermometers, all 3, were showing it coming up slowly but it was well over 900 degrees by my figuring. Hot enough to make pizza anyway and all of the gauges showed the temp under 225. And yes I had just checked them in boiling water
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