TREX Spider question

I don't really go by a specific temp.
I judge by how hot the lump looks and the area it covers below my cooking grid.
If I'm cooking several steaks I want a good hot, even fire below the entire cooking grid. If I only have one or two steaks then I only need a hot spot big enough to cover what I'm cooking.

I'm in agreement with the answers above. I usually have my egg stabilized around 400* +/-, then when I am ready to cook, I open the dome, and wait a couple minutes until the coals come to life. Then sear. No need to get the Egg nuclear when you are searing close to the lump. Make sure you put your grid in to pre-heat a while, also.

Kent, I see your pictures are of the Mini.

But for the Large...There's something I've always been confused about, using the spider. I've seen pictures of smaller grids on the spider, down near the coals. Do they use a Small grid for that? I don't have a CI grid and don't intend to get one, but I swear I've seen pictures of a smaller grid on the spider and have never seen one for sale, beside the original Small grid.

I use a CI griddle with the handle sawn off on the spider. I like the entire steak charred, not just the grid marks. But it's a pain to remove it to put the regular grid back on for roasting.

 
I have a large CI grid and use it very seldom. The size of grid you can put on the spider will depend if your large is a later version or earlier version (about 3 years old or older). The medium grid will fit in the older larges and the small grid or a ground down medium grid will fit on the newer version of the large.

In my early days I went caveman, meat right down on the lump and that works just fine. I saw a post a few weeks ago where someone put a grid directly on the lump and that is another great option and would work well. If I didn't have the spider I would use the grid on lump method.

When using the spider I load the lump to where is is all but touching the grid on the spider.

Last week I picked up a Weber Cast Iron searing grid 22.5". The Cast Iron searing grid isn't that large rather about the size that will fit on a small. I am looking forward to using that.

Kent

 
Use the same method as I showed above. Grid on the fire box for the sear, then remove (or have a second grid on hand) replace the fire ring and grid on top then the meat. This way there is no need to have an excessively hot egg, no gasket issue and no waiting for an egg to cool down enough to the roast part of the cook.

I like my steaks medium rare, some pink, and on most out of the counter steaks a 90 second sear on each side with no roast time will get me to that level of being done. My wife likes close to or medium so I have to do a roast on her meat. Any thick steaks have to have a roast stage.

Another option is an end sear. Hot tub the steak and then sear or roast the steak then do an end sear.

GG