Low Temperature control

+1 ^^^^   I don't cook at less than 250*.  I can't imagine any better results than what I am already getting.

Same here...  225 is tough to hold on my LGBE.  250-275 she settles in like a champ every time!  I'm on the fence on a fan controller, but that's not to get me lower in temp, its to maintain temps during the crazy a$$ weather we've been having here in Atanta with wind and rain nightly.  I've watched my temps jump 20-100 deg from the wind blowing across the chimney and wicking more air thru the draft door....

Agreed that 275* is low enough.  Try and gauge where the wind is coming from and move the back of the Egg towards the wind.  That may help is keeping steady temps.

Biggreennessy said:

Ive had my BGE about six weeks and the one thing Ive noticed is that its quite hard to keep the temperature at or below 225 degrees....

Cooking that low is like riding a bicycle (or flying a plane) slowly - You are always teetering on the edge of disaster.  Every little thing (new piece of lump catching, piece of ash dropping into the air flow...), causes the temp to fluctuate, and since at or below 225, you really have a fire that is barely lit, it is easy to go out.

Back when I started, Elder Ward told me to cook my pork butt at 215 grid, which led to some frustration on my part when the fire would go out in the middle of a snowy night in Chicago.  I bought a Stoker 6 years ago to solve that issue, and haven't had any problems sense.

Your options are to cook hotter, or to cave and buy a gadget that will breathe a little extra (or less) air adapting to the minor changes.

Cooking lower, for me anyway, is now more about bragging rights (e.g., the 25 hour pork butt cook).  It also gives you a higher margin of error for doneness, though that is more than offset by the downside risk of your fire going out if you don't use a dirty cheating bit of electronica (like I do).

On the other hand, you can just start cooking at 250, which is rock solid stable on most eggs and adjust your times accordingly.

@biggreennessy ... a pork butt is an excellent cook, since you finished earlier than expected, you could have FTC (foil - towel-cooler) your butt and held it for some 4 hrs. When you opened the cooler, it'll be piping hot!

225 with no temp controller = a long night with NO SLEEP ...lol (I like my sleep)

Another thing to keep in mind is the difference between the dome temp and the grate temp.  I have anywhere between 25 to 30 temp difference between grate and dome. That was determined with a calibrated dome thermometer and my BBQ Guru. I always go by my grate temp.

the grate temp is usually cooler for most of the cook if there is an indirect setup under the cooking grill, eventually as the meat heats up it gets closer to the dome temp. with a direct setup the opposite is true

Grate temp would be warmer.   Here's a good explanation of why http://www.thermoworks.com/blog/2013/06/dome-temperature-grill-temperature/

Edit: @fishlessman gave the better answer.  That's still a good article to read regarding temps.

Slightly off topic, but still falls under temperature differences. I recently did an unintended eggsperiment that illuminated some of the difference between the grate guarded with plate setter and not. Using my FB 200 I was aiming for a grate of 250 and once I was there I removed the grate and plate setter to put in some smoking wood. When I put everything back I inadvertently clipped the grate probe outside of the plate setter. A few minutes later I checked and the grate reading was 290. By the time I figured out what I had done wrong the reading was 295. How much higher it would have gone I can not say, but when I changed the clip's position to reflect what the cooking surface for my pork butt was going to be the grate reading immediately dropped and within less than 2 minutes was registering my target temperature.

Sometimes, when I am trying to hold a low temperature, I put a layer of aluminum foil under the daisy wheel and poke a tiny little hole in it.  That seems to allow me to hold low temp better than just closing the daisy wheel.

KSwoll said:

Another thing to keep in mind is the difference between the dome temp and the grate temp.  I have anywhere between 25 to 30 temp difference between grate and dome. That was determined with a calibrated dome thermometer and my BBQ Guru. I always go by my grate temp.

+1

250 dome temp is likely in the neighborhood of 225* grate temp, you can verify with a decent ambient temperature probe. When you are looking for low and slow at 225* you want grid temp anyway as this is the temp that your meat is experiencing. 

Also, make sure that you calibrate your dome temp gauge as they can very drastically. Mine was about 20* off on the low side so if I would've been shooting for 225* dome in this condition the actual temp would've been around 200 and I  would've been smothering the fire and struggled to keep it lit. Calibrating is easy by using the slots in a spatula to hold the gauge and submerging it in a pot of boiling water, adjust the temp accordingly too 100*C/212*F by making small adjustments to the nut on the back.