Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? (BBQ Guru)

AtGame7 · March 2016

I've had my BGE for less than a year, but I've never been able to stop the temp from swinging wildly when trying to keep it around 225-250 so I purchased a BBQ Guru Digi QII (I think that is the name) and I am still having the same problems.

I get the egg up to temp and turn on the BBQ Guru and the temp continues to climb to 240 even 245 so I close the vents a bit more and the temp drops all the way down to 210 and even lower. The fan is running but the temp is still dropping down to 205. I check and the fire is certainly not out and plenty of lump is still in the Egg. So I open the vents up a bit and the temp does go back up, and up and up and up, back to 250 without the fan running. I repeat the process of closing the vents more and the temp drops as I repeat the circus of fan running and temp still dropping.

What in the world am I doing wrong. I don't know why I need the BBQ Guru if I'm just gonna to keep having to adjust vents anyway and still not get the desired temp.

Also, I am getting some condensation draining out of the fan. That may be normal, but thought I'd throw it out there in case it matters.

Very frustrated and lost at this point. Any help would be appreciated.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2016

Stop opening and closing the vents. There is no difference between 225 and 245- or 275 for that matter when it comes to the quality of a low and slow cook. Let your egg settle in and leave it alone. Mine like 260-275 on low and slow so I let it be there. Try it without the BBQ guru and you will see. Let it settle in somewhere in that range and go to bed (or do it now and just let it run all day so you can see what it does) . It will be right there in the morning when you wake up. Try it without food if you really don't trust it. It will cost you $2 in lump to see what it does if you leave the vents alone.

GregW · March 2016

I don't currently have a Guru, I have had one in the past.
From my experience, you need to light the fire in only one location. I always set the Guru at a temp much lower than I plan to cook at. At least 25 to 35 degrees low. When the egg reaches this lower temp I slowly begin to raise the setpoint in small increments of 5 to 10 degrees until I reach the target temp.

Also, the top daisy wheel is open only 1/8 to 1/4 inch.
The important thing in my experience is to go slow and not allow the egg to get too hot. If you go over temp it will start a vicious cycle of trying to chase the temps.

Hope this helps.

AtGame7 · March 2016

Thank you, I'll take your advice on the temp range not mattering too much.

I am certainly concerned that the temp dropped to 205 with the fan running and the temp did not recover. Isn't that something that I should be concerned about?

Thank you for the help.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2016

AtGame7 said:

Thank you, I'll take your advice on the temp range not mattering too much.

I am certainly concerned that the temp dropped to 205 with the fan running and the temp did not recover. Isn't that something that I should be concerned about?

Thank you for the help.

That's because you shut the vents down. Leave it alone and see what happens. You will be able to dial it in wherever you want once you learn to leave it alone.

GregW · March 2016

AtGame7 said:

Thank you, I'll take your advice on the temp range not mattering too much.

I am certainly concerned that the temp dropped to 205 with the fan running and the temp did not recover. Isn't that something that I should be concerned about?

Thank you for the help.

If the fan is running constantly and the temp is not increasing I would suspect that there is a lack of fuel, or the fire went out. This is not a common problem with a Guru.
If there is fuel and the fan runs the temp will increase.
What size egg do you have and what is the fan size? My fan was a 5 cfm on a large egg and it worked well.

AtGame7 · March 2016

It's a Large BGE with whatever fan came in the package. I don't see where it denotes a fan size.

AtGame7 · March 2016

Oh, and 100% the fire did not go out and there is plenty of lump in the Egg. Is it possible there is an air leak somewhere that would cause these wild swings/temp unable to climb?

I don't see any smoke escaping except a little around the metal adapter the fan goes into.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2016

AtGame7 said:

Oh, and 100% the fire did not go out and there is plenty of lump in the Egg. Is it possible there is an air leak somewhere that would cause these wild swings/temp unable to climb?

I don't see any smoke escaping except a little around the metal adapter the fan goes into.

No. You are messing with the vents and chasing temps.

AtGame7 · March 2016

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

AtGame7 said:

Oh, and 100% the fire did not go out and there is plenty of lump in the Egg. Is it possible there is an air leak somewhere that would cause these wild swings/temp unable to climb?

I don't see any smoke escaping except a little around the metal adapter the fan goes into.

No. You are messing with the vents and chasing temps.

I believe you, just seemed weird the fan was running but the temp kept going down. I'll try next time to just let it go and see what happens.

Otherwise, is it normal for a little air/smoke to escape around the adapter the fan goes in? It's by no means airtight.

Is the condensation from the fan normal as well?

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2016

AtGame7 said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

AtGame7 said:

Oh, and 100% the fire did not go out and there is plenty of lump in the Egg. Is it possible there is an air leak somewhere that would cause these wild swings/temp unable to climb?

I don't see any smoke escaping except a little around the metal adapter the fan goes into.

No. You are messing with the vents and chasing temps.

I believe you, just seemed weird the fan was running but the temp kept going down. I'll try next time to just let it go and see what happens.

Otherwise, is it normal for a little air/smoke to escape around the adapter the fan goes in? It's by no means airtight.

Is the condensation from the fan normal as well?

Those things are all normal. If you shut the top vent down too much it will be very difficult to raise temps even with a guru fan. Just run an experiment this afternoon. Light a fire, get it stable and shut the bottom door to one inch or so and shut the daisy down to where the small holes are only half open. Leave it alone for the whole day and just watch it. If the temps go up, leave it alone. If they go down, leave it alone. If the fire goes out you have restricted airflow but there is no reason other than that. It will lock in somewhere around 250 and stay there for 20+ hours with a full load of lump. No guru, so messing with vents, it will just happen. Once you know it's stable, make small adjustments up or down and see what it does. It can take an hour to settle in at the new setting. If you mess with it before it settles in, you are going to get exactly what you have been getting. Wild temp swings and an unstable egg

1move · March 2016

Great advice above as others mentioned. Couple of points that I would suggest are:

Don't touch it! It's called low and slow for a reason. The temperature takes an hour at least to stabilize before any meat should go on.

If you are getting smoke coming out the bottom it tells me that your top isn't open enough and you are going to be starving the fire from oxygen eventually as the smoke will build up at a rate higher than it can escape.

Light it in the centre and let it build up with the lid open for about 5-10 minutes while it is lighting slowly and you are watching it so it doesn't get out of hand.

Just remember adding anything to it after stabilizing the fire will drop your temperature (ie. Plate setter, a big chunk of meat etc.) the biggest thing to remember and I know it's hard to do is DONT TOUCH IT! Don't adjust any of the settings it will come up to where it was before in time.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2016

I'm also assuming you have the damper on your guru adjusted properly. I have my little slider set to half open. Seems to work best for me in that spot. A little drunk Canadian showed me that so I didn't have to read the manual at 1 am after 3 bottles of wine.

GregW · March 2016

There can be some smoke leakage when the fan is running.
The fan pressurizes the egg and if the top went is virtually closed there can be some smoke leakage.
The condensation is something I have not experienced with the fan.

RRP · March 2016

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I'm also assuming you have the damper on your guru adjusted properly.

agreed - but I leave mine wide open - I figure when the guru brain knows when to call for air it also knows when to shut it down, so why hamper the damper!

1move · March 2016

RRP said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I'm also assuming you have the damper on your guru adjusted properly.

agreed - but I leave mine wide open - I figure when the guru brain knows when to call for air it also knows when to shut it down, so why hamper the damper!

@RRP I had issues maintaining a low temperature as the damper was wide open for the CyberQ and my XL. I had to shut it down to a 1/4 open in order to not have air leakage

blind99 · March 2016

controllers are great, but they add complexity to a "simple" device. it takes a little trial and error to figure out what a controller will do for your egg. if the temp is continues dropping down even with the fan running (and you know you have a fire) then you have the exhaust closed off so much that the fan can't get enough airflow through.

another experiment you can do is light a small fire, install the fan, set your damper settings, and see where it goes with the fan off. that's the minimum temp you can achieve with your controller and those settings. here's an example. i lit the fire and set the controller to 275. without my fan running, the egg was at 300. when i was ready to start cooking i turned it to 350 and off we went. if i had wanted to cook at 275 or 225 those damper settings wouldn't have worked. but at least i knew the fire couldn't snuff.

also, the more you fiddle with the vents, the more you confuse the controller.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2016

RRP said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I'm also assuming you have the damper on your guru adjusted properly.

agreed - but I leave mine wide open - I figure when the guru brain knows when to call for air it also knows when to shut it down, so why hamper the damper!

My temps started to climb with it All the way open. I assume that's an issue or they wouldn't have it on there.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · March 2016

1move said:

RRP said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I'm also assuming you have the damper on your guru adjusted properly.

agreed - but I leave mine wide open - I figure when the guru brain knows when to call for air it also knows when to shut it down, so why hamper the damper!

@RRP I had issues maintaining a low temperature as the damper was wide open for the CyberQ and my XL. I had to shut it down to a 1/4 open in order to not have air leakage

Same

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? (BBQ Guru)

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