Holding 225 overnight

Welcome aboard - and yes, once the liquids evaporate, you will get a temp spike. No need to put liquids in a drip pan in the egg - it retains enough moisture naturally. Also, you could consider a temp controller (I love the Smobot. But others here are big fans of the Flameboss and a few others out there)?

edit - I doubt the amount of lump has anything to do with your issues, unless you don’t put enough in and your fire dies.

Looks like I was too slow. Ditto the above comments. Looking forward to seeing the future briskets and other cooks!

Like you I've never been able to achieve a full, overnight cook at 225 (I now have a Smobot but haven't tried it with that yet). 250-275 work fine, and you might get to have brisket at lunch along with dinner the next day!

For many years I lit my lump with a single paraffin square in the middle of the pile. One night, true to form, my Maverick woke me up at 0400 telling me the IT was below 200. I stumbled out onto the back patio (during that surreal period between happy drunk and hangover), pulled the grate/briskie out, and saw that the lump had burned almost a perfect cylinder, straight down, about the diameter of a V-8 can! Would've been an unbelievable photo, but again I was surreal and just stirred the lump, it took off again, I replaced the briskie, swatted a few mosquitoes and went back to bed. The beef was fine, next day.

I agree with @Carolina Q , run your butts and ribs turbo. Look for a habanero death dust rib thread I did a bit ago, they were done in two hours. If i need to do an overnight i set it to 275ish and start around 10pm. Then i can sleep and know my temp is going to be close to that in the morning. 225 my fire snuffs out.

I remember a time when lots of people were complaining about not being able to keep a fire going overnight at 225. Seemed like the consensus was 225 was too small a fire and not enough airflow. Most people's Eggs, at least mine, like to hang out around 250. Try running 250 next time and like everybody else has mentioned ditch the water pan. And go ahead and start your fire earlier. Maybe right after dinner. You won't burn that much charcoal and you'll be more confident that its stable after its been going a few hours before you go to bed.

Agree with all the above, get rid of the water pan.

Disagree about being able to hold 225 at grate level. Remember that the dome temp is higher than the grate.

The reason I purchased a DigiQ with my XL was for low and slow cooks.

Since then I have moved to the FB 300 and I can hold overnight cooks at 225 consistently. The temp may vary a few degrees but 225 is possible provided you have a decent controller.

Drippins are great but a water-pan is not needed which I think is the general flavor of posts. 😎

Good advice all around here.

I'll just add that the reason many recipes call for 225 is because that's an easy temp for traditional offset smokers to maintain. Kamados, not so much. And going with whatever temp your BGE is comfortable at won't ruin anything. It takes a fair amount of practice to learn the best vent settings for different temperatures, but the Egg is really good at keeping a stable temperature if used as it's designed.

Or you can just hook up a FlameBoss fan controller and it will do a good job of maintaining any temperature you want.

Should you go down the water pan route the key to success is to make sure you keep water in the pan so you don't get the runaway temp spike. And yes, the more moist the meat surface the better adherence for the smoke particles. Whatever works for you to deliver the goods you are aiming for is all that matters. FWIW-

I've only had a problem holding temp of 225 or better when I used cheap charcoal. Here'e a couple of things that I haven't seen in the suggestions that you have gotten thus far.

1. ensure you are using quality lump charcoal. Cheap stuff can have a tendancy to not burn well.
2. make sure your egg is thoroughly cleaned before doing low and slows. Airflow!
3. usually people are reading the dome thermo which can be 20 plus degrees higher than the temperature at the grid level.

Keep these things and the other suggestions in mind and they all should help. Good Luck.

I don't cook at 225 for that very reason. I cook at 250 at least, usually 275.

As others have said, ditch the water pan.

The other thing that can screw with low and slows is wind. Also, check for gasket leaks and cracks in the base. If you see smoke coming out anywhere on startup, that's a place that can suck air as you really limit the intake / draft door.....especially with a wind change.