Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg to Experience our World of Flavor™ at:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  Youtube  |  Vimeo
Share your photos by tagging us and using the hashtag #BigGreenEgg.

Want to see how the EGG is made? Click to Watch

What impact does daisy have on temp control ?

zipur74
zipur74 Posts: 48
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I’m coming from a WSM which basically worked by opening the top fully and then adjusting the temperature via the bottom vents. Now that I have a new LBGE . Can anyone offer a good rule of thumb to get and maintain different temperatures? I understand the Top + Bottom wide open will get you 700+ in ten minutes or so.
What vent setup will get me 200, 300 or 400 i.e. bottom two inches and top closed with daisy fully open will get you....

I know the learning curve and getting to know your cookers personality build the love. But the 4th is coming and I need to get it right as this will be a send off for my Son in law who will be shipping out with the 82nd in a few weeks.

Does the daisy wheel portion of the top cap give you increments of 10 to 20 degrees?

Do users even use the daisy wheel often or do most just leave it closed and adjust the entire top?
Should I always fill the firebox up to the air holes before I light?

Do the coals give a bitter taste if reused too many times or does everyone use a drip pan to avoid this problem?

Do you only clean the ashes every 12 cooks?
Should the entire interior be pre-seasoned with oil and a burn in period be completed.

Lastly ; why would a person own three or more BGEs that a lot of meat.

Thanks in advance we are in a rush to get things all setup for the 4th and I sure I could find the answers somewhere in the achieves. Your assistance IS greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • rsmdale
    rsmdale Posts: 2,472
    No seasoning in egg(oil) no. fill egg above holes always, make sure smoke is clear and here comes moist meat.!!


    GOOD EATS AND GOOD FRIENDS

    DALE
  • skihorn
    skihorn Posts: 600
    Welcome! That is a lot of questions!

    I have only had my Egg (now 2 Eggs) for a year. So, if anyone contradicts me, take their advice.

    As to the vents, yes wide open will yield 700 plus. The other extreme is about a credit card thickness gap on both will yield 250 (dome, which is about 220 grate) for your low and slows. Obviously it is everything in between for the other temps. I would guess for 350 it is about 1 inch on the bottom and comparable on top. This is after about an hour. For the first hour you need a smidge more oxygen. For example when I shoot for 250 for a low and slow I am at .25 inches for the first 45 minutes and then work it back to the credit card width. Of course, for the first 10 to 15 minutes I am wide open regardless of the goal. I then start closing down when the temp gets within 50 degrees of target.

    Most of the experts will tell you that they know what to set the bottom vent for a given temp and they set it and then do all the fine tuning with the top. I still tend to play with both.

    I will take a stab at some of your other questions in a new post.

    Freddie
    League City, TX
  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    Hopefully this will be of help to you.

    Please, Calibrate your dome thermometer, if you don't know how, ask.

    There are many ways to reach any given temperature and any method is fine. I use the lower vent for course temperature control and the DFMT to fine tune the final temperature.

    Hopefully the following will give new users a head start in learning to control and stabilize their egg.

    The following are settings on my Large. My medium, small and mini settings will vary a little.

    A stable clean burn can be seen by looking at the dome pictures below. You want a clear or light blue smoke coming out of the egg.

    250°
    eggsettings255.jpg

    300°
    eggsettings300.jpg

    370°
    eggsettings370.jpg

    390°
    eggsettings390.jpg

    I need to open the lower vent to go higher. 450°
    eggsettings455.jpg

    GG
  • AZRP
    AZRP Posts: 10,116
    I would suggest you treat the Egg the same as you did the WSM. I cooked in a drum smoker and a WSM long before I got a BGE. The WSM website is awesome for info on cooks. If I were to recommend a site besides this one it would be the WSM one. -RP
  • skihorn
    skihorn Posts: 600
    Dale answered some of your questions in the interim and I concur. I will take a shot at the rest. However, before I go any further - may God bless your son-in-law and keep him safe.

    Don't worry about reusing lump. Just stir it around to shake the ashes down through the bottom. This you do for every cook. Takes about 20-30 seconds. For cleaning the ash out from below the bottom I tend to do it after about 6 cooks or so but really you could go much further. You just always need a gap between the ash and the bottom of the fire box to allow air flow. I still use the ash tool for this. Others use a vacuum or shop vac.

    Use drip pan for indirect cooks. I often fill the drip pans with potatos and carrots and some beer to give it liquid. That is some good eats.

    I bought a Medium to complement my Large. Most on here eventually get multiple Eggs. There are three instances when my Medium comes in handy. When I am doing a small cook I prefer it as it uses less lump and gets up to temp faster. Second, when I am doing a very large cook it gives me more grill space. And last it allows me to cook two different food items simultaneously at two different temps.

    Freddie
    League City, TX
  • skihorn
    skihorn Posts: 600
    GG did a much better job (picture worth a thousand words) than me at explaining. I was just worried at this late hour you would not get any replies so I attempted. GG is definitely one I bow to and is particularly helpful to newbies. (He will now modestly proclaim that he is a newbie. I guess it is all relative.)

    Freddie
    League City, TX
  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    You are going to get a lot of different answers to these questions. None are absolutely correct or absolutely wrong. There are things most usually do and those will be made prevalent in the posts.

    Below is what I do.

    =================

    Should I always fill the firebox up to the air holes before I light?

    It really doesn't matter other than the distance you want between the lump and the food. Lately for shorter cooks I fill up just above the air holes in the fire box. For overnight cooks, I usually fill to the top of the fire ring, however, I usually cook on a raised grid.

    =================
    Do the coals give a bitter taste if reused too many times or does everyone use a drip pan to avoid this problem?

    No, used does not affect the taste, unless you have grease from a previous cook or flavor wood from a previous cook in the lump.

    I do use a drip pan some of the time. Other times I like the flavor of the grease from say chicken, or burgers or steak hitting the lump.

    Just a different way to get flavor.

    ======================
    Do you only clean the ashes every 12 cooks?

    I use the egg a lot. On the large.

    I clean the ash with the ash tool out from the fire box and aound the side as far as the ash tool will go about every 3 or 4 cooks and before every long or overnight cook.

    I only remove the ash from the back outside of the fire box once a year.

    ==================

    Should the entire interior be pre-seasoned with oil and a burn in period be completed.

    Just cook and don't use anything on the internal ceramics.

    =====================
    Lastly ; why would a person own three or more BGEs that a lot of meat.

    Several answeres here...

    . Because we love them and we can
    . To cook different items at different temperatures
    . More grid (grill) space
    . Portability

    There are just my wife an I here. Once a month I cook for the entire hurd which is 24 or so. I first got a large which handled the entire group. Then medium, then small, then mini.

    Doing it all over again for my wife and I, I think I would like 2 larges and the mini.

    ==================

    Congratulations and welcome to the forum.

    Most of all thank your Son-In-Law for his service to our country.

    GG
  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    :laugh: yup, I am a newbie, there are of very knowledgeable egg'rs out there. I am still getting help from forum members.

    GG
  • zipur74
    zipur74 Posts: 48
    That is and outstanding reply, I love the Pictures. I'm green all over.

    by the way why isn't infomation like this a Sticky???
  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    The only thing I could add and I don't think I mentioned in my above post is that you make sure the air holes in the fire grate and fire box are clear of ash or small pieces of lump.

    Good advice here.

    GG
  • zipur74
    zipur74 Posts: 48
    Grandpas Grub wrote:
    The following is a link to some additional help and information.

    http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=669812&catid=1

    GG
    Great links
    This should be a Sticky for us new folks I’m surprised there are not more Stickles for these common New Users questions. I would think that this type of question would be important to everyone.
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    it is a gloried gas pedal. no markings or anything. just the more you push it down (open it, i mean) the faster it goes. and vice versa.

    it is NOT required, and is merely a much more visual way to almost literally dial in on a temp. the lower vent can control temps all by itself, with no daisy.

    many of us us the lower vent for the rough adjustment, and then dial down with the daisy. by habit i still adjust both, but no matter how you do things, really only either the lower vent OR the upper are controlling the temp. unless somehow you have them perfectly matched.

    i know it seems confusing, but it's really not that hard. i'll offer my idiotic comparison.

    the egg is like a garden hose. lower vent is the faucet on the wall. the daisy is the brass fancy nozzle end.

    you can make the hose trickle (run at low temps) either by trying to do it with the faucet handle at the wall, or you can just turn it on full blast at the wall and control the trickle with the brass nozzle.

    but you can't have the faucet handle dialed to a trickle and crank the nozzle end open and get a blast.

    and the thing is, it's basically any combination that works for you. either one alone will control temps. it's just easier to monitor small changes with the daisy
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • Mickey
    Mickey Posts: 19,669
    GG thank you for this post. This post and the post listing all the web sites are very important to all new eggers and those with 3 years like myself.
    Thank you once more.
    Salado TX & 30A  FL: Egg Family: 3 Large and a very well used Mini, added a Mini Max when they came out (I'm good for now). Plus a couple Pit Boss Pellet Smokers.   

  • I thought you didn't get nearly enough responses so I'd add another one. ;)

    Stike's analogy is dead on.

    I only use the daisy for cooks below 300-350, otherwise I take it off and control the temp only with the lower draft door.

    I think without the daisy the cook is less smokey.