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Wind problem

GoKooL
GoKooL Posts: 32
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I'm looking for any help with managing extreme wind conditions. I live on the Gulf Coast near Galveston, and we occasionally get some lenghty periods of high wind gusts that last for hours or days.

I was trolling the forums a few days ago and got an uncontrollable desire to cook a brisket. It was windy, but it just couldn't wait. Prepped the brisket, but couldn't get the XL under 350 with the daisy wheel closed and only the slightest opening of the bottom vent.

I set my Egg island with the goal of promoting airflow, but didn't really consider the setting of too much air.

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If you're wondering where the tile selection came from...

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Any ideas? Build a box or a screen to fit in front? Will using a Stoker or Guru solve the problem? You are an innovative crowd, I'm sure someone has come up with a way to solve this problem, and it probably somehow involves bacon.

Comments

  • Canugghead
    Canugghead Posts: 11,452
    GK, all I can say is WOW, what a place you got there!
    -Gary
    canuckland
  • reelgem
    reelgem Posts: 4,256
    Go Kool, can't help you on the wind problem but that is a beautiful setup you have. What a view!!
  • GoKooL
    GoKooL Posts: 32
    You should see it when there a flames shooting out of the XL. I put an electric starter in the coals, went in for no more than 2 minutes and had a raging inferno. Torched the starter (luckily the Looftlighter arrived a few days later), and nearly myself. I've never had it that hot, even on purpose.
  • THA
    THA Posts: 198
    Try enclosing the backside of the opening behind the egg. Maybe that will reduce the wind through and near the lower vent.
  • wow that looks like my house, except without the view....and the pool...an the 24" egg,....and the bar other than that identical.

    Its often human nature to look at the bigger picture, by putting a huge screen across, and almost enclosing the whole thing, but often the easiest answer is the smallest one. I think you need to look at limiting the vents in the bar. Maybe some perforated stainless sheet which can be lifted up or down or side to side, much like the eggs vent at the front. Any engineer could laser cut a plate to size, you just need to mount the plate onto the brick work, and look at how it could slide.

    nate in oz
  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
     
    The island is very nice indeed.

    I can't speak for an XL but for the large the bottom vent should be open about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch and it won't matter much if the DFMT is open, closed or even off the egg. However, if I adjust the DFMT Slider closed and petals open about the width of a flat tooth pick that too will control the heat.

    I have relative high wind throughout a cook and the temperature doesn't get away.

    I am wondering if you are letting the egg get too hot on start up and the ceramics are holding the heat.

    As for the Guru or Stoker... Guru blowers have a slider that controls the amount of air being blown into the egg. That slider is always open and when the blower is not running, free air will pass through the slider just like having the lower vent open to some extent. It is entirely possible to over shoot the set temperature. To eliminate that potential problem one has to all but close the DFMT and or close the slider on the blower. I purchased the Viper with my DigiQII, that is the 10 cfm blower and I am always running it with the slider about 1/4 open.

    The Stoker blower has a gravity 'damper' (kind of like a pet access door in a house door) that falls down when the blower is not active. Thus no free air flow into the lump.

    Both blower designs on the DigiQII and the Stoker work great for me. One just needs to know how to use either unit.

    GG
  • Wow, That's beautiful !! Can't help you with the wind problem, but I'm curious as to where that is.

    From the lack of surf, I'm guessing that the water is Galveston bay, and you are in the Kemah / Baycliff area. Am I right?
    __________________________________________

    Dripping Springs, Texas.
    Just west of Austintatious


  • Nice and inviting back yard!!

    I think limiting (or blocking) the opening on the back of the Eggs is the key. Of course, not cooking during gales and hurricanes might help. :ohmy: :ohmy:
  • I think GG hit it right. Set your lower vents before temp reaches your target. It's a whole lot easier to control your temp before it reaches 250, than to get the egg back down from a higher temp. I also have an XL and its a beast to lower the temp when it gets hot.
    Nice pad you got there.
  • johnvb
    johnvb Posts: 46
    "I'm looking for any help with managing extreme wind conditions. I live on the Gulf Coast near Galveston, and we occasionally get some lenghty periods of high wind gusts that last for hours or days. "

    Would that be during hurricane season? B)

    jk...Beautiful backyard!!!
  • Boatman
    Boatman Posts: 854
    Beautiful backyard, killer view, excellent island! Can I live with you B)
  • I just got this mental image of him by his island in a rain parka, rain blowing sideways. He's trying to cook a Boston Butt and is saying, "'Tis nothing! Just a Cat 1." :laugh:

    Nice place you got there, GoKool. It's 10 degrees outside right now, and seeing that picture made me feel warm. B)
  • when you say you couldn't get it "under 350", does that mean you willfully allowed it to go above 350 (as in 'to make sure it's lit good') and then couldn't get it back down? if that's the case, then the issue isn't wind, it's warm ceramic.

    allowing the egg to heat up means it will take a loooong time to cool down. with an egg like the XL, that's a lot of mass. heat it up to 350 or more, and it will take some time to get back to 250.

    honestly, there are a lot of times when wind is brought up as an issue. but i don't see, especially at 250, how wind can play a part. generally wind doesn't force its way into things. it goes around things. it doesn't blow into a vent unless there's a concentrated effort, like with a hairdryer. the only real way wind could affect the egg with such small vent settings is MAYBE that a draft is created as the wind sucks it out the top vent.

    fact remains... not matter what the conditions are (wind, cold, etc.) if the egg is too hot, the vents are too open. you can't simultaneously have a condition where the egg is too hot AND about to go out if the vent is closed any more.

    don't let the temp overshoot, and if it is still too hot, close the lower vent some more
  • Nice set up there. I would try to close off the backside and when the wind is high try putting a couple bricks infort of the lower vent. If it works then get make something permeate.
  • GoKooL
    GoKooL Posts: 32
    This is what I love about this forum. Post a random problem, late Sunday night and I already have over a dozen helpful posts.

    Just to answer a few of the questions:

    It is San Leon, south of Kemah.

    No hurricane this time of year, just some wicked wind. My wife actually pointed out that the brisket could be cooked in the oven, but what's the fun in that? An edible brisket I suppose...but this whole escapade is the forum's fault as I couldn't help myself after reading so many brisket posts. The thing ended up kind of like a coconut. We ate out that night.

    After hurricane Ike, we had no power for 2 weeks, so all cooking would have to be on the Egg. But maybe not during the hurricane. Well, maybe.

    Yes, I almost had a China Egg Syndrome, but I shut it off (after a spectacular flashback) and let it cool to less than 200, then restarted. Still couldn't keep the temp under 350 with the ceramic top on and the bottom vent barely open.

    I couldn't decide whether blocking the front would be enough, given the wind forcing through the back, or if blocking the back would do. For those of you that live down here you know this, but there are random days about half of the year that we get high winds for hours or days at a time. Why let nature get her way?

    Another plus for the Stoker...maybe I'll order one today. Or maybe I'll experiment with various blocking techniques. I didn't know if anyone had tried a mesh screen to create an additional impediment to air flow (above the one already on the Egg), or if anyone had the same problem.

    Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. The Eggs are awesome, but it's forums like this that let the average user, dare I say it, maximize their Eggsperience.
  • Well said. In the hot months I have been known to put a fan in front of the egg, I have never had a problem with my XL in these conditions.
  • i just really don't think it was a wind issue. an egg shut down and still at 200, then re-lit, is going to sail above 250.

    if the daisy is ON, there is no way wind was blowing into the egg to get the fire up to 300+. where would it have been exhausting?
  • hi mike.
    the egg was just too hot to begin with. the latent heat was giving him a temp of 200 already. that means restarting it and holding 250 would require a fire that was pumping out only enough energy to add just another 50 degrees.

    any fire, no matter how small, in an egg that is already 200, is going to push things much higher.

    easiest way to keep an egg at or below 250 is to never allow it to get ABOVE 250 ;)
  • Ripnem
    Ripnem Posts: 5,511
    That's at least 2 emoticons in one morning. :huh:

    Somethings up.....

    Better than average night? :whistle:
  • GoKooL
    GoKooL Posts: 32
    Yeah, I was probably doomed from the beginning of the towering inferno. It's just annoying knowing what your Egg will do with a given amount of lump, load, and vent positions, then have it all thrown off because of changing weather conditions. I've had days start off calm and get a good steady temp, leave and come back to find a strong wind and crispy food.

    As much as I enjoy the cook, I guess I'll have to invest in a draft controller.
  • hahaha
    someone's paying attention, ripnem.
  • i just dunno.

    we get wind here too. my best pork butt was cooked in a literal northeaster, with violent wind and snow drifting around the yard, swept clear in others.

    i'll just say that i have never seen the egg affected by wind or weather. i do not believe it is possible for my own egg to rise in temperature because of strong winds.

    for a 250 fire, the vents are so small, they aren't really in any position to be affected.

    if you really feel strongly that the wind is your issue, the issue wouldn't be screening the lower vent. if wind is affecting your egg, it's not because air is being pushed trhough it, it would be because it is being drawn out the top. if i were going to screen anything because of wind, it's be the top vent.

    think of a house. in a stiff wind, air is not pushed into cracks of a house. it is drawn out on the lee side, which draws air in. looks for all the world like air is coming in, but it is really being sucked out, and made up from air drawn in because of lower pressure

    some folks jack the fire a bit with a hand held fan. but a fan held pointed at the lower vent is different than a wall of wind affecting the whole system

    seacrest out :)
  • GoKooL
    GoKooL Posts: 32
    Yeah, I was probably doomed from the beginning of the towering inferno. It's just annoying knowing what your Egg will do with a given amount of lump, load, and vent positions, then have it all thrown off because of changing weather conditions. I've had days start off calm and get a good steady temp, leave and come back to find a strong wind and crispy food.

    As much as I enjoy the cook, I guess I'll have to invest in a draft controller.
  • fishlessman
    fishlessman Posts: 32,657
    the wind may raise the temps 25 degrees up and down but thats ok for a low and slow. i think jeff nailed it in his first post. you had too much lump lit in the beginning, its easier to control a low and slow with a small amount of lump lit, the main reason not to let the temp spike in the beginning
    fukahwee maine

    you can lead a fish to water but you can not make him drink it
  • skihorn
    skihorn Posts: 600
    GoKool: Howdy neighbor! I live in League City. My Eggs are on my second story deck overlooking a small lake. Between the lake and shape of the house I have VERY strong prevailing winds most of the year.

    Before I moved my Eggs to this nonwind protected area I sought the advice on here. The Eggheads all agreed that so long as I kept the bottom vent facing at least 90 degrees away from the wind I would have no problem. That has been true.

    I didn't have a chance to read all of the replies but from looking at your setup you may not be able to rotate your Eggs. If you can, that would be the solution. Of course, if the prevailing wind requires rotating to an awkward direction on a regular basis that is not a good solution. I am lucky that the prevailing is 180 degrees from my bottom vent.

    Freddie
    League City, TX
  • Canugghead
    Canugghead Posts: 11,452
    Do you have the same problem with both eggs? What's the condition of the gasket? Does it take 'forever' for the egg to shut down? I'm wild guessing leakage at gasket and/or top even with cap/DFMT shut.
    canuckland
  • GoKooL
    GoKooL Posts: 32
    I have the problem with both the XL and the L. The L is not so much a problem as I primarily use it for direct grilling and almost always at 350 or greater. In fact, days like those are great for steaks.

    The gasket for the XL is in good shape. When I put the ceramic top on, the only place I could see smoke come out was around the top due to the air pressure.

    As mentioned, the current setup doesn't allow for repositioning the Eggs. According to my highly accurate sense of wind speed via hand, the air pressure/wind seemed high in front, back...every where.

    Just bought the Stoker online. I'll see if that makes a difference.