As the title says, I tried doing some wings with the convEGGtor in (legs up) at 350.
No matter what, I cannot get the temp to stay or even reach 350 at all. I’ve toyed with every possible vent position and settled for the attached, yet still no luck.
Can anyone provide some guidance please? Thank you.
by sl0tmachine777
32 Comments
More fuel possibly
I wouldn’t worry about 20 degrees. Close enough. They’ll just take a little longer.
If you use the charcoal grate, it could be that some of the holes might be plugged up by small charcoal pieces or ash.
Fun question. Do you have charcoal in there? I recently had this issue and it turns out I had no charcoal left. Everything I thought I had was basically ash.
More fuel ,make sure ash isn’t clogging anything, make sure your fuel is properly lit
17 days ago, someone posted a temperature control guide. As you can see from that guide, your top vent is way too far open.
Each egg is different, but that guide matches what my XL does pretty well.
When you start the egg up, use more open vents to start the heating up. I close it up when I get to within 50 degrees of my target temperature.
I would link the guide and the post but I am clueless how to do that.
I also have a kick bitt wing recipe someone shared here a while ago I could pass on to you as well once I get on a real computer and not my phone.
I had issues lighting when I first bought. Here’s what I do and i haven’t had any issues since.
Get an ash basket.
I shake off the ash after each cook, and vac out the bottom.
I buy the Rutland fire starters. I put two squares in through the bottom vent to light it. I push one far to the left, and one far to the right.
After doing that, if I left the top and bottom vents wide open, I’d be at 800+ degrees.
If want to go low, I keep the top and bottom vents wide open, and if I’m aiming for 250, while the dome is closed and vents are open, I wait until the thermometer gets to around 250, and then I close the bottom vent to about half an inch or so and stick around to watch the temp. You’ll have to adjust, but it’s a quick way to get close to where you want. I don’t even really close the top vent.
You really just gotta cook on this thing a lot to get a feel for it.
Is your charcoal filled up to the line on the side? You need a lot of fuel. Fill it up and ignite it all and you’ll see 800 degrees.
MOAR COAL
is your egg assembled correctly? How those rings go together and are seated, matters….,,,
Your bottom vent is 1/3 open, your top vent is 1/2 open. More oxygen = hotter fire, may also need more charcoal, may also need to clean out all the ash to allow proper airflow.
I always refill charcoal before each cook (push it around to let the ash drop below and top it off with new coal), clean out ash, and then preheat for like 30 mins with everything open all the way. You want a nice even burn across all your coal, and plenty of airflow to get it to that point. This means lighting could mean top is open until the burn is even. I then basically bring the egg DOWN to my target temp and not up, by closing the top and adjusting the vents while watching the thermostat change rate.
This looks to me like there’s either not enough charcoal, not enough airflow, it’s not fully lit yet, ir all of the above.
I hit mine with a hair dryer, gets everything lit, get it up to 400, then let it cool down to 350. **Caveat** – I try not to heat it too fast to avoid cracking, a small fan works too.
Not enough charcoal/not enough bottom vent or both. My large gets to 500 with about 2 1/2 fingers on the bottom vent and 1/3rd top vent pretty easily.
Check the vent alignment with the ceramic inside!
Things to check;
Air flow, as noted, if using the bge fire great it gets clogged easily. Clean out ash. Honestly some times I’ll just pull the daisy wheel and let it roll. If I’m creeping up to 375-400 I’ll add it back to show it down.
Fuel. As efficient as they are when choked by plate setter they really do need the fuel load for higher temps.
When was your last clean out? How do you start it?
How much fresh charcoal do you have in it?
Balancing act.
How quickly do you close the lid after lighting it? Need about a baseball size section of coals lit before closing it or it will take an eternity to get up to temp.
Can be a combination of things. Did it warm up correctly? I always find I need to spend more time heating up my green egg instead of trying to get the temp up quickly. First open up everything for a good 30 min before trying to control the temp. Secondly is cleaning up all the dust from previous cooking helps with the air circulation. Good luck!
Clean the ash box. Use quality charcoal.
The only time I had issues like you’re having was with older charcoal that I think was affected by the humidity – days and days of heavy rain here in Portland, OR.
Thank you to everyone for your comments! I’d love to reply to everyone but I feel like I’d be repeating myself haha.
I’ll give some insight into my cook today!
1) I cleaned out my egg about a week ago and haven’t cooked since. Did a nice clean burn and everything is vacced and fresh.
2) I used fresh coal and lit it, but I moved the coal around a bit about 10-15 minutes into the initial burn so perhaps I messed up the lighting process by disturbing it too soon?
3) Vents, I toyed with quite a lot to try and get the heat to rise but to no avail.
My cook ended up fine as I temp checked everything, just took considerably longer with plenty of frustration to go with it!
I’m thinking maybe next time I’ll just wait for the coals to get a nice even burn going before I put in the plate setter / grate?
Thanks again for anyone giving their insight! You’re all appreciated ❤️
My original BGE bottom fire grate tilted and allowed for small chunks of BGE coals to choke out the air flow (happened once after I thought I had mastered everything) – could be your problem?!? Because this happened I switched to a kick ash basket which can’t tilt and eventually switched to FOGO Premium for larger chunks. I’ve found temp control to be easier and more consistent to maintain…
Not for nothing, but why are you using the deflector plate with wings? Just grill them. Hell, I did a spatchcocked chicken on Tue night with no deflector plate.
Several things could contribute to not getting up to your desired temp:
Damp charcoal
Fire bowl / base of Egg clogged with ash
Opening at bottom of fire bowl not aligned with bottom vent
Top / bottom vents not open far enough
Closing lid too early after starting fire.
If you can get a ripping hot fire w/o the convEggtor in there you can absolutely get one while using it. You may just need a longer preheat. I would not recommend putting it in after building a blazing fire because it might crack due to thermal shock – better to always let things come to temp together.
NWGAclay is correct. Do everything as you have been, remove the top (daisy) get it to 400 or higher the put in the daisy half open. Adjust from there. If it totally stalls with 20 minutes after then look at the bottom venting for lack of air flow , alignment of the innards.
I have a Small egg, and I had the same problem. What fixed it for me was keeping the bottom vent all the way open always and just using the top vent for temperature control
How every fast you think it changes temp, it’s way slower
I have learned to start each cook with a full basket of fuel. I usually have a bucket and remove the old fuel and clean out the ashes and load that fuel, big chunks first, back in adding new lump as necessary. I start it with a chimney starter and pour a load of fully ignited lump on the top. This usually keeps the burn consistent from cook to cook.
That said, it is the nature of the egg to change temperature slowly. It takes time to build temperature, and to cool off. That is the best part of the egg. Just try to remember, or write down notes of your damper settings as your cooks progress, after a while you will begin to see patterns.
I have an older egg and the lower damper I usually set about three quarters of an inch open to start. The top damper I try to adjust so that the smoke is almost coming around the bottom. The goal I use is to control temperature with the bottom damper and the top is there to balance the draft and keep heated air inside the chamber without creating a negative pressure, drawing in cool outside air.
Get on youtube for how to start the grill. Should be a bunch
whenever i have too much white smoke i hold the lid slightly open with a stick or piece of wood. increasing airflow could work, but mainly make sure you have charcoal/wood inside and that it can breathe