BGE Recommendations

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Hello All,

I have a medium BGE with a BBQ GURU Cyber Q controller. I experience troubles with maintaining set temperatures. I am using B&B Charcoal from Academy.

When my pit temp is set to 225 the pit often reaches 300+. Today I am smoking crispy chicken legs and the grill is struggling to reach 400. I usually have the temp probe attached to a piece of copper wire wrapped around the grill grate. Today it is dangling in the pit because I could not use the offset deflector and the grate with my wing stand.

I any recommendations on achieving and maintaining temperature would be greatly welcomed.

Cheers
Matt
 
Are you able to control the temps without the Guru, using just the vents? Sounds to me like the Guru is either reading wrong or ramping the temps wrong, getting too much of a coal base going, then it's difficult for it to ever get back down again.

I don't usually cook that low on my Primo, I find that 225* is too fine a line between snuffing out the fire or overshooting temp. 250 to 275* is where I typically run it, whether on vents or using my Flameboss. That's not to say it can't be done, and I'm sure people do, but you have to really finesse the start up process to get it to hang there, IMO.
 
I think you are complicating things with the Guru. Out of all the cookers I ever owned the medium BGE was the easiest to control temp on.
 
What's your startup procedure? When I had a kamado, I couldn't start it with the fan. It would overshoot every time. I always had to get to around the temp I wanted then let the guru take over.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
I've never bothered to run a controller on my Primo, but the only issues I've ever had holding temps was because I let it overshoot. In your place, I'd get the fire started good then close it down some and let it 'sneak up' on my cooking temp without the controller running. When it was up to temp I'd start the controller to hold it.

A medium BGE isn't a very big cooker - if you've got a big fan blowing air you may be getting too much of a fire going and it just overshoots every time.
 
BillATL said:
I've never bothered to run a controller on my Primo, but the only issues I've ever had holding temps was because I let it overshoot. In your place, I'd get the fire started good then close it down some and let it 'sneak up' on my cooking temp without the controller running. When it was up to temp I'd start the controller to hold it.

A medium BGE isn't a very big cooker - if you've got a big fan blowing air you may be getting too much of a fire going and it just overshoots every time.
Click to expand...

That's been pretty much my manual approach for the LBGE since I got it 16 years ago. Last year I picked up a Smobot, which is a lot gentler than a fan. Whether it's worth it is whether you want spend money on another controller. Works well, though.
 
I've had a medium and an XL BGE for a 5 and 3 years, respectively. I've only ever controlled the temp manually, but if I do as others have already pointed out and let the temp creep up to what I want, I can get it to lock in and stay there for hours.

Let me know if you'd like help with vent settings, etc. for temps. I'll be glad to help!
 
I used a guru on my egg for a while. My biggest problems weren't getting the temp up, it was keeping it low so I found it not so useful as just knowing my egg and adjusting the vent accordingly.

I had one occasion where I closed down the vent (I thought appropriately) before I went to bed and woke up to a couple cold butts that I had to throw out. A guru probably would have helped then. Most of the time when the temp got out of my desired zone it was too high and I'm not sure a guru would have helped. Bottom line, I think controlling it manually is better.
 
Agree with ncmoose, manual control is the way to go.

Once the temp is where you want it, just let it chug away at her leisure.

All the best which ever route you take.
 
sudsandswine said:
Are you able to control the temps without the Guru, using just the vents? Sounds to me like the Guru is either reading wrong or ramping the temps wrong, getting too much of a coal base going, then it's difficult for it to ever get back down again.

I don't usually cook that low on my Primo, I find that 225* is too fine a line between snuffing out the fire or overshooting temp. 250 to 275* is where I typically run it, whether on vents or using my Flameboss. That's not to say it can't be done, and I'm sure people do, but you have to really finesse the start up process to get it to hang there, IMO.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the information. I agree that the Egg likes the 250 - 275 range and it does not seem to have any ill effects on the meat.

I am able to regulate with the vents fairly well. Over long cooks, I find that I need to monitor the vents more toward the end as the coals are depleted.
 
tenpenny_05 said:
I think you are complicating things with the Guru. Out of all the cookers I ever owned the medium BGE was the easiest to control temp on.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I like the Guru for the meat probe on short cooks and may leave the fan off. On longer cooks, it has maintained temps in the 250 -275 range even though I was shooting for 225. Some heat is better than no heat which is the problem I had prior to using the Guru.
 
mcyork28 said:
What's your startup procedure? When I had a kamado, I couldn't start it with the fan. It would overshoot every time. I always had to get to around the temp I wanted then let the guru take over.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Excellent idea, since getting the Guru I have been using it to start the pit. I should have thought about getting the temp where I want it before deploying the fan.

Cheers
Matt
 
BillATL said:
I've never bothered to run a controller on my Primo, but the only issues I've ever had holding temps was because I let it overshoot. In your place, I'd get the fire started good then close it down some and let it 'sneak up' on my cooking temp without the controller running. When it was up to temp I'd start the controller to hold it.

A medium BGE isn't a very big cooker - if you've got a big fan blowing air you may be getting too much of a fire going and it just overshoots every time.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I am working on adjusting the top vent when the fan is working to identify the proper spot.

Cheers
Matt
 
EdF said:
That's been pretty much my manual approach for the LBGE since I got it 16 years ago. Last year I picked up a Smobot, which is a lot gentler than a fan. Whether it's worth it is whether you want spend money on another controller. Works well, though.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will take a look!
 
SWMN said:
I've had a medium and an XL BGE for a 5 and 3 years, respectively. I've only ever controlled the temp manually, but if I do as others have already pointed out and let the temp creep up to what I want, I can get it to lock in and stay there for hours.

Let me know if you'd like help with vent settings, etc. for temps. I'll be glad to help!
Click to expand...

Agreed, The challenge I was having was on extended overnight cooks.
 
ncmoose said:
I used a guru on my egg for a while. My biggest problems weren't getting the temp up, it was keeping it low so I found it not so useful as just knowing my egg and adjusting the vent accordingly.

I had one occasion where I closed down the vent (I thought appropriately) before I went to bed and woke up to a couple cold butts that I had to throw out. A guru probably would have helped then. Most of the time when the temp got out of my desired zone it was too high and I'm not sure a guru would have helped. Bottom line, I think controlling it manually is better.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the long cook is the challenge and the Guru does assist with keeping the pit in the 250-275. I will most likely omit on short cooks going forward.
 
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