I have a post describing the setup and first smoke at:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/138590/finally-set-up-my-green-mountain-jim-bowie
However, I wanted to go into more detail on getting my GMG Jim Bowie dialed in. What I have below is based after my initial post, but also shows some issues that I have so I felt it warranted its own thread.
I had purchased the JB with remote, but since my dealer did not have any in stock, he gave me the non remote version and shipped me a remote unit when he got one in. When I assembled my JB, I swapped out the standard controller with the remote one.
Not wanting to use the GMG premium blend that I received with the grill, I picked up a back of Bear Mtn to use during the burn off, seasoning and testing period. I got through the burn off and seasoning and when I started on the testing phase using my handy Maverick probes I saw that my temps were about 150 degrees hotter than what the controller was set to. I also had temp differences of about 80 degrees across the grate. I was able to swap the non remote controller back in to use in the mean time.
I reached out to GMG and they sent me 2 new controllers and 2 left baffles (mix up in shipping resulted in my order being duplicated and sent out). Good thing I got two controllers as one of them would not turn the auger, but the other worked like a champ. Playing with both baffles I was able to get the temp fluctuations from 80 degrees down to about 50. From here I searched the forums and found a few suggestions. After trying a few of the suggestions, I found that removing the left baffle, and plugging all of the openings of the right baffle my temp fluctuations went down to 20 degrees.
As I was playing with the baffles from the suggestions this past weekend, it was 103 where the grill sat in my backyard. During this time I was showing the grate temp being about 50 degrees higher than that of the controller. As the sun set and the JB was covered by shade my temps sat near what the controller was reading (left -5 degrees, middle +20, right +2 degrees, with JB set to 225).
I know it looks like I had lots of trouble with my JB, but the people at GMG were nothing less than stellar when it came to helping me out and working with me through all of this and half of the fun is learning your pit and getting it dialed in. My only wish is if there was a way for it to send messages to my phone without having to get something like the Stoker.
Next up for me is to put a switch on the low pellet alarm so when I do over night smokes, the alarm will not disturb my neighbors and I will still receive the alert on my remote.
.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/138590/finally-set-up-my-green-mountain-jim-bowie
However, I wanted to go into more detail on getting my GMG Jim Bowie dialed in. What I have below is based after my initial post, but also shows some issues that I have so I felt it warranted its own thread.
I had purchased the JB with remote, but since my dealer did not have any in stock, he gave me the non remote version and shipped me a remote unit when he got one in. When I assembled my JB, I swapped out the standard controller with the remote one.
Not wanting to use the GMG premium blend that I received with the grill, I picked up a back of Bear Mtn to use during the burn off, seasoning and testing period. I got through the burn off and seasoning and when I started on the testing phase using my handy Maverick probes I saw that my temps were about 150 degrees hotter than what the controller was set to. I also had temp differences of about 80 degrees across the grate. I was able to swap the non remote controller back in to use in the mean time.
I reached out to GMG and they sent me 2 new controllers and 2 left baffles (mix up in shipping resulted in my order being duplicated and sent out). Good thing I got two controllers as one of them would not turn the auger, but the other worked like a champ. Playing with both baffles I was able to get the temp fluctuations from 80 degrees down to about 50. From here I searched the forums and found a few suggestions. After trying a few of the suggestions, I found that removing the left baffle, and plugging all of the openings of the right baffle my temp fluctuations went down to 20 degrees.
As I was playing with the baffles from the suggestions this past weekend, it was 103 where the grill sat in my backyard. During this time I was showing the grate temp being about 50 degrees higher than that of the controller. As the sun set and the JB was covered by shade my temps sat near what the controller was reading (left -5 degrees, middle +20, right +2 degrees, with JB set to 225).
I know it looks like I had lots of trouble with my JB, but the people at GMG were nothing less than stellar when it came to helping me out and working with me through all of this and half of the fun is learning your pit and getting it dialed in. My only wish is if there was a way for it to send messages to my phone without having to get something like the Stoker.
Next up for me is to put a switch on the low pellet alarm so when I do over night smokes, the alarm will not disturb my neighbors and I will still receive the alert on my remote.
.
