Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits > Blaz'n Grills
Grid Iron Temperature Testing
litzerski:
So, after the last thread regarding foil vs no foil, I decided to take some time and gather real data. This testing is to find if and what the temperature difference between the left, center and right sides of the cook surface.
First, I ran my Grid Iron at various temperatures (180, 225, 300, 375, 450) with foil on the drip tray and took actual cook-surface temperature readings using an Extech 42510a infrared thermometer. I turned off the Grid Iron, let it cool down completely (under 50 degrees), vacuumed out the ash, cleaned the fire box, removed the foil from the drip tray and repeated the exercise. Again, I took readings at 180, 225, 300, 375 and 450 degrees. Between each temperature increase, I allowed 45 minutes for proper heat soak and temperature stabilization.
Note that the foil used was 18" Reynolds Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil as available at Costco. The heavy duty aluminum foil was carefully, tightly and evenly applied to the drip tray as a single sheet. There were no tears in the foil and the drip tray had complete coverage. The foil was wrapped up the sides of the drip tray and wrapped around the vertical edges. The foil was wrapped down around the left and right ends of the drip tray and was terminated tightly against the inner side of the end.
Readings were taken mid-grate at the far left, dead center and far right sides of the cooker. All readings were taken within 10 seconds of first opening the lid, which I can assume will reflect actual grate cooking temperature. I considered taking center, front and back temps, but to simplify data points, I opted to strictly monitor the left to right temperature delta or ΔT.
Ambient temperature was between 20 and 27 degrees during this testing. Skies were clear with a light breeze (2-3mph) throughout the day.
Cookin' Pellets Black Cherry pellets were used for testing. Note that there was surprising little ash created during this exercise. The Cookin' Pellets performed wonderfully and had no problems obtaining the temperatures required.
For grins, I also monitored this test with a FLIR E6 thermal imager. I first recorded an image of the rear of the Grid Iron, showing hot spots on the back of the unit, then recorded an image of the cook surface & drip tray. While not completely thorough, I believe this helps paint a 3-dimensional picture of the hot spots inherent to this design.
Before I get into the results, I must admit that I’m impressed at the affect foil has not on the ΔT, but on the overall temperature. Foiling my drip tray made a clear difference on cooking grate temperatures throughout the temperature spectrum. Also, note that I've calibrated my cooker (using the C-13 setting) using my Maverick ET-372 ambient probe with a foiled drip tray. I will soon re-calibrate using a non-foiled drip tray. The ambient probe was placed in the dead center of the cooker for this calibration.
Now for the results. Please note that prior to testing, I only planned on capturing thermal images with the FLIR E6, not take individual temperature readings with the infrared thermometer. I soon discovered that actual temperature readings would be more helpful. My sincere apologies for this initial oversight which led to only a thermal image and no temperature readings for my first data set (foiled drip tray at 180 degrees).
Here's my collected data. Let me know if this should be bigger or smaller, I can change the size and repost.
In a following post, I'll post the thermal images.
Bar-B-Lew:
Wow! Interesting that the foil held the temps down so much compared to the controller temps.
So the big question is, are you going to continue to use foil going forward?
litzerski:
No, I don't plan on using foil any longer.
litzerski:
Also, I should mention, that though there has been some debate on the Godke Downdraft unit, I've ordered one up and will run temp testing with the Downdraft installed to see if it evens out temperatures across the cooker.
rdsbucks:
As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating." Thanks for sharing. I had no thought that foil made any difference until now.
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