Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits > FEC/Cookshack

Regulating Temps on PG500

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Kubota57:
I have had my PG500 for about a month and been having a terrible time controlling temps. Yesterday I was reverse searing some ribeye's on indirect side at 225. The temps would overshoot to 250 plus and then would slowly drop to 200. When temp would start to rise from 200 it would billow smoke everywhere then till it reached 225 then the heavy smoke would settle down. The temp would build to 250 and then the cycle would start again. I kept working with the LHT and HHT settings with no luck. So today I decided I was going to figure these temp problems out. Here's what worked for me, say you want your set temp at 300, set it to 310 or so. Use the HHT settings to slowly build to 300 and let the HHT control you fire and temp. After finding the sweet spot on HHT it will hold temp within 5 degree range above and below your target temp. This also produced clear blue smoke instead of white dirty smoke through out the cook.

pmillen:
It sounds as though you are zeroing in on a method that works well for you.

1.  Take notes on temperatures and settings that work well for you.

2.  Don't mess with the LHt too much.  15 is a pretty good standard setting.

LowSlowJoe, a member here, is an accomplished PG500 user.  He has carefully studied the HHt/temperature relationship.  His advice in this post is worth retaining.

MysticRhythms:
I have never had any problems regulating the temps on my PG500.
I have never changed the LHT off of the preset 15.
I crank up the LHT if I am grilling, otherwise it stays at or near 30.
Typically the temp in zone 4 is very close to what I set the controller at, and it stays there.

pmillen:

--- Quote from: pmillen on December 20, 2019, 11:01:13 PM ---LowSlowJoe, a member here, is an accomplished PG500 user.  He has carefully studied the HHt/temperature relationship.  His advice in this post is worth retaining.

--- End quote ---

LowSlowJoe hasn't been active for a few months.  I'm hopeful that he's okay and is just laying on the beach in the Bahamas without Internet access.

LowSlowJoe:
No, not laying around in the Bahamas..  Just taking a bit of a break from discussing pellet grills and such.


Personally , the only time I typically had any real problems maintaining temperatures in my PG500, is if I accidentally got my LHT or HHT all mucked up.    Like, a week or so ago, I had set my HHT Lower than my LHT.  I couldn't figure out why the darn grill wasn't getting up to temperature.


I rarely change my LHT, it's almost always on 15.   My HHT is typically 30 to 70, this depends on how hot I'm trying to get and how cold it is outside.     I figure, I can get up to nearly 700F on the indirect side on a summer day with a HHT of just 70.  Only time I'd ever go above HHT = 70 is if it was really cold out and I wanted to cook above 400F.   

I still find it funny, that a PG500 can run at 700F, when the feed rate is at less than 50% duty cycle.    Most pellet grills on the market can't even get to 600F reliably when the auger is running 100% of the time.  I think the fact that the PG500's firepot is basically about double it's needed BTU capacity, is one of the reasons it produces so much smoke  at modest BBQ type temperatures, but that's just my theory.

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