Grill temperature control question

Guys I have a question about controlling temperature of the grill. I heat up the grill to a certain temperature and the lid thermometer shows the temp that I want. When I lift the lid up to place my meat on the grill and close the lid the temperature thermometer reads lower temp now. Should I crank up the heat again to have the temp that I wanted at the start or is the meat actually grilling at the temp that the grill was set to at the beginning. Btw I have a weber Q 300

Thanks for your time.

Hi Erik,

Try not to focus on getting an exact temperature too much. Typically if I'm within 25* above or below I'm good with it. You have to remember that the meat that you are adding is acting as heat sink and will lower your temps a little. This plus lifting the lid will allow heat to escape. If the temp continues to stay down after a bit you can definitely turn up the heat a little to raise the temps though.

When I use my genesis gasser I get the temps set where I want them and they generally return to that point after opening and closing the lid. I also agree to not be too concerned about the precise temp the gauge shows. Remember it is the finished product that counts. Experiment and have fun.

Mike

JustinL said:

Hi Erik,

Try not to focus on getting an exact temperature too much. Typically if I'm within 25* above or below I'm good with it. You have to remember that the meat that you are adding is acting as heat sink and will lower your temps a little. This plus lifting the lid will allow heat to escape. If the temp continues to stay down after a bit you can definitely turn up the heat a little to raise the temps though.

Click to expand...

in addition to the advice above, you have to also consider the size of your grill in order to understand how quickly it will rebound to its original temp once the lid has been opened. since the weber q is a smaller grill, once the lid is open it will lose temp quickly just due to it's sheer size, but on a positive note since it is smaller it should also recover quickly since it doesn't need to warm up as much as a full size genesis or summit gasser. also take in to factor how much time the lid is off when adding your meat to the grill. the quicker it is done.....the quicker it's done.

Ah-h! YOU again.

Same question, same answers.

But you get the point -- when grilling, obsessing over temp is not relevant. As you learn your grill and more about how your meat responds, you'll just adjust here, move there and generally find the better ways to get the results you want.

Rich