Calling all GMG owners.

[sparky]

I know a lot of ppl use dowmdraft hoods but all of those pellet puts were not designed to use them. 

[A G K]

I ran a couple tests on my GMC Davy Crockett and the left and center are within 5 to 10 degrees of the digital controller. The right side burns about 25 to 30 degrees hotter. I just adjust my cooking temp now instead of worrying about grate temperature. I still monitor grate temp on my charcoal grill and that works for me.

The right side of mine was running a bit hotter ( I didn't check to see how much. I could just tell by the IT of the meat & the amount of char, if any.)
I moved the heat deflector as far right as possible & it seems to be much more even (left to right side) now.

  Mine is all the way to the right. I did cut off another 7/8 inch on the heat deflector so it would move even further right. This seemed to help a lot.

  I have a several month old DB & with the new one piece heat shield & it seems  to me the shield needs to be further to the right for smoking & further to the left for grilling using direct heat. Still need to do more cooks to determine how much.
  Alan

[zueth]

I ran a couple tests on my GMC Davy Crockett and the left and center are within 5 to 10 degrees of the digital controller. The right side burns about 25 to 30 degrees hotter. I just adjust my cooking temp now instead of worrying about grate temperature. I still monitor grate temp on my charcoal grill and that works for me.

When you say you adjust the temps, what exactly do you mean by that? set it to 215 when you want 225? and only cook on left side?

[zueth]

Mr Jim Olson (Facebook GMG Group) has done a lot of testing with one of those units and here is one of his findings.

Jim Olson
Admin · January 7
Down Draft testing is complete. Today ended up being perfect as the temp fluctuation all day was very minimal. Both tests the ambient outside air changed less then 2 degrees during the test. We did have a slight breeze, as well and the test ranged from 8-10 degrees. The grill used was a completely stock DB, heat shield measurement was 4.25 drip pan vent was closed but not covered in aluminum foil. I weighed out 5lbs of GMG Texas Blend pellets (I zeroed out the container the pellets were in to get as close as possible). I am running firmware 6.5, which is the icy setting in the climate slider for 6.7. The grill was running at 250 degrees during this test, I also pushed all the pellets to the auger to make sure it used up all 5lbs and then let it run out and burnout on its own as you will see in the graphs. Also on a side note, I did not dial the grill in, I set it at 4.25 knowing that whatever happened in one test, should replicate itself in the other test.
I tried to cover as many variables as possible, but I likely did not hit them all
I will quickly run through the Downdraft claims below and give

Looks like you post got cut off and there should be more too it.

[zueth]

I ran a couple tests on my GMC Davy Crockett and the left and center are within 5 to 10 degrees of the digital controller. The right side burns about 25 to 30 degrees hotter. I just adjust my cooking temp now instead of worrying about grate temperature. I still monitor grate temp on my charcoal grill and that works for me.

The right side of mine was running a bit hotter ( I didn't check to see how much. I could just tell by the IT of the meat & the amount of char, if any.)
I moved the heat deflector as far right as possible & it seems to be much more even (left to right side) now.

I moved the heat deflector as far right as it will allow but still see about 30 degrees difference on right compared to left.

[zueth]

I ran a couple tests on my GMC Davy Crockett and the left and center are within 5 to 10 degrees of the digital controller. The right side burns about 25 to 30 degrees hotter. I just adjust my cooking temp now instead of worrying about grate temperature. I still monitor grate temp on my charcoal grill and that works for me.

The right side of mine was running a bit hotter ( I didn't check to see how much. I could just tell by the IT of the meat & the amount of char, if any.)
I moved the heat deflector as far right as possible & it seems to be much more even (left to right side) now.

Mine is all the way to the right. I did cut off another 7/8 inch on the heat deflector so it would move even further right. This seemed to help a lot.

Interesting, what did you use to cut the stainless steel?  i have probably about 7/8 of inch before it will but up against the grease catcher.

[zueth]

I have run some tests and consistently the left is 30 degrees hotter than I set the temp to, the middle is 50 degrees and the right 60 degrees.  So if I set to 220, it cooks from left to right at 250, 270, 280.

Couple of ideas I have thought of that I can do to help with it:

1) always try to cook on the left grill grate and rotate food to help even out temp ( can't do with large load of food)
2) set temp lower than I want so the middle is correct, left is lower, and right is hotter.  For example, when I want 250, set to 200, temps would be 230, 250, 260.

Any other techniques others have used? any other modifications that can be done?

I should mention that I have the Don Godke downdraft installed and the vent is closed because I am always cooking under 350.

[HighOnSmoke]

I ran a couple tests on my GMC Davy Crockett and the left and center are within 5 to 10 degrees of the digital controller. The right side burns about 25 to 30 degrees hotter. I just adjust my cooking temp now instead of worrying about grate temperature. I still monitor grate temp on my charcoal grill and that works for me.

The right side of mine was running a bit hotter ( I didn't check to see how much. I could just tell by the IT of the meat & the amount of char, if any.)
I moved the heat deflector as far right as possible & it seems to be much more even (left to right side) now.

Mine is all the way to the right. I did cut off another 7/8 inch on the heat deflector so it would move even further right. This seemed to help a lot.

Interesting, what did you use to cut the stainless steel?  i have probably about 7/8 of inch before it will but up against the grease catcher.

I will answer your first question that I am not quoting here. I will adjust my temperature to compensate for the extra heat on the right side. If I am cooking at 225 I normally will set my controller to 210 to 215. I still use the whole grate. I will just rotate whatever I am cooking if I see it getting too done on the right side.

I used a dremel tool to cut the stainless steel. A good wheel on the dremel and it will cut right through the stainless in no time at all.

I ran some more tests on my Davy Crockett with the downdraft in and out. With the downdraft on I am getting fairly even cooking across the whole grate. I have 3 large oven thermometers, which aren't really the best way to check, and the left side and center were reading the same and the right side was about 10 degrees higher. This was at temperatures of 235 and above. At 150 to 230 they were within a degree of each other. With the downdraft off my temperatures varied 5 to 10 degrees between all 3 thermometers. So my unscientific conclusion is that the downdraft works great on the Davy Crockett. I have one on my large Blaz'n Grillworks Grid Iron and with the Savannah Stoker controller I put on it, I am within 5 degrees of the set temperature across the grate. Hope this helps.

[Old Dave]

I didn't realize that my post wasn't complete so I will try it again.

Down Draft testing is complete. Today ended up being perfect as the temp fluctuation all day was very minimal. Both tests the ambient outside air changed less then 2 degrees during the test. We did have a slight breeze, as well and the test ranged from 8-10 degrees. The grill used was a completely stock DB, heat shield measurement was 4.25 drip pan vent was closed but not covered in aluminum foil. I weighed out 5lbs of GMG Texas Blend pellets (I zeroed out the container the pellets were in to get as close as possible). I am running firmware 6.5, which is the icy setting in the climate slider for 6.7. The grill was running at 250 degrees during this test, I also pushed all the pellets to the auger to make sure it used up all 5lbs and then let it run out and burnout on its own as you will see in the graphs. Also on a side note, I did not dial the grill in, I set it at 4.25 knowing that whatever happened in one test, should replicate itself in the other test.
I tried to cover as many variables as possible, but I likely did not hit them all
I will quickly run through the Downdraft claims below and give

[zueth]

I will answer your first question that I am not quoting here. I will adjust my temperature to compensate for the extra heat on the right side. If I am cooking at 225 I normally will set my controller to 210 to 215. I still use the whole grate. I will just rotate whatever I am cooking if I see it getting too done on the right side.

I used a dremel tool to cut the stainless steel. A good wheel on the dremel and it will cut right through the stainless in no time at all.

I ran some more tests on my Davy Crockett with the downdraft in and out. With the downdraft on I am getting fairly even cooking across the whole grate. I have 3 large oven thermometers, which aren't really the best way to check, and the left side and center were reading the same and the right side was about 10 degrees higher. This was at temperatures of 235 and above. At 150 to 230 they were within a degree of each other. With the downdraft off my temperatures varied 5 to 10 degrees between all 3 thermometers. So my unscientific conclusion is that the downdraft works great on the Davy Crockett. I have one on my large Blaz'n Grillworks Grid Iron and with the Savannah Stoker controller I put on it, I am within 5 degrees of the set temperature across the grate. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the information, sounds like i need to modify heat deflector slightly and modify temps slightly.

[smokeasaurus]

Green Mountain Grills is the only pellet grill manufacter that has these left and right dampers. Why is that? They just can't get out of their own way. They were one of the first companies to go to market when Traegers patents ran out and they still have serious flaws in their grills.

[HighOnSmoke]

Green Mountain Grills is the only pellet grill manufacter that has these left and right dampers. Why is that? They just can't get out of their own way. They were one of the first companies to go to market when Traegers patents ran out and they still have serious flaws in their grills.

As a Green Mountain grill owner I wholeheartedly agree with this statement Smoke! I don't understand why they make a simple project complicated. My Grid Iron has the center pot with a small heat shield on top. Nothing else is needed to keep temps fairly even. Well, except I added the downdraft hood which I wish was standard on all pellet grills that need them. I know the MAK and possibly the Memphis do not need them, but the sub $2000 pellet grills they should come standard. That's my opinion.