[Smokin Gator]

Congrats on the BGE purchase Mark. I have had a large for years and added a medium maybe 6-7 years ago. The medium I pretty much only use to cook steaks. I can get that one to 800 or so easily and don't have to worry about cracking the fire ring.

Pretty much agree with what everyone else has said. Jason is spot on about trying to get the temps down. I use a weed burner/flame thrower to light a very small area right in the middle of the charcoal. I have also used a plumbers torch to do the same thing. Then I open up the top slider all the way and the bottom all the way. After 10 minutes or so it is usually around 200. I close the slider and open the butterfly vents about half way. I close the bottom intake to maybe 1/8 of an inch. Then I let the cooker settle to whatever it settle to… usually around 225-240. That lets the smoke clean up as well. Then I put the meat on and let it resettle. I usually don't have to adjust much from there. I think the best advice I ever got on a BGE is to use the bottom vent for large temp changes and the top for fine changes. With that in mind I can make it run just about spot on.

For the medium I light as much charcoal as I can open all the vents wide open and let it rip. Within about 15 minutes it will peg the thermometer past 750!! You have to be careful to burp the lid when you open it or it will flash and burn the hair off your arms.

Have fun learning the new cooker and eating the results!!