Owners of Small BGEs: Lab Report on Higher Temps

Judy Mayberry · January 2011

Many Small Eggs cannot get up to the higher temps needed for pizza and who knows what else. Mine never gets above 450-475° and I've tried every suggestion from expanded metal grates to aluminum foil ropes between the fire bowl and fire ring. Some Small owners said their Eggs reach 700°, no problem.

Last night I had to reheat two racks of cooked, vacuum-sealed defrosted babyback ribs, and I thought, "How about combining that with an experiment...fill the fire ring up really full with lump and see if the mass of heat will reach those higher temps?"

I filled the Egg to about 1" from the top of the fire ring, didn't try any particular way to load lump other than to keep the lump dust out of it as I poured the lump in. I used two Weber fire starter cubes cut in half instead of my usual Mapp torch. I buried the halves in the four quadrants, lit them and started timing the temperature rise. Next time I'd like to try putting the cubes on top of the grate, lump on top of that, and lighting from below through the bottom vent.

After several minutes

Temperature at 20 minutes

Fire and temperature at 35 minutes--740°!!!!!!!

No damage at all to the Rutland gasket, after 1 hour!
I lowered the temp to put on the ribs, brushed on Sweet Bay Ray's, and they were perfect.

See how much lump was left? Using an expanded metal grate burned up the Royal Oak lump so fast I hardly had any lump left, so I changed back to the cast iron grate before this experiment.

I DIDN'T USE THE PLACE SETTER, so I'll do it again with the place setter in place and see if I still can get that kind of heat with a full load of lump.

Maybe someone else will try that before I get around to it?

Judy in San Diego

stike · January 2011

how often do you use the small?

Judy Mayberry · January 2011

Once or twice a week, usually for tri-tip or spatchcock. Maybe once or twice a month for low and slow.

tjl5709 · January 2011

I think the issue with the small is the size of the bottom vent. Doesn't let enough air in.

I bought a 2 ft piece of aluminum duct from the depot and put it ontop of the small when I want to do some high temp searing for steaks. Helps draw air thru the system. I can get 750+ that way.

Dnorman · January 2011

Glad you got it to work for you. a couple things tho. How full do you normaly fill the egg with lump? We tell people to always fill to the fire ring. I have never had a customer complain about not getting it hot enough with this method, unless the egg is wet or they are using junk coal.

Also, I bake on my egg a ton. and even tho people say brick ovens are at 700 plus the best results I get on the egg is 425-450. everything gets done great that way. Brick ovens have to be extreamly hot because they dont have the retention that a closed egg does.

vidalia1 · January 2011

Sorry to disagree or maybe say my experience has been different...I have not had problems ever with getting hi temps with the small or mini. I have cooked lots of pizzas and steaks on both at betwen 400-700 degrees using platesetters, pizza stones, etc.

I can't explain or account for the difference between one BGE or another but they all should be able to obtain hi temps...

as a side note last year at the Florida mini fest Faith bought a used small from Sparky and it came with a platesetter...no offense to Sparky but it was pretty black on the inside and the platesetter was black all over. We loaded full of lump, light it in a few spots and let it rip. It got above the marks on the Tel Tru...1000 degrees I believe for well over an hour....it was white on the inside when done and so was the platesetter....

oh and a little tip...leave the bottom screen open until the temps are moving up and leave the daisy wheel off....just my 2 cents...

RRP · January 2011

Judy,

I'm also in the camp that I have no problem getting my small into the 700+ range and I do it frequently. The highest I ever recall was 770. I'm not here to squabble with others, but I just think they don't give it ample time to get to the inferno stage of sucking in air like a jet engine! Mine makes noise!

stike · January 2011

hmm. should be fairly dry enough then. when i used the small all the time, the large would be hard to get to temp quickly. when i use the large more (as i do now), the small seems to take a while. it needs to drive out moisture from the ceramic in order to really get hot.

but yours sounds like that's not the problem... unless it's really humid where you are?

Cruezn · January 2011

Mine is a newer small, but 700 has never been a problem for me. However, I did lose my gasket that way. I'm waiting for spring to replace it, if I do. It seems to work just fine without it.

Judy Mayberry · January 2011

Do you mean you stick the duct vertically in the top hole? I'm not a techie person, so please draw me a picture with words.

Judy

Judy Mayberry · January 2011

I have never filled it past the top of the fire box before. I know the grid is a lot closer to the coals than in the Large, so 450° dome temperature is going to be a much higher temp at the grid.

But I'm jealous of folks getting to 700° and I can't!

Judy

Judy Mayberry · January 2011

Yes, Kim, they should all get to 700°, but for several years now this problem has come up on the forum and it's clear they don't.

I always leave the bottom vent and the top wide open trying to get the highest temp, but it won't go over say 475°.

Maybe you can tell me how to get the screen inside the vent cover...since my Egg is so old, I bought one at the 2009 Eggfest and can't figure out how to install it. I tried all possible ways to get it inside the vent cover but nothing worked. Or does it go on the outside?

Judy

Judy Mayberry · January 2011

Ron, mine doesn't even crackle.

Judy

Judy Mayberry · January 2011

That's funny, because my Large takes off at a gallop no matter what. If I'm not attentive it can go to 800-900° in what seems like 10-15 minutes after the thermometer dial starts moving, even when I haven't used it in months. Once last month when I was a few minutes late checking on it, it was almost at 1000°! Normal load of lump, too.

Humidity isn't a problem in this Mediterranean climate. Even with that week of torrential downpour during the week before Christmas, there was no problem with either Egg (under a big patio cover). Outside of that week, we're at perpetual drought status in San Diego.

I would even get a new Small if they guaranteed it would get to 700°!

Judy

berrygood · January 2011

Judy, I had the same problem with my small. What worked for me was always using a thin layer of new lump and leaving the dome open for 15 mins. (or more) after lighting. Frustrating, but it helped me with higher temps.

cookingdude555 · January 2011

Hi Judy, good to see you got the small going hot!

Judy Mayberry wrote:

Yes, Kim, they should all get to 700°, but for several years now this problem has come up on the forum and it's clear they don't.

I am with you, my small wont just take off like my three other eggs, or my bubba keg kamado. Some people just have better luck with the small, mine takes more work. I used the expanded fire grate with great success, but it wore out and I am back to the cast iron grate that came with the small. When I want high heat, I dont do the lump dump like I do in the other eggs. I make sure the egg is clean, and get a good stack of new medium sized lump up into the fire ring. I keep a seperate lump container for used lump, and I use the used lump for everything but burgers, steaks, chops, and pizza. This is the only way for me to get my small up to lava temps, otherwise its my favorite cooker that I use 3 times a week, but mostly for chicken (far and away the most cooked item on my cookers).

Having said all of that, I did leave the small unattended once, and came out 20 mins later to find this:

prosmoker · October 2011

i also have a small bge that had heating issues. i own a large bge and have never had any problems hitting 700+ degrees. ive cussed it(sbge) and tried many different lighting tecniques and lump levels over the last couple years, and finally gave up on any high temp cooking. after reading these forums and learning some owners have heating issues and some dont, i decided to investigate. after a quick look i noticed the lower draft door was not centered on the ceramic opening of the egg. the top of the draft door was hanging apprx 3/16 - 1/4" below the opening, and the right hand side was mounted 1/8-3/16" to the left of the opening blocking much needed airflow. i got out my die grinder (a dremel or file wouldve worked also) and carefully removed all metal material obstructing the opening until the draft door opening was flush with the ceramic opening. problem solved! ! ! now my small bge easily starts and has no problems hitting 700 degrees!

Lit · October 2011

My small gets to 700 and that's as hot as it will get and it takes double the time as my mini, medium, or larges. My small gets used weekly so that's not the issue. The small doesn't have the airflow that the other eggs do. If you feel inside the small the ceramic hole in the egg is bigger than the metal hole on the bottom vent by atleast a half inch to an inch.

Owners of Small BGEs: Lab Report on Higher Temps

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