Cleaning BGE -Charcoal Dust

field hand · February 2011

When I'm prep'ing the egg for the next cook, I use a plastic garden tool to stir the charcoal to allow the ash, etc, to go through the grate. Doing this creates a big charcoal dust cloud. I'm sure breathing this stuff is not good for you, so I started wearing a simple nose/mouth mask to filter this stuff out. Just wondering if anyone else does this or has a better method for dealing with the dust. Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.

Barry
Marthasville, MO

PhilsGrill · February 2011

Stir a little slower. Never had a problem with it myself.

Little Steven · February 2011

field hand

I use a shop vac with a bag inside

Steve

BigBadger · February 2011

I use a wiggle rod that I made to stir the leftover lump and ash. It gently knocks the ash off and does not appreciably bring up much dust. In fact I would say that if anything it's ash and not charcoal dust that you are breathing. I just hold my breath for the 10 seconds it takes if the dust gets obviously heavier.

Capt Frank · February 2011

I am with Steven, I use an old shop vac for my cleaning chores. Stir the lump around a little, poke up through the fire grate with my wiggle rod, then stick the shop vac in through the lower vent, does a good job.
I just have to remember to not have my face over the top of the vac when I switch it on, it vents out the top! :laugh:

:P

BobS · February 2011

I do not ever see any dust when I stir the old lump.

I never pour in the lump from the bag, so I minimize how much dust goes in to begin with. I pour the lump into a bin and give it a good shake to get the fines to go to the bottom. When I first pull the top off, there is a lot of dust in the bin. I throw it out after 5-6 bags worth of fines have accumulated.

Rascal · February 2011

Ahhh, that's what my hygienist has been bitching about..

field hand · February 2011

Thanks for the comments. Maybe I'm over doing the "stir" process, don't know. After a cook of a few hours on my xl, I find a lot of gray ash through the remaining coals. I usually try to work the coals with the tool to get the ash to filter down through the grate holes. I have used a type of wiggle rod and it works at the grate level, but does shake up the coals at the higher levels enough to get the ash to fall through. The garden tool does the job at these levels. The earlier comment saying it's more likely I should have said "ash" instead of "dust" is probably true. After getting the ash to the bottom, I do use a vac to remove it. Just seems I create a lot of dust/ash in this process. And yes, I sure the hygienist would be quick to identify this "dark matter". Thanks again for the good comments.

Barry
Marthasville, MO

TnVolKen · February 2011

another vote for the shop vac

Egg Juju · March 2011

I use the ash tool from BGE for stirring and cleaning and I have never had that problem. I will get quite a bit of dust when dumping fresh into the egg, but it settles down pretty quickly.

What type of charcoal are you using? That may be a fact in the quantity of ash.

Cleaning BGE -Charcoal Dust

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