High Altitude Egging

rustypotts · January 31

Does anyone have an Egg at high altitude.....say 7000 or 8000 ft?

North_Is_Up · January 31

I'm at just under 6100 feet. Cooks take longer than at sea level and I definitely burn more fuel from what I'm reading here. Takes longer to start a fire, too, and to get up to temperature. Less O2 at higher altitudes.

henapple · January 31

Is there a mile high egg club?

gerhardk · January 31

I can't comment on this from experience since were we live is barely 600 feet above sea level. From a theoretical point of view most things should work pretty much the same as anywhere else since we rarely operate the egg wide open so whatever lower oxygen level you should be able to compensate for through larger vent openings. Nobody I know tries to cook meat to 212º but for low and slow shoulder or brisket you are pretty close to or at the boiling point of water at high elevation and how that affects the meat I couldn't even guess at. Having said that in my experience theory is nice but sometimes reality is a bit different so I would listen to North_Is_Up

Gerhard

Little Steven · January 31

rustypotts said:

Does anyone have an Egg at high altitude.....say 7000 or 8000 ft?

If you look at the visual guide to vent settings, the guy that did that is in Utah, I believe

billyray · January 31

Our vacation home is at 5,000 feet, our main home is at 500 feet. I use a large at both places and haven't noticed much difference in any aspect of egging.

Mighty_Quinn · January 31

North_Is_Up said:
I'm at just under 6100 feet. Cooks take longer than at sea level and I definitely burn more fuel from what I'm reading here. Takes longer to start a fire, too, and to get up to temperature. Less O2 at higher altitudes.

I'm also around that same altitude...the only thing I notice is slightly wider openings on my vent than people talk about here...I don't really notice longer cooks or more fuel being burned. I use a torch so fires start very quickly and I'm to temp quickly too.

rustypotts · January 31

Thanks. When I lived at 7800 ft it seemed to take a little longer to cook when I used my W&b#r. It took about 20 minutes extra to bake a potato, so I was wondering about the Egg.

ibanda · January 31

I cook on Dad's japan import Imperial Kamado (40 years old predecessor to the egg and still going strong) at the cabin in Colorado. It's at 8,000 feet. It takes FOREVER to get the lump started and up to temperature. I was using a chimney starter last summer and it took 4 or 5 tries over an hour to get it going. I was using Wicked Good lump which is normally a little harder to start. Once going, the cooking doesn't seem that different than my house at 1,200 feet.

nolaegghead · January 31

At high altitudes, water boils at a lower temp and consequently has a higher vapor pressure at a given temp. There's less oxygen in a given volume of air. So I'd expect, theoretically (I don't know if all these would be noticeable)

1. Takes longer to cook if boiling food
2. Stall should be at a lower temp
3. Need more air flow - vents open slightly more to maintain given temp

Since we rarely boil food on the egg, I doubt you would notice much, if any difference, with regular egg cooking. I can see potatoes taking longer.

ibanda · January 31

The BGE dealer in Gunnison, Colorado (7,700 ft) told me they only sell the L and XL, as the smaller sizes won't pass through enough oxygen. The Kamado is equivilant to a medium so there might be some truth to that. They also said they have sold many eggs to people that have tried other ceramic brands and had them crack in the bitter cold, avg. low temp in January is -8°.

Little Steven · January 31

nolaegghead said:

At high altitudes, water boils at a lower temp and consequently has a higher vapor pressure at a given temp. There's less oxygen in a given volume of air. So I'd expect, theoretically (I don't know if all these would be noticeable)

1. Takes longer to cook if boiling food
2. Stall should be at a lower temp
3. Need more air flow - vents open slightly more to maintain given temp

Since we rarely boil food on the egg, I doubt you would notice much, if any difference, with regular egg cooking. I can see potatoes taking longer.

Must be awesome cooking at sea level -10 eh?

BGEGP · January 31

Thanks for the info ibanda, I bought a vacation home in Lake City, Colorado (9000 ft) and thinking about buying a small egg for there. I use a large here at Washington (almost sea level).

Mighty_Quinn · January 31

ibanda said:
The BGE dealer in Gunnison, Colorado (7,700 ft) told me they only sell the L and XL, as the smaller sizes won't pass through enough oxygen. The Kamado is equivilant to a medium so there might be some truth to that. They also said they have sold many eggs to people that have tried other ceramic brands and had them crack in the bitter cold, avg. low temp in January is -8°.

Dealer is full of shit then...I cooked in a friend's small the summer before last (bans on charcoal/fires most of last summer) while camping in the mtns around gunnison..over 9000' with no problems besides the wider vent settings mentioned above. That was with stock grate, not hi-que. I have my own small now that will see plenty of action above 8000'...we camp a ton.

ibanda · January 31

Mighty_Quinn said:

The BGE dealer in Gunnison, Colorado (7,700 ft) told me they only sell the L and XL, as the smaller sizes won't pass through enough oxygen. The Kamado is equivilant to a medium so there might be some truth to that. They also said they have sold many eggs to people that have tried other ceramic brands and had them crack in the bitter cold, avg. low temp in January is -8°.
Dealer is full of shit then...I cooked in a friend's small the summer before last (bans on charcoal/fires most of last summer) while camping in the mtns around gunnison..over 9000' with no problems besides the wider vent settings mentioned above. That was with stock grate, not hi-que. I have my own small now that will see plenty of action above 8000'...we camp a ton.

Yeah, I won't confirm they really know for sure what they are talking about, although I did think they were really nice people. I am huge fan of the small BGE, and cook on it all the time at 1,200'. Once I got the lump lit, I bet I could keep it going at 8,000'.

Mighty_Quinn · January 31

Get yourself propane/MAP torch and your lighting at 8000' issue will be solved.

nolaegghead · January 31

ibanda said:

The BGE dealer in Gunnison, Colorado (7,700 ft) told me they only sell the L and XL, as the smaller sizes won't pass through enough oxygen. The Kamado is equivilant to a medium so there might be some truth to that. They also said they have sold many eggs to people that have tried other ceramic brands and had them crack in the bitter cold, avg. low temp in January is -8°.

That sounds like BS. The air density at 70F at sea level is 0.0745 lb/cf. At 8000 feet, same temp, it's 0.0554 lb/cf. That's 74% of the oxygen at lea level. An egg burning wide-open can easily get up to 900 F. If oxygen is the limiting factor, you'd expect it to get up to 670 F (74% of 900) - plenty hot to cook anything. However, keep in mind air density increases as temp decreases - it's usually colder the higher up you are. At 0 F, the air density is 0.0638 at 8000 feet, so this effect is partially negated.

Cracking from cold is from water getting inside the ceramic and freezing - expanding and bustin' up stuff. We get low temps at lower elevations too.

nolaegghead · January 31

Little Steven said:

nolaegghead said:

At high altitudes, water boils at a lower temp and consequently has a higher vapor pressure at a given temp. There's less oxygen in a given volume of air. So I'd expect, theoretically (I don't know if all these would be noticeable)

1. Takes longer to cook if boiling food
2. Stall should be at a lower temp
3. Need more air flow - vents open slightly more to maintain given temp

Since we rarely boil food on the egg, I doubt you would notice much, if any difference, with regular egg cooking. I can see potatoes taking longer.
Must be awesome cooking at sea level -10 eh?

We're on the Barataria ridge - at a nose-bleeding altitude of 15 feet above sea level. I have to open my vents 0.000001 inches more than most of New Orleans does. ;)

Eggcelsior · January 31

nolaegghead said:

Little Steven said:

nolaegghead said:

At high altitudes, water boils at a lower temp and consequently has a higher vapor pressure at a given temp. There's less oxygen in a given volume of air. So I'd expect, theoretically (I don't know if all these would be noticeable)

1. Takes longer to cook if boiling food
2. Stall should be at a lower temp
3. Need more air flow - vents open slightly more to maintain given temp

Since we rarely boil food on the egg, I doubt you would notice much, if any difference, with regular egg cooking. I can see potatoes taking longer.
Must be awesome cooking at sea level -10 eh?

We're on the Barataria ridge - at a nose-bleeding altitude of 15 feet above sea level. I have to open my vents 0.000001 inches more than most of New Orleans does. ;)

That's like the the 7th sigma egg!!!!!

bpric · January 31

I live at 7000' and cook on a large and a mini. I've never cooked at any other altitude, but I can say that I used to have a lot of trouble getting the large lit. I tried just about everything, and have settled on a chimney starter and weed burner combo. I put a hi-que grate in the large, and that helped, but I don't think that it was necessary. I never had any trpubles with the mini -- but I bought that after I started using the weed burner.
Good Luck,
-- Bryan

scottc454 · January 31

What's the max temp of a small egg at sea level?

My small tops out at 550-600. I'm at 5400 ft. I attribute mostly due to the small vent, not the altitude. My large egg will easily get past 700.

I'm more concerned about the dry CO air. I baste or foil ribs.

North_Is_Up · February 2

An interesting publication from NMSU about the effect that altitude has on cooking.

It states, "Use the sea-level time and temperature when oven-roasting

meats, as oven temperatures are not affected by altitude changes."

But, would the Egg be considered a roasting oven in this context? Are ceramics like a roasting pot that seals in moisture? It gets complicated.

gerhardk · February 2

Sure it would, the meat doesn't know if it is in an oven or the egg.

Gerhard

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