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New Egger here with a starting question

I've owned my LBGE for one week now. Cooked steaks one night and burgers another night on direct heat. I decided the other night to cook chicken thighs over indirect at 375 for an hour or so. I found that when getting my egg up to temp with the plate setter in it took what seemed like for ever. I am using a firestarter and lighting it in the middle of the bed of lump coal. I had a decent flame going after a few min before i put my plate setter and grill in. Its this common because the platte setter is in restricting air flow through the egg needed to get the coals going? Any advise would be great. The forum is awesome and has been great in getting started.

Comments

  • nashbama
    nashbama Posts: 102
    I get mine up to temp without the plate setter. I use an electric starter, once the coals ignite I'll put the grill back in, close the dome with the vents open, and let it heat up to make cleaning the grill easier.

    I'll then close the vents where I need them to get the temp where I need it for indirect. Then I'll put on the plate setter when it's time to put the food on. I do this just to be safe, I don't want a cold plate setter cracking when going into a hot egg. Plus, the temp will increase faster without it.
  • Foghorn
    Foghorn Posts: 9,794

    Welcome dunners,

    I suspect that others far wiser than I will be along soon.  However, I had this problem the first time I tried to cook pizza on my XL BGE.  After 90 minutes with everything wide open I was still only at 350.

    There are multiple areas to troubleshoot to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

    1) When you are getting up to temp - the bottom vent needs to be totally open - meaning don't even close the screen.  The top vent needs to be totally open also - meaning no lid or daisy wheel or anything on the top.

    2) The coals can clog all the holes in the grate they sit on and reduce air flow that way.  There are multiple ways around this.  Some recommend a HighQ grate to replace the BGE grate.  Others sort their lump and use only big pieces for high temp cooks like this.  I just move my lump around a little to make sure a couple of the holes in my grate are visible and unclogged.

    3) Check your thermometer.

    4) With all of the above working properly you should get up to temp in 30 minutes or less.  If you need to make things happen faster then you need more of a bump at the beginning.  Options include using more firestarter cubes, propane torches, etc to get the fire jumpstarted.

    XXL BGE, Karebecue, Klose BYC, Chargiller Akorn Kamado, Weber Smokey Mountain, Grand Turbo gasser, Weber Smoky Joe, and the wheelbarrow that my grandfather used to cook steaks from his cattle

    San Antonio, TX

  • nemo
    nemo Posts: 113
    Welcome!!  I follow the same process you do, with the following exception....prior to placing the platesetter or grill on, I want a bed of hot embers showing.  This may take upwards of 15 minutes with the bottom and top vents wide open.  Once the embers are going strongly I place the platesetter on, set the dampers for my temp target and monitor the dome gauge.  Then it's simply making minor adjustments to hit the desired temp. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.  Good luck.
    Fairview, Texas
  • Foghorn
    Foghorn Posts: 9,794
    Sorry for the typo on your name dunner15.  No disrespect intended (in case you read that as sounding dimunitive in any way, that was not my intent)

    XXL BGE, Karebecue, Klose BYC, Chargiller Akorn Kamado, Weber Smokey Mountain, Grand Turbo gasser, Weber Smoky Joe, and the wheelbarrow that my grandfather used to cook steaks from his cattle

    San Antonio, TX

  • waegger
    waegger Posts: 88
    I cut my firestarters in half and arrange in different corners of my lump. make sure that lower grate is not blocked( I use a wiggle rod to clean it out if needed) open lower vent as wide as possible and lite. Install platesetter when flames have died down and coals are very hot.
  • gdenby
    gdenby Posts: 6,239
    Break the fire starter in pieces, and start in a couple of places. If you were not using a platesetter, w. the vents wide open, as described above, it would probably take about 30 min for the dome to reach 350, and have the smoke clear.  Once in awhile, I get to that temp in maybe 20 min, and twice, after the Egg has been sitting in cold rain for a few weeks, close to an hour.

    Once you put the the platesetter in, and IMO it is best to do that in the first few minutes, expect another 20 min to be added to the pre-heat. I don't think that is because of restricted air flow. If the fire is established, and the 'setter is put in, the air flow may change, and areas that were burning might be getting less draft. But w. the 'setter in from neat the beginning, that fire has developed with that air flow pattern. As far as I can tell, the longer time is the period that the 'setter is absorbing much of the heat coming from the lump. I've measured my 'setters's top surface at over 600F. Takes lots of heat and time to get to the point where the hot 'setter is releasing heat back into the chamber.  The upside is a quite stable heat environment.

    You can cook raised, indirect w. just a drip pan under the grill. The metal block shields the food from the extreme IR heat, but does little to slow the temp increase.
  • Sounds like your putting your plate setter in too early. I would get it going good up to 300 or so. then put the plate setter in and crank it on up to 600-650. Sounds like you are starving your fire before you get it going.
  • jlsm
    jlsm Posts: 1,011
    Just as an aside, cooking thighs for an hour would be overkill for me. I cook to 175 degrees; temp raises 5 degrees during the rest. 
    *******
    Owner of a large and a beloved mini in Philadelphia
  • dunner15
    dunner15 Posts: 1

    Thanks for all the help, didn't know about putting a cold(outside temp) platte setter on after the internal egg temp had gone up to 300-400 degrees. If that would drop the internal temp of the egg alot or not, or damage the plate setter itself. 

    yeah jlsm, i did find out an hour at that temp was a bit long, the skin was a little burned, but the flavor of the meat and the meat was still very moist.

  • dunner15 said:

    Thanks for all the help, didn't know about putting a cold(outside temp) platte setter on after the internal egg temp had gone up to 300-400 degrees. If that would drop the internal temp of the egg alot or not, or damage the plate setter itself. 

    yeah jlsm, i did find out an hour at that temp was a bit long, the skin was a little burned, but the flavor of the meat and the meat was still very moist.

     

    I live in GA we dont see super low temps. It hasnt hurt mine to get the temp to 3-350 and put the plate setter in. Although we haven't really had a day where it was under 30 lately.