Egg canopy

bettysnephew said:

I was looking at NPHuskerFL post about tropical burgers and began to wonder if one of the four leg canopies would stand up to an Iowa winter.  Snow load might be the biggest issue but cold and wind must certainly be considered.  I have been trying to figure out a way to cover my Egg area to allow more use in inclement weather but as of yet no love.  I have a wood deck so modification to at least put a roof above is within reason, just haven't determined a way that will work with our house and not look like it came from the Wile E. Coyote school of engineering .

As you know I'm over here in IL and typically we share the same winter weather. I've been a dedicated egghead for 14 years now and that means year around. I do not have a roof over my eggs. I do use a cheap tarp from Harbor Freight in the snow season and throw that over my egg table the next morning. I also keep a snow shovel right outside the back door when necessary to get out to my table. Not sure my reply has helped, but where there is a will there is an egger willing to suck up the rain, cold or snow to get out to egg!

jerryb78 said:

@rrp I'm dreading the Wisconsin winter already. I'm thinking about buying a propane patio heater to run while I egg.

I hear you...but how about doing some training now to do wind sprints? Also I thought rum recipes were issued at the border when folks move to WI. See? Not all of us south of WI are FIBs! LOL

Anyway you can keep your egg in the garage and roll it out when you need it? Being from Minnesota winter can be a pain in the a*s when grilling. Rolling it out from the garage a few feet works pretty slick. The garage blocks all the nasty cold wind and no need to trudge through the snow when it's only a few feet from snow free garage slab.

@bettysnephew‌ Thanks :-)
Normally speaking I don't have the pop-up dond over the egg. But, our forecast called for rain rain and more rain so there ya go. It is something that I definitely like having available. I strap it down so it won't fly away. I'll leave it up until I'm complete on Sunday's cook. Then I just put my cover on. As far as snow I would say the weight load would be too much. You would probably need something more permanent to hold up to the snow weight load.

How about a retractable awning over the doorwall?

What is this "Snow" you speak of?.....

If you build a pergola over it you make it look nice, and for the winter you can add either a couple of see through plastic roofing panels or son tin roofing panels to keep snow/schmuts off.  Take the panels off when the weather is nice and you have a nice shade structure.

As I recall from eastern Ontario winters, snow load could be planned for, the big issue with temporary covers was cold and wind. The material used in the pop-ups does not like it when the temps go below 0ºF and there is even a mild breeze, let alone a blizzard. They pretty much self destruct. 

I purchased a metal 16x12 patio cover from lowes last week and it should be delivered tomorrow or Tuesday.  They attach to the house and you can also install these over a deck. I will post pics after I get it installed.

I used a 10' x 10' EZ-Up pop-up tent for many many years before I had my grill gazebo built. I basically used them April through November. They certainly aren't meant to hold up the snow loads we get in a Norther New England winter. The first one lasted six years. The new one I got didn't survive the first summer. They had "value engineered" the new model so it cost the same as the old model, but used cheaper and less parts. The roof had less reinforcing struts than the old one and it quickly began collecting water in heavy rain storms. The water would make the roof fabric sag, which would make it collect more water, which would make it sag more…. There was no way to stretch the roof material tight. After three months of use I had to get rid of it. I was worried the roof would collapse and bring the thing tumbling down onto my brand-new Egg and other two grills. I ended up taking the thing down at 2 AM during a torrential rainstorm because it was on the verge of collapse after 10 minutes of rain.

The other thing to remember is you won't always be around all the time to babysit this thing when a rainstorm comes. So I would say the current EZ- Ups are not going to be up to the task. In the company's defense this is NOT what they were designed for anyway.

If you are interested here is a link to a blog entry I wrote about my experience with the new EZ-Up: http://grillinsmokin.net/blog_main/blog_2012/files/ez-up_ez-down.php

Jim