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Safety First - Burp your Egg

dstearn
dstearn Posts: 1,702
edited January 2015 in EggHead Forum
Last week I started my egg up for a cook. Shortly after I started the egg my dog informed me that she needed to go for a walk. Closed the dome with the bottom vent wide open. Returned 15 minutes later and looked at the thermo. It was not even 200 degrees yet. I opened the lid and POOF! The Egg was not below 200, More like 1000 degrees! The lump was red hot and I could feel a blast of hot air and the sound of my hair being singed by the heat. I was very lucky this time, The hair on my eyelids and forehead were only slightly scorched as a result. It could have been worse. New Rule - Burp your egg!
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Comments

  • Skiddymarker
    Skiddymarker Posts: 8,522
    Now you are a certified member of this forum, until your yard has a hint of burning hair mixed with the scent of charcoal, you are not a real egger. Welcome!
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
  • GATraveller
    GATraveller Posts: 8,207
    edited January 2015
    That's a lesson you only have to learn once!!

    image



    "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community [...] but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots."

                                                                                  -Umberto Eco

    2 Large
    Peachtree Corners, GA
  • Yeah unfortunately that seems to be a lesson only learned the hard way.
    LBGE 2013, SBGE 2014, Mini 2015
    Columbus IN
  • Ladeback69
    Ladeback69 Posts: 4,482
    As someone said to me when I posted when it happened to me, "who hasn't done it". Luckily when I did it I had a long sleeve shirt on or it could have been worse. It happened to me when I got in a hurry and didn't burp it. Be careful, it can shoot out of the bottom vent like a flame thrower I've been told.
    XL, WSM, Coleman Road Trip Gas Grill

    Kansas City, Mo.
  • Chubbs
    Chubbs Posts: 6,929
    Nice, you passed step one of being an egger. It's a three part acceptance. Part 2 is enduring a 48 hour period with @henapple and step 3 is chugging the drip pan after a 20 hour smoke. Good luck!
    Columbia, SC --- LBGE 2011 -- MINI BGE 2013
  • THEBuckeye
    THEBuckeye Posts: 4,230

    Is it me or are flashbacks more common with cold weather?
    New Albany, Ohio 

  • This happened to me for the first time last week. I have cooked many times on the egg and I wasn't paying as much attention this time around.

    I closed the vents down to try to bring the temp down from about 600. Things started dropping and I opened the egg. There was a crackling sound of charcoal and then poof! Flame everywhere. Lucky no problem.

    One question: has anyone ever opened the bottom vent door and seen raging flames come through the grate at the bottom of the firebox? That was a new one for me.
  • badinfluence
    badinfluence Posts: 1,774
    @THEBuckeye‌ it's just you. A flashback will happen when you open the lid and it gets a big gulp of oxygen. Don't matter if it's cold or hot out.
    1 XXL BGE,  1 LG BGE, 2 MED. BGE, 1 MINI BGE, 1 Peoria custom cooker Meat Monster.


    Clinton, Iowa
  • theyolksonyou
    theyolksonyou Posts: 18,458
    I have had if flash out of the bottom vent. Luckily, no hair was harmed!
  • The perfect backdraft situation !
    Gambrills,Maryland

  • Yeah, I am a slow learner---I have forgotten to burp a couple of times and paid the price :).  Eyebrows are over rated anyway.  As far as flames rolling out of the bottom, seen that several times---tried to get a picture of it last time and was not successful.
  • GrannyX4
    GrannyX4 Posts: 1,491
    And never light the egg before your first cup of coffee. I got 50% off for my eyebrow wax. ;;)
    Every day is a bonus day and every meal is a banquet in Winter Springs, Fl !
  • Ladeback69
    Ladeback69 Posts: 4,482
    One question: has anyone ever opened the bottom vent door and seen raging flames come through the grate at the bottom of the firebox? That was a new one for me.
    That's what I was talking about with the flame thrower or dragon. I have not had it happen, but heard it can happen doing pizza or other long high temp cooks. Here is a video that someone did to show how it looks and happens. I hope it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fJZpaNWGKs
    XL, WSM, Coleman Road Trip Gas Grill

    Kansas City, Mo.
  • @THEBuckeye - it's possible since cold air is typically more dense, thus higher O2 content per given volume getting into the egg.

    your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential

    LBGE in SATX

  • Happened to me but I think mine was due to too many jim beams while cooking. :)
    Franklin, Tn
    LBGE - Cast Iron Grate - Flameboss 300 - BGEtisserie

  • I just had my first experience with flashback last weekend.  I was setting up to cook some boneless skinless chicken thighs.  After lighting the charcoal, I went inside to wait for it to get up to temp.  I got distracted and the temp hit 700 before I caught it.  So I closed the air intake and was happy to see the temps rapidly dropping......so happy I had to open the egg and take a look....good thing I was wearing a long sleeve shirt!  The flame rolled out of the egg and enveloped my hand / arm.  No injuries, just missing hair.  A valuable lesson none the less.
    XL BGE  -  Jackson, California
  • Jeepster47
    Jeepster47 Posts: 3,827
    Is there a low temp where a flashback can't/shouldn't happen?  What's the lowest temp where someone has experienced a flashback?  I ask, 'cuz most posts about experiencing a flashback are preceded by; "it was hot as hell" ... or some variant of that phrase.

    Washington, IL  >  Queen Creek, AZ ... Two large eggs and an adopted Mini Max

  • MaC122
    MaC122 Posts: 797

    @Jeepster47 ive had my egg flash at 300 to 400. The best advice I got was to get rid of the daisy wheel unless you are doing a low and slow. No flash with the daisy wheel off, but I haven't gone above 600. The worst thing that will happen to you is singed hair and the realization that you just slammed your egg lid down. Burnt arm hair is a right of passage

    St. Johns County, Florida
  • Tinyfish
    Tinyfish Posts: 1,755
    I should get my wife to open the dome with her legs...free leg waxing =)) =))
  • badinfluence
    badinfluence Posts: 1,774
    @Jeepster47‌ lowest I personally have had 1 was sitting around the 500 mark. Not saying it can't happen lower then that though.

    I have learned now to just burp them every time so now it's a habit even doing a low and slow.
    1 XXL BGE,  1 LG BGE, 2 MED. BGE, 1 MINI BGE, 1 Peoria custom cooker Meat Monster.


    Clinton, Iowa
  • Tjcoley
    Tjcoley Posts: 3,551
    I had to cook on a gasser on vacation, and I burped it every time I opened it.
    __________________________________________
    It's not a science, it's an art. And it's flawed.
    - Camp Hill, PA
  • milesvdustin
    milesvdustin Posts: 2,882
    Mine flared like a mofo the other night making those peanut butter bacon cheeseburgers. It flashed out the top and the bottom grate. I think all the grease that was dripping down to the coals suddenly caught and flashed. It went WHOOSH and then it was over. It happened right after I closed the lid, glad I was a couple feet away by that point.

    2 LBGE, Blackstone 36, Jumbo Joe

    Egging in Southern Illinois (Marion)

  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,880
    It's just a habit that is so ingrained in me that I find myself even burping a cold egg! Honest!
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
  • Jeremiah
    Jeremiah Posts: 6,412
    @Chubbs‌ I wish to remain on level 1. =;
    Slumming it in Aiken, SC. 
  • Spaightlabs
    Spaightlabs Posts: 2,349
    How 'bout a little fire, Scarecrow?

    I thought after my first it wold be my last.   Neeeerrrrrrrrrrrp.  I've had a handful...slow learner.
  • SmokeyPitt
    SmokeyPitt Posts: 10,490

    Is it me or are flashbacks more common with cold weather?
    I think that could definitely be true.  Cold air is denser, thus more O2 per volume.   


    Which came first the chicken or the egg?  I egged the chicken and then I ate his leg. 

  • UncleFred
    UncleFred Posts: 458
    Kinda felt appropriate to the discussion... (think of it as background music)

    Alfred E. Neuman - "It's A Gas" (1963)

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J-LvMxKvFY&x-yt-cl=84503534&x-yt-ts=1421914688
    San Diego, CA - Where I've mastered Curmudgeon..working on Recluse.
  • Chubbs said:
    Nice, you passed step one of being an egger. It's a three part acceptance. Part 2 is enduring a 48 hour period with @henapple and step 3 is chugging the drip pan after a 20 hour smoke. Good luck!

    One and three I knocked out of the park. Number two. Heck I think that's funny that he is number two. Sorry my inner child just showed its ugly head. Like a turtle. . I am planning on going to some backwoods road kill hide your sister hoedown. Hope I can hang. Did I tell you I won a MAJOR award?

  • Is it me or are flashbacks more common with cold weather?
    I think that could definitely be true.  Cold air is denser, thus more O2 per volume.   

    I have flash backs worse in the summer. Heck it's 3:30 am might be having one now

  • Is it me or are flashbacks more common with cold weather?
    I think that could definitely be true.  Cold air is denser, thus more O2 per volume.   

    That is something to ponder :-? Or could it be the temperature difference is greater in the winter unless your cold smoking. And the heat from the egg draws the colder air in faster? Like hot water will freeze faster than cold because of the moleculars start to move faster. I know probably a different theory. the last science class I had is when we invented mudd.