Noxious Smell from BGE

@tbramse‌ I don't think I'd use those fire starters in my egg .. I use something similar in my fire pit and you can definitely smell a petroleum or chemical smell coming from them ... I now they say they are safe for grilling and such but like I said I wouldn't use it for cooking or starting a fire in my eggs or grills that's just my opinion though

Try a different charcoal. 45min later I would think the starter sticks would be long gone. Other here have mentioned that for baking for need a very mild charcoal. Confirm but I think they use Rockwood or Ozark. Im in Toronto and we dont have access to that charcoal.

No matter what starters I have used there is always a chemical smell

MAPP torch to light no smell. Oily paper towel etc. Starter blocks always seemed to have a smell. I use a torch and haven't had a problem since. Unless of course there is plastic or containment in the lump itself. Had this happen a few times (6 to be exact) with Cowboy. Never had the issue with RW or WGWW. OO is solid too.

theyolksonyou said:

Rockwood is very neautral. BGE is just Royal Oak in an expensive bag. Same stuff don't waste your money. ...

@theyolksonyou ... Hey Jason, I asked a question about Royal Oak and it's branded derivatives a while back.  Didn't get anyone to say that they had noticed a difference, so stayed quiet. 

With limited data, my son and I have noticed that the Nature Glo (Royal Oak in dress cloths) contains fewer small chunks and not as many pieces that obviously haven't been fully carbonized in the kiln as the Royal Oak bags from Menards. The time from start to a clean smell is also reduced with the Nature Glo.  That's not an endorsement for Nature Glo, but simply a limited observation that could be off base.

@tbramse ... the ceramic will hold smells (folks who bake a lot have an egg dedicated to baking), the smoked on coating will hold smells, and the left over lump can hold the crud you cleaned off the grill.  The folks above have given you good advice ... skip the starter cubes and use another method to start the lump; do a hot cook to burn off any smell that's in the egg now; see if you can find a more neutral lump.  What other lump is available in your area?

Jeepster47 said:

theyolksonyou said:

Rockwood is very neautral. BGE is just Royal Oak in an expensive bag. Same stuff don't waste your money. ...

@theyolksonyou ... Hey Jason, I asked a question about Royal Oak and it's branded derivatives a while back.  Didn't get anyone to say that they had noticed a difference, so stayed quiet. 

With limited data, my son and I have noticed that the Nature Glo (Royal Oak in dress cloths) contains fewer small chunks and not as many pieces that obviously haven't been fully carbonized in the kiln as the Royal Oak bags from Menards. The time from start to a clean smell is also reduced with the Nature Glo.  That's not an endorsement for Nature Glo, but simply a limited observation that could be off base.

@tbramse ... the ceramic will hold smells (folks who bake a lot have an egg dedicated to baking), the smoked on coating will hold smells, and the left over lump can hold the crud you cleaned off the grill.  The folks above have given you good advice ... skip the starter cubes and use another method to start the lump; do a hot cook to burn off any smell that's in the egg now; see if you can find a more neutral lump.  What other lump is available in your area?

royal oak sells their coal to many others. They are not all the same as there is a pecking order. BGE does in fact get the premium choice of the bunch, as they state. I was told this by one of their competitors who regrettably finds himself further down the pecking order and thus has less desirable product to choose from. I will not argue that there are differences between brands, but All RO is not the same as you have noticed yourself, I believe.

I swear by using my MAPP torch.  During the past few months of cold weather, however, I've gone back to using Stump Chunks (grindings) kindling and some of the smoking wood.  I pick out the 3/8" thick pieces, along with a lump or two of whatever wood I'm using for the smoke.  Then stack up the charcoal (I'm partial to Wicked Good brand) around the kindling.

A lot of those starters specifically say, usually in small print, "Do not use to start BBQ or wood cooking fires." I've used them to start firepits and they are oily and stinky. Would never put in egg.

When in doubt, burn it out. Sounds like grease on your plate setter or inside egg to me. Run your egg at 500-600 for 30-60 min or so and all bad smells will be gone. Some people let go as hot as possible but you don't need to get that hot and it's hard on your egg. 500-600'is plenty hot. If you smell something, I'm guessing you see something (white smoke coming out of your egg). Burn it until that smoke runs clear

I just want to add that for durability, consistency, and ease of operation, you can't beat a mapp torch, or propane weed burner, neither leaves a scent , flavor, or residue, and egg comes to temp much quicker when you want it to. They are cheap and easy to obtain, any hardware store has either or both.

The starter sticks are paraffin and sawdust. Lots of white smoke at first, leave the lid open. No harm done to the BGE or the cook in my experience.

@Tinyfish where do you get it?

I have had a strong, acrid smell from Cowboy lump.  My sister in law claims she has had it from Cowboy as well. 

wkearney99 said:

I swear by using my MAPP torch.  During the past few months of cold weather, however, I've gone back to using Stump Chunks (grindings) kindling and some of the smoking wood.  I pick out the 3/8" thick pieces, along with a lump or two of whatever wood I'm using for the smoke.  Then stack up the charcoal (I'm partial to Wicked Good brand) around the kindling.

I start the MAPP torch but dial it back to it's lowest setting, until it's just a flame not a jet of fire.  Then use that to light the stump chunks and an edge of a piece or two of the wood.  Then shut the dome; with the top cap removed and the bottom vent fully open.  Let it get fired up then use a Weber shovel to redistribute the coals.  Put on the daisy-wheel cap and choke the bottom vent to about 1/2" open.  

Meanwhile I've had the plate setter heating up inside, in the oven, set at 300F.  You want to avoid thermal shock on the plate setter.  So it's a good idea to warm it up while you're getting the Egg started.

Put some damp wood on the coals, lay down the plate setter and shut the lid.  Then go get the meat.  In about 5-10 minutes I put the meat into the Egg and let the cook begin!

I don't know I egg at -30 and throw the plate setter on hot coals and never had a problem. Also remove and put on a snow covered table, never any issues.

A load of new charcoal will have a petrochemical smell. That's from the 'volatile organic compounds' or VOCs you hear so much about. 'Volatile' in the case doesn't mean it burns. It means that it fumes easily at room temperature. Perfume's smell is due to VOCs too. 

that takes time to be driven off. Some burns off, some is wafted away with the draft. If you open a fresh bag, it will smell quite a bit. Half an hour later the bag will have mellowed a good bit just being open. I'm not saying to air out your charcoal. I'm just illustrating that it is fumes, and that they lessen over time. And most of it is due to the immense surface area of charcoal. Lots of places for the VOCs to accumulate. More outside the lump than in each piece.

All new bags of charcoal will smell. I have used different brands, and they are all essentially the same thing: carbon with un-carbonized stuff left over, whether organic (uncarbonized wood) or not. Some wood doesn't fully carbonize, some stuff is inorganic like silica in the tree.  But cowboy lump (for ex) isn't made from smelly wood while one's pet lump is magically free of it. Varying degrees maybe, but bags vary even across one supplier. It all has VOCs.

Just give it time to burn off when you dump a new load in there. You don't need marathon burn-offs for the following cooks because it will have lost virtually all the VOCs the first cook. 

Is some technically still IN the unburnt leftover lump?  Sure. Minimal though. The evaporation is accelerated by the heat for one thing.

So, if the smell was "oily", petrochemical smelling, it was the VOCs

If it was white billowy smoke and acrid. It was likely the firestarters didnt have enough airflow and they snuffed out, and instead of throwing flame, they smoldered, merely glowing.  If you are set up for a low and slow and shut the lid to hold temps down, the starters often smolder instead of flame. Opening it will usually cause it to flame up, but that makes you nervous about overshooting target temps. Break up the starters. Two or three small pieces are all you need to start a low and slow cook. Keep the lid or vents open and let them flame. They'll start and burn off quickly. Then drop the lid and set vents for cruising speed. 

I personally use a napkin drizzled with a little cooking oil. Enough to make it translucent, not soaked, not dripping. It ain't the oil that burns wells. And it ain't the paper napkin. It's the two together. I have used everything. Nothing else gets all the tick marks for fast, easy, cheap, availablity, and minimal time standing over the egg.  One for a low temp cook. Two for higher. 

If it is a smell of burning, black smoke, new egg, and you have a lot of flame or are at high heat, it can be the adhesive of the gasket. The felt gasket is adhered with nothing more than rubber cement. This is also what they recommend for replacing with a new felt gasket. Super77, which is just aerosolized rubber cement. Heck, if you have contact cement already, no need for the 77.

it can't be anything other than those three options, other than the fact that a new egg might ('might') seem like it has a 'new car smell', but ceramic is inert. There's no paint on the egg (that's glaze, almost literally glass), so it ain't the egg itself. Might be the paint of the bands when they get hot. New paint could get soft I suppose under high heat, and smell a bit.

after all that, what to do?  If the smell is coming from the top chimney, just wait. Give it a half hour or so. Longer if you are at low temps, because low temps means low draft, and the VOCs take longer to be carried off. Like trying to air out a room by opening doors opposite each other. On a windy day, it'll take less time. No wind? (Low temp low draft cook?) takes longer. 

If the smell is not from the chimney, then it's the less-likely new car smell issue. Probably the paint at high heat or something. Never noticed it myself except for the inner edges if the felt burning at high temp, which eventually stopped after a couple high heat cooks. 

FWIW, don't do the horrible "sear and dwell" type of steak cook. Perhaps the shittiest thing ever promoted for the egg. Sure, a steak over charcoal tastes so much better than over gas, that it will taste better than your typical steak. But shutting the egg down and letting your steaks sit in there as the fire snuffs itself and struggles, a literal recipe for disaster. 

Watch a candle. Nice clean fire. Now blow it out. That tiny coal in the wick is struggling to burn. It burns incompletely ('incomplete combustion'). That sooty smoke is the same as what bathes your steak in stink when you choke the fire with the sear-and-dwell method. 

If it's none of those, then charcoal just ain't yer thing