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ashes clean out

Hotty Toddy!
Hotty Toddy! Posts: 1
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I'd like to know how much trouble it is to clean out ashes from the green egg.
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Comments

  • StoicDude
    StoicDude Posts: 80
    I can only talk about the Mini.
    I am a bit anal about the ashes, so I just take out the internals, lift the egg and shake the ashes out of the bottom vent.
    That makes it completely clean.
    I have to buy one of the ash tools, but don't feel like spending $25 for a piece of metal right now. A bit of a steep price in my opinion.
    It is much better than my Weber kettle, because the ashes fly everywhere when I move the one touch system on my Weber.
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  • Gator Bait
    Gator Bait Posts: 5,244
    Hi murray

    Welcome to the forum.

    Cleaning the ash from the egg is only as much trouble as you want to make it. I'm not afraid of getting my hands a little dirty (charcoal and ash wash off very easy) and it is an easy task. Use any tool you want to scoop out any unburned charcoal, remove the charcoal grate and use your ash tool to clean the bottom of the fire box into a bucket through the bottom vent. I use an old paint brush to sweep out the fire box, some like to use a shop vac. Don't like to get your hands dirty? Use a pair of gloves.
    I'm sure there are others here that have a more refined technique then mine.

    Gator

     
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  • James MB
    James MB Posts: 359
    As others say it depends on how fussy you are.
    In my opinion it's a bit of a faff to do a "deep clean" and I only do it once every ten cooks or so.

    However the basic - open the vent door and scrape the worst of it out is easy, especially with a suitable tool. Less than two minutes.
    It's comparable to a quick two and fro with the one touch on your Weber but without the flying ash.

    One day I really must make a decent wiggle rod....
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  • belle's dad
    belle's dad Posts: 146
    I'ts easy. I just stick the business end of a small shopvac in and turn it on. When the cannister gets full, empty. First, make sure there are no hot coals in ashes.

    Gordon
    Vero Beach, FL
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  • jagweed
    jagweed Posts: 188
    i use the (large) egg three to four times a week and clean it out maybe once a month, month-and-a-half

    it isn't "easy", but it isn't "hard" either.
    ash goes into the compost
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  • GaryBushey
    GaryBushey Posts: 63
    I use my shop-vac to clean it out. I have been using the Big Green Egg lump and it burns quite nicely, very little solid lump left...although I did find some rocks in my Egg one time, no clue where those came from.
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  • PhilOsh
    PhilOsh Posts: 84
    A shop vac hose snakes all around the firebox in my medium BGE and fits into the firebox and easily removes ash and small pieces of charcoal. Takes less than a minute.

    Phil
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  • Morro Bay Rich
    Morro Bay Rich Posts: 2,227
    Its a pain in the ash. :laugh: :woohoo: :lol: :silly: ;) :cheer:
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
     
    Welcome to the forum.

    There are two aspects of cleaning out the ash.
    1. a complete clean which involves either using some flexible tubes on a shop vac or removing everything out of the egg.

    2. the ash from a cook, that is the ash that is easily accessible from the lower vent.

    I cook on the egg on average 5 times a week. I do a full clean on the large once ever 12 to 18 months.

    Ash clean out through the bottom vent I do once every 5 or so cooks, sometimes will go to 10 cooks if they are shorter. On high temperature cooks (pizza) or longer than 4 hour cooks I will look and clean if I feel the egg needs it. I always clean the ash out on every overnight cook.

    The medium egg is about the same as above.

    The small and mini have smaller lower vent openings. The mini will go about 4 cooks before I clean it out and when I do I remove everything and do a full clean - pretty quick and easy.

    This is not a big issue and very easy. I don't get dirty when cleaning out.

    GG
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