I ain't got the hang of this.

It typically takes my large BGE about 20-25 minutes to get to over 500 degrees. It continues to rise rapidly after that.

I always fill mine to the top of the fire ring.

Your problem is probably air flow. Buy or make a wiggle rod and put it in the bottom vent and make sure none of the holes in the fire grate are plugged.

If both the top and bottom are wide open and the egg is closed, about 1/2 hour gets it up to 500+ degrees. Thermometers can be problematic, make sure its been calibrated in boiling water. And as Shiff says make sure the bottom holes are clear, You can just use a bent clothes hanger to wiggle them clear from the bottom.

One clue that it's a lot hotter than you think (Temperature problem) is to look through the bottom vent, it will be glowing orange by now I would guess.

Doug

Is your daisy wheel (DFMT - "dual function metal top") on the top of your egg? If it is, remove it (the DFMT) and open the lower vent all the way, your egg should then go nearly nuclear in 20-30 minutes if it has good air flow. For high temp cooks I use big pieces of lump to get better air flow. And for lo & slows I use the smaller pieces of lump and the leftover bits from previous cooks.
Hope this helps you.

:P I'm fairly new at this also but I think I finally got the technique as I was having same problems. Here's what I did as recently as tonight and I got searing hot in about 20 minutes: I first cleaned out all the coals from last cook and placed in a bucket. I then cleaned all the air holes in vent and fire ring. I got a bunch of fresh coal and looked for large long pieces. I stackde them up in a sort of cross cross pattern so that a lot of air was around them. I took 4 pieces of the starters from the BGE store and placed them down into the spaces from the big coals. I then carefully built up more coals all around the grid I built and lit the starters. Instantly, the coal in the Egg got red hot and I gradually filled up the remaining space with the coals I saved from the last cook. I left the vent wide open at the bottom and left the top off totally.

Once the initial gray smoke from start up burned off, I had fire so hot I could melt steel. I then put my top cap back on but left daisey wheel open and I closed the bottom a little.

I was left with a very hot fire.

Also what has helped me with steaks and burgers is an add on device I found on the Net and that is made in GA. I purhased a metal unit made of what seems to be anodized aluminum and it lays across your cooking grid. It is designed to block the flare ups from meat drippings and I recommend it. After you get the fire red hot, you'll see no heavy smoke, but a lot of red flames as long as the top cap is open. What I did was put the add on device in when the fire got red hot.

After allowing about 5 minutes to get the grid device red hot, I re-opened the lid and dropped by rid eyes on and instantly heard the sizzle like a steak restaurant. But the way the grids are made, no flame ups come through the device and burn your steak or burger. It's sort of as if you have the heat of the BGE and infra-red heat at the same time.

I seared each side about 1.5 minutes, flipped and and flipped again to get the cross hatch sear marks, taking for thick steaks no more than maybe 10 minutes and they came off a perfect medium rare, with a seared outside and temp of about 130.

If you get too much coal in box at first, you're choking off the air. So I also bought a cheap hair dryer to blow air direct into the bottom vent. You'll ne red hot in minutes.

:P

Well.....every now and then I've just got to stick my foot in it I've been at this for ten years or so and I've never used a torch of any kind, never stacked the lump, never used a fan, or any of the other sophisticated methods described here and elsewhere and have never had a problem getting either my Large or Medium up to temperature in a reasonable time (20 or 30 mins). I do use a wiggle rod at times to clear the grate holes after stirring the lump and before going to bed when doing an overnighter. I think you can just light whatever fire starter you choose with the bottom vent entirely open, the DFM cap off the Egg, and close the dome after lighting the starter and you're off. Of course airways have to be lined up and sufficient lump in the fire box. But that's pretty much it. Just my take

shouldn't need a fan after an hour. guy hasn't told us what he's doing... daisy on/ is he using the proverbial "two handfuls of lump?"

too much lump can't be an issue...
maybe airflow, but we gotta assume he's stirred the ash.

never know unless he tells us how he went about building the fire, lighting it etc.