Can't get to max heat

johnmitchell

I am using wicked good lumps ,I have the bottom vent wide open and top wide open. I am not able to get above 500 F

cazzy

The site Wicked Good rep is @caliking so let's give him a few minutes so he can chime in.

lousubcap

@cazzy-and not even a  emoticon...(a whole 'nother story...)

@johnmitchell-welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  WRT the lump and your temps...dome thermo calibrated?  And a recent Wicked Good Weekend Warrior (WGWW) buy or older as they (WGWW) had a very poor quality control problem around 8-10 months ago-since fixed. FWIW-

cazzy

lousubcap said:

@cazzy-and not even a  emoticon...(a whole 'nother story...)

@johnmitchell-welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  WRT the lump and your temps...dome thermo calibrated?  And a recent Wicked Good Weekend Warrior (WGWW) buy or older as they (WGWW) had a very poor quality control problem around 8-10 months ago-since fixed. FWIW-

Oops...new I forgot something.

OP...Outside of what lousubcap suggested, have you been cleaning out your egg to ensure there is optimal air flow?

caliking

Hit it with a weed burner to start it. Even WG lights up with a weed burner.

How'd I do @cazzy?

RRP

What the others have said, but are you sure your firebox opening on the bottom is lined up with your front vent of the egg? You may not believe this but if not lined up it will make a world of difference! 

RRP

BTW no matter what lump you use you should be able to get to nuke temperatures within time, so IMO you have some of these other issues needing to be resolved. Good luck, and keep asking if need be!

caliking

Sorry -  I was being a bit of an a$$. Didn't notice that you were new here. 

Firstly, welcome to the forum! 

I'm a fan of the "reset and reboot" approach to problem-solving. Clean out the egg. Completely. Remove all of the lump, fire ring, and fire box. Clean out all of the ash. 

Place the parts back inside. Make sure the vertical notch of the firebox lines up with the bottom intake of the base. You should be able to see the inside center of the egg base  when you look through the bottom intake. 

Place the iron grate in the firebox. It has a chamfered edge, and each hole has wider side and a less wide side. Place the fire grate so that the wider side of the holes face downwards. This helps ash fall without clogging the grate.  

Place the fire ring back in and fill the egg with lump, at least up to the top rim of the fire box, if not up to the top rim of the fire ring (for an overnight or long cook). Make sure your lump is not wet or damp. 

Check that your thermometer is calibrated correctly by placing in an ice-water bath and then in boiling water. 

Put the thermometer back in. Take the DFMT off the top and open the bottom intake all the way. Start your fire with starter blocks, weed burner, oil soaked paper towel, etc. If using starter blocks/cubes try using 2 or 3 .

You should have nuclear temps not too long after. Make sure you burp the egg before opening if you value your eyebrows.

Deckhand

Used lump will take longer to get up to temp...  and won't go as high as lump that has never been burned (It takes less time to get "thin blue", though.  

johnmitchell

Thanks for all the advice, I will reboot this weekend. I have just checked my thermometer and it was off about 5 degrees on the low side so I have fixed that. ( did the boiling water method).

I will report back once I have followed your other advice

shadowcaster

Depending on where you live, elevation, and relative humidity water boils at a different temp just an FYI. So if you are going off 212 as the boiling point that is probably is not accurate. So in short your thermo might not be off much if any. I have had your problem on occasion and put me down for a +1 on the complete clean out. Also depending on where you live and how you store your lump you might have a problem with damp lump which would also affect your results. Good luck and hopefully it is fixed

Shiff

Deckhand said:

Used lump will take longer to get up to temp...  and won't go as high as lump that has never been burned (It takes less time to get "thin blue", though.  

I would think it would take less time to get up to temperature since it doesn't need any energy to boil off the VOC.  I also don't see why it wouldn't get as high a temperature either.

johnmitchell

Hi Guys

I did the whole reset as advised by Calkin... Everything on my egg was wrong.. sorted out and now a happy egg head..

Thanks  I am a happy Egg Head..

caliking

You're up and running. Awesome!! 

This is possibly the first time I have ever provided helpful advice to someone here. I have arrived.

(Just realized that I recommended calibrating your thermo in an ice-water bath... but the dome thermo doesn't read 32°F... doh!)