Lg. or XL.

lrkay19

I have a large egg love the hell out of
It. Have a friend ready to buy his first Egg. I am very happy with my Lg. So I keep pushing him towards the large. You Xl. Guys have some feed back. Is the Xl. Worth the extra. Money. And does it cook the same as Lg.

Ladeback69

Yes and yes. I toyed with which one to get and decided I rather have the one that could handle the largest cook I could do, I got the XL. I cooked about 30 burgers and brunches of packs of hotdogs so I wanted something that could handle that and more. I can load it up and get at least 4 cooks out ofthe lump on normal cooks. I've done some long cooks and always have lump leftover. I was told if you can afford it go for it. I'm glad I did. I hope this helps.

stlcharcoal

I've never been a fan of my XL.......too squat.  Mine gets hot spots, especially toward the back.  The plate setter is too shallow, yet if it was any taller, you couldn't close the lid over a turkey.  The whole thing should have been 6"-12" taller, as XL is shorter than a Large.  It's like they took a Medium and stretched it out in the middle--the firebox is only 6" deep.

I would take two Larges (or a Large+Medium) over the XL any day   I find myself wanting to cook two things at different temps more often than a lot of one thing.  The XL is great if you have to grill at lot at once.  Otherwise, I think the Med and Lrg perform a lot better, and give you more versatility.

Get your a Large, then troll Craigslist for a second one.

SGH

@Irkay19

I have a large and I'm very pleased with it. But I would recommend the xlarge if you don't have other big cookers in your arsenal. If this will be your only cooker definitely get the xlarge because the day will surely come that you want to cook for friends and family and you will need the extra room. Also with the very large subprimals overcrowding and head room can become a issue on my large. This problem is rectified and avoided by choosing the xlarge. If you have the money go for the xlarge and you will be capable of cooking the largest subprimals with ease all the way down to a single hot dog and every thing in between. The xlarge in my opinion is the most capable and useful of all the eggs as it encompasses a much broader range of meats that it can handle. Just my thoughts my friend.

RRP

lrkay19 said:

I have a large egg love the hell out of It. Have a friend ready to buy his first Egg. I am very happy with my Lg. So I keep pushing him towards the large. You Xl. Guys have some feed back. Is the Xl. Worth the extra. Money. And does it cook the same as Lg.

Guess I'm missing something here, but why does your friend feel he needs the XL? How many people does he cook for on a regular basis? I love my large also, but my small egg gets over 60% of my cooks! BTW if his need for an XL is a size envy thing then explain to him that the XXL has been made (NO LIE!!!), but needs special shipping etc so even an XL won't make him king of the hill...just saying...

Thatgrimguy

I absolutely LOVE my XL. I don't consistently cook for tons of people, but the extra flexibility of space is amazing and the cost is insignificant in the long run. And with lump reducers, I can cook on half and use lump like a medium. My brother has the large and it always feels tight to me. Large turkeys seem to get awfully close to the sides.

lowandslow

I was contemplating same thing when I bought mine.  I bought the XL.  I found the cooking surface to be a little small on the Large.  Not sure about the post that said a turkey will not allow the lid to close.  I have cooked 20lb+ birds on my XL and there was plenty of room.  I even had it elevated in a roasting pan.  The old school XL was more shallow, but that was at least 4 years ago.  Much more room for a big cook if you have a BBQ.  I even bought a second tier for mine.  You will also never need to consider buying a second egg.

Go big or go home.  Buy the XL.  You will not regret it.

Cowdogs

I owned a large for a year, and now a XL for two years.  The XL is a much better grill.  The XXL doesn't exist.  My small get 70% of my cooks, but if I had to keep one grill it would be the XL.  

corey24

Contemplated the same thing about 6 months ago. Went with the XL and have never looked back. Wanted the ability to have all the space I could for larger cooks. For my smaller cooks I split the firebox and cook on one half or even use the other half as indirect. XL is a great great cooker and I have 0 regrets!!

1move

@cowdogs Yes the XXL exists and so does a Godzila. I will post a picture if need be from the BGE magazine. 

I contemplated the same purchase and went with the XL. I love it. I looked at the large and it is substantially a lot less room. I was doing a roast the other day which was a 5LB roast and I had plenty of roam for veggies, corn and potatoes. Here is a couple of pictures and you can judge. i just love that its very flexible and versatile and I know I would have to have at least two large when we have people over. 

Dutch_egg

I went through the same evaluation recently and went with the XL. I'm glad I did, I can setup a 2 zone fire without a problem and when going full on, I have no problem to cook multiple items including using a large CI skillet simultaneously.

tksmoke

I also agonized over the choice.  In the end, I selected the XL - Sometimes you get lucky.  It has really been perfect in all respects.  I have lots of room for big cooks, and it is still very capable of doing small cooks.  If you are only going to have one, to me the only answer is XL.  I recently posted in another thread about multiple eggs.  If you start with the XL, there is no need for a second egg.  On the other hand, if you start out with a large, you can purchase or create all sorts of stuff in an attempt to add cooking area, but it will still not be an XL.  That isn't too say that you will not enjoy a large.  Lots of folks love their larges, as you can see in this thread.  I think the best advice I've heard is buy the largest your budget will allow.  The price difference isn't that huge.  Right now is eggfest time, and it's possible to pick up a once used egg at a considerable saving.

msloan

my friend has a large and i went with the XL…….we have done cooks on both and for me and my purposes it's the xl all the way!

cortguitarman

I love the XL. As others have said, I use angle L brackets to divide the firebox and use way less lump. Would a large fit my needs? Yes, for 95% of my cooks. However, when we recently had family over and did kabobs for 20, the XL with the swing rack was the hot ticket. When I bought my egg, the plan was that the XL would be my only grill. As of now, that is still the case. However, I've been eying the mini max.

fishlessman

if my main cooks were hot dogs and hamburgers and feeding a hundred people i would get the xl. but i can easily feed 50 or so people with the large

DMW

Have him think about what he wants to cook and for how many. Some things that take a bunch of grid space:
Hot dogs/sausage links
Burgers
Steaks/Chops
Kababs/skewers
Corn on the cob

Grillmagic

My XL is too big 80% of the time However that 20% of the time when I need it it's perfect. I have been thinking of adding the minimax however if I could only afford one grill it would be the XL, the second pic is 21 pounds of Pork Loins

fishlessman

and with the savings of a large he could get the mini appetizer machine

4 pounds of wings on a mini kub

lilwooty

I have both the Large and XL.  I use them both all of the time.  If I were forced to part with one of them, I would keep the XL.  Bottom line for me is, I can cook less food on the XL that it is capable of handling, but I can't cook more food on the large that it is capable of handling.  My XL holds temps steadier and longer than my large.  My 22" pizza stone for the XL is awesome.  Plugged air holes in the firebox and fire grate are an issue that needs to be dealt with on the large, but are nonexistent problems with the XL.  Don't get me wrong, I use my large quite frequently and love it, but if I had to make a choice, my XL would win hands down.

Cowdogs

fishlessman said:

if my main cooks were hot dogs and hamburgers and feeding a hundred people i would get the xl. but i can easily feed 50 or so people with the large

I suppose if you precook the food or limit the menu choices to things like brisket and pork butt you could.  Even with the XL serving 50 people something like wings, burgers, or dogs (not precooked, but fresh off the grill) would not be practical.  Think about if all 50 people are eaters then you're looking at 300-400 wings.  Running 3 racks on the XL I might get 300 done in 3 batches, but it would be some work.

fishlessman

Cowdogs said:

fishlessman said:

if my main cooks were hot dogs and hamburgers and feeding a hundred people i would get the xl. but i can easily feed 50 or so people with the large

I suppose if you precook the food or limit the menu choices to things like brisket and pork butt you could.  Even with the XL serving 50 people something like wings, burgers, or dogs (not precooked, but fresh off the grill) would not be practical.  Think about if all 50 people are eaters then you're looking at 300-400 wings.  Running 3 racks on the XL I might get 300 done in 3 batches, but it would be some work.

i would never cook burgers for 50 on an egg, it would be a smoke fest. now the wings i could do in one cook in a basket like that 20 wing cook done in a mini. all my cooks and perceptions of large crowd cooks changed with the egg, ill put out the brisket and butts and have a couple guests pull them during the gathering, get all the credit, and spend the whole day with a beverage in my hand. i even set things up so that the guests can cook appetizers themselves like seafood fried in a fondue pot. big family events have many bringing over apps anyways, stuffed shrooms, wrapped asparugus, stuffed pickled peppers etc, always tons of food

GATABITES

Cowdogs said:

fishlessman said:

if my main cooks were hot dogs and hamburgers and feeding a hundred people i would get the xl. but i can easily feed 50 or so people with the large

I suppose if you precook the food or limit the menu choices to things like brisket and pork butt you could.  Even with the XL serving 50 people something like wings, burgers, or dogs (not precooked, but fresh off the grill) would not be practical.  Think about if all 50 people are eaters then you're looking at 300-400 wings.  Running 3 racks on the XL I might get 300 done in 3 batches, but it would be some work.

I cooked about 90= wings at one time on the AR back in March for my sons 1st bday party. Situations like that is why I purchased the XL. I wouldn't have had the real estate on a large to accomplish that cook. 4 slabs of spares went on right before. 

I love my XL! I still want a second egg; which may be an XL as well. 

:-O :-O

damnedhooligan

@Irkay19 XL all the way!! The XL does take a little longer to heat up than a large so I hope your friend has some patience. In my opinion this drawback doesn't out weigh not getting the XL, just light up the charcoal in different spots to speed up getting to the desired temperature.

fusionhq

I may be biased, but XL.

freddyj

I might be in the minority....could not live without 1 of each.

Ktim

I love my large and am going to buy another.I do not need the extra space very often but when I do I think the option of different temps is great.