What's wrong with my egg!

jabam

Came home last night to cook a couple ribeyes. Started the fire tried to get up to 400 to do reverse sear. Never got up to 400 put the steaks on anyway. Took an hour to cook them no sear basically baked. Chalked it up to too much cerveza during the day. Wife brought home a ready to cook pizza tonight, started fire to get up to 400, it got up to 350 got tired of waiting so I put pizza on after closing the lid temp fell down to 250 and won't go back up!  I calibrated the temp gauges and cleaned egg before I started. What's up?

johnkitchens

It sounds like clogged air holes. Did you check that?

jabam

Yes took everything out and cleared vent holes. Do you think I might have a crack somewhere?

JohnInCarolina

It is possible that you simply have too much lump in there, and even though you cleaned it, air flow is restricted.  

johnkitchens

I don't know about a crack. I would think a crack would show itself with smoke coming out etc. What kind of lump was it. 

I have had trouble like that in the past when I couldn't get up to temp, but it was usually when it was either very humid outside or a rainy misty day with lots of moisture in the air. 

I did switch over to hi que grates, and now I have no problem getting to temp. 

Mattman3969

My large acts like that if it has set for a while and it has been rainy.  If you have moisture breads on the inside of the dome this is the problem and just needs to dry out

Biggreenpharmacist

Did you have plenty of lump?

Theophan

When you say, "took everything out and cleared vent holes," do you mean you took out not just any charcoal, but also the fire ring and fire box (I think that's what they're called)?  

I had the same problem and it turned out that a TON of ash between the inside of the Egg's outer wall and the fire box was drastically cutting down on air flow, even though the holes themselves were open.  If you haven't tried that, take out the fire ring and the fire box and get all of the ash out.  And then when you put the fire box back in, be sure the opening is completely square with the opening in the Egg.

If that's not it, I'm sorry, I don't have any ideas.

Theo

jabam

I use royal oak that's all I have ever used never had a problem before.  I'm going to 

jabam

Biggreenpharmacist said:

Did you have plenty of lump?

Yes loaded it up

jabam

Theophan said:

When you say, "took everything out and cleared vent holes," do you mean you took out not just any charcoal, but also the fire ring and fire box (I think that's what they're called)?  

I had the same problem and it turned out that a TON of ash between the inside of the Egg's outer wall and the fire box was drastically cutting down on air flow, even though the holes themselves were open.  If you haven't tried that, take out the fire ring and the fire box and get all of the ash out.  And then when you put the fire box back in, be sure the opening is completely square with the opening in the Egg.

If that's not it, I'm sorry, I don't have any ideas.

jabam

Theophan said:

When you say, "took everything out and cleared vent holes," do you mean you took out not just any charcoal, but also the fire ring and fire box (I think that's what they're called)?  

I had the same problem and it turned out that a TON of ash between the inside of the Egg's outer wall and the fire box was drastically cutting down on air flow, even though the holes themselves were open.  If you haven't tried that, take out the fire ring and the fire box and get all of the ash out.  And then when you put the fire box back in, be sure the opening is completely square with the opening in the Egg.

If that's not it, I'm sorry, I don't have any ideas.

Theo

I didn't pull fire box out I try that next. Thanks!

Ladeback69

jabam said:

Theophan said:

When you say, "took everything out and cleared vent holes," do you mean you took out not just any charcoal, but also the fire ring and fire box (I think that's what they're called)?  

I had the same problem and it turned out that a TON of ash between the inside of the Egg's outer wall and the fire box was drastically cutting down on air flow, even though the holes themselves were open.  If you haven't tried that, take out the fire ring and the fire box and get all of the ash out.  And then when you put the fire box back in, be sure the opening is completely square with the opening in the Egg.

If that's not it, I'm sorry, I don't have any ideas.

Theo

I didn't pull fire box out I try that next. Thanks!

Make sure to line up the fire box when you pit it back in or it can restrict your flow. 

jabam

Ok thanks

JohnInCarolina

One last thing: don't forget to check for a loose nut behind the wheel.

Terrebandit

User error of some type.  If clean and you set it up as they instructed,there should be no problems. It's a pretty simple system. Got lump, good air flow, and fire? That thing should spin the temp dial. 

islanderegger

Open the vents up, lol.

mstang1988

A long while back I had similar issues.  The largest part was the brand of lump I was using.  A few brands (Central market) really required a LONG LONG time with the starter before it would get going properly.  With Royal Oak I throw on my HeaterMeter fan to stoke the flames.  I can push it up to about 450-500 before the fan runs out of volume but by then I just take it out and it has enough draft to ride it up to ~750-800.  

Brand of Charcoal and User.  Just make sure it's completely clean and it will do it.  

SmokeyPitt

I would recommend a high queue grate or a kick ash basket.  Even when you do everything right sometimes the grate just gets clogged with small pieces of lump. 

In addition, go tot he hardware store and get a piece of steel rod and bend an "L" on the end (a wiggle rod).  You can use it on the stock grate to poke through the air holes and wiggle.  I still use the wiggle rod with the high queue sometimes to speed things up.  

johnkitchens

+ 1 for the hi-que grate. Also do as others have recommended and completely take everything out of the egg. A lot of ash can build up around the firebox. If you remove all of the ash and have good airflow you will have to get to temp. 

Biggreenpharmacist

If you didnt pull the ring and firebox thats most probably your problem. That means you probably never have and there will be a ton of ash behind it. 

Charlesmaneri

I recommend that you take the fire ring and fire box out and get a shop vac and completely  clean the inside of your Egg I have 2 Larges and a mini and I do this after like every 4th or 5th cook remember the Egg works on air flow if their is a ton of ash it restricts air flow and that prevents the temp from rising

fishlessman

no ash buildup, lump filled up into the fire ring, bottom vent wide open,DAISY OFF EGG SITTING ON THE GROUND, then its just a matter of time for it to reach 1200 degrees

Chubbs

Agree with others. One last thing is wet lump. Could it have possibly gotten wet? 

jabam

Chubbs said:

Agree with others. One last thing is wet lump. Could it have possibly gotten wet? 

Didn't get wet, I'm going to do like everyone says and take everything out tonight, that should fix the problem. I will post results tonight. 

BRush00

I was having an issue once upon a time as well, found that it was taking WAAAAYYYY too long to get up to temp.... even with the dome wide open, fire wasn't spreading much....

Looked down after at least 45 minutes of telling my wife she just had to be patient... found that I had actually forgotten to open the bottom vent. 

It's more than likely the above clogged-airflow problems, but I thought i'd throw this out incase... it happens lol

nolaegghead

Did you light the top or bottom of the lump?

GuitarEC

I had this issue with my first few cooks - I found that taking a wire hanger and "fishing" the holes thru the bottom to clear them of ash and small lump pieces will free up the airflow.

Of course, the REALLY easy way to cure the issue is to get a Kick Ash Basket.

Just my $0.02 (inflation adjusted),

Eric "GuitarEC"
Metro Atlanta Area

jabam

nolaegghead said:

Did you light the top or bottom of the lump?

I always light from the top in front

jabam

GuitarEC said:

I had this issue with my first few cooks - I found that taking a wire hanger and "fishing" the holes thru the bottom to clear them of ash and small lump pieces will free up the airflow.

Of course, the REALLY easy way to cure the issue is to get a Kick Ash Basket.

Just my $0.02 (inflation adjusted),

Eric "GuitarEC"
Metro Atlanta Area

Kick ash basket is my to get list!!

GuitarEC

jabam said:

I always light from the top in front

Light top center - the fire with build and spread concentrically outward and evenly - you light from the front and is will take longer to build out. At least, that what Golden told me when they came out from the BGE store to set mine up.

Eric "GuitarEC"
Metro Atlanta Area.