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Booze, broken eggs, & puppies...

UncleFred
UncleFred Posts: 458
edited July 2015 in EggHead Forum
Now that I have your attention,

3rd party improvements & mod's.........

I've read about (and purchased) any number of 3rd party BGE modifications.  ...from (starting at the top) a Smokeware cap to replace the daisy wheel, dome temp thermometer, the Rutland gasket, Woo's &  Spiders, cast iron plate setters,  kick ash baskets, charcoal fire grate replacement, and BBQ Guru type controllers. If it's out there, I probably have it or want it!

What I haven't seen is a 3rd party redesign/replacement for what I think is the weakest part of the BGE design, the aluminum bottom slider assembly.

I have been monitoring "shut down" times on my egg for months and have found that I have burning (glowing) coals an hour or more after I shut everything up (point of reference my Weber is consistantly OUT in 10 min.). This tells me that air is still getting into the egg.

I've played around with different jury rigged "fixes" and have found that they significantly reduce the time to starve the charcoal of needed oxygen.



Come on... if you can redesign / improve virtually EVERYTHING else on the egg, why not a better bottom slider that will allow air in only one place and seal out ALL air when closed. 

Somebody has to have a better (out of the box?) idea... Kickstarter probably has the development funds!
 you could call it the butt plug!! :)
San Diego, CA - Where I've mastered Curmudgeon..working on Recluse.

Comments

  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 26,481
    edited July 2015
    Looks and sounds to me like your track width is a tad sloppy! Just find your patience bone and then using a small block of wood and a small hammer start tapping on the track to slightly bend it in toward your door. Do both the bottom and top tracks. If by chance you get it too tight then carefully take a slotted screwdriver and ease the track wider. Worked for me! 
    Re-gasketing the USA one yard at a time 
  • WeberWho
    WeberWho Posts: 11,571
    I like your test!  Props
    "The pig is an amazing animal. You feed a pig an apple and it makes bacon. Let's see Michael Phelps do that" - Jim Gaffigan

    Minnesota
  • Focker
    Focker Posts: 8,364
    Echo what Ron recommends, took a large flathead to one of my larges the other day because the door pulled the screen when adjusting.  Works much better now.  
    Brandon
    Quad Cities
    "If yer gonna denigrate, familiarity with the subject is helpful."

  • Skiddymarker
    Skiddymarker Posts: 8,528
    Do agree the bottom vent can be a PITA. The curved surface makes it difficult to get it just right, it can be adjusted. There have been threads on folks jamming a finger so hard they sliced a deep gash in there sliding finger. Noticed my Primo Oval slides without effort as it is on a flat plain. Follow Ron's suggestion and you can adjust it. 
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
  • Botch
    Botch Posts: 17,529
    I lick my palm and press it over the top; fire's out in 4 minutes tops. [/Norris]

    “Remember this, Sometimes the only way up is to Crawl,

    You’re already down, you can’t fall, 

    Anymore”       - Seal

     

    Ogden, UT, USA


  • UncleFred
    UncleFred Posts: 458
    RRP said:
    Looks and sounds to me like your track width is a tad sloppy!

    Focker said:
    Echo what Ron recommends...

    Do agree the bottom vent can be a PITA.
    Thanks guys... I will certainly give it a wack, or 3...  But that just reinforces the point.  We've established that just about every part of, or item in the egg has been improved upon EXCEPT the bottom slider.... that just strikes me as odd.
    If you've gotta finesse it, why not something "new"?

    When I suggested a name at the end of my initial post it got me thinking... maybe someone could come up with a piece of "something" that could lay inside the egg between the shell and the fire box that could either be pushed into the firebox hole or pulled into the shell hole to seal off airflow when shutting down (something like what Smokeware did with their new product for the chimney.

    That might solve the shutdown problem, but I maintain the whole slide door could be re-engineered to better control how air gets into the egg.

    San Diego, CA - Where I've mastered Curmudgeon..working on Recluse.
  • UncleFred
    UncleFred Posts: 458
    Botch said:
    I lick my palm and press it over the top; fire's out in 4 minutes tops. [/Norris]
    Hummmm... don't think my health insurance would cover me on that one. :s

    But it might qualify me for a Darwin Award!!
    San Diego, CA - Where I've mastered Curmudgeon..working on Recluse.
  • johnkitchens
    johnkitchens Posts: 5,234
    Don't call it the butt plug.

    Louisville, GA - 2 Large BGE's