Did the bottom of the bag snuf my cook?

MN-Egger

Yesterday wanted to cook spare ribs so took everything our of the egg, cleaned completely and reassembled.  Egg was pretty full of lump and I lit it in 3 places with a Mapp torch and had a good fire going. I had a 1/8 of a bag (BGE brand) left of lump so I dumped that in and the bulk was from a new sealed bag. All day I had to fight with the egg to maintain and make heat struggling to keep 230-250°. Most of the cook, the bottom vent was open 1/2 to full and the same for the top vent. A couple times I had to open the egg to get the temp up.  Could the dust at the bottom of the bag clogged everything up for 5 6 hours? if so, besides starting over, is there anything I could've done? Did manage to get the ribs cooked and they were amazing but couldn't leave the egg for very long. 

lousubcap

BGE runs on lump with air-flow.  Sounds like you started out clean with lump and then your guess sounds right-choked it to the point where you had to increase the amount of air just to sustain a low temp.  You likely have a good accumulation of ash and fines below the cooking grate.  Starting over in the middle of a cook usually isn't an option (unless you have exhausted every other choice) and you managed to power thru so lesson learned.

Carolina Q

Did you use a wiggle rod? Poke it up thru the fire grate from the bottom. You may have been clogged with small bits. You can buy wiggle rods here (at least I assume thirdeye still sells them) or you can make a flimsy one with a coat hanger.

henapple

After a previous cook I take a gloved hand and stir the lump.... 

SmokingPiney

henapple said:

After a previous cook I take a gloved hand and stir the lump.... 

Same here, and I make sure the firebox holes are clear.

Botch

I have a Kick-Ash basket in my Large, and if I'm at the end of a bag (and if I remember), I dump the rest of the bag into the KAB, shake it over my trash receptacle, put it into the Egg and light.  Yeah, too many crumbs can screw things up, although I've never seen it happen for 5 hours before.  
Wonder if that unburned lump-dust would be good for potted plants?  

500

Yes. I have experienced that myself. End up really having to stoke it with the AirGrill blower to get it going. I'll stir the new lump again when I see lots of smalls at the end of a bag. 

MN-Egger

Will never dump the last of a bag into egg ever again! I maybe need to sort the lump placing bigger pieces near the bottom for good air flow me thinks. Also, no, I did not use a wiggle rod and had not heard of such a thing until this thread. I will be ordering one soon however!