Egg Temps/Cleaning

CornfedMA

Hi Everybody- I bought an XL about 3-4 months ago and have been lurking here a while and thank all of you for knowledge I've picked up so far. I absolutely LOVE this thing.

I have a question for some of you well seasoned eggheads- how often do you "disassemble" your egg for a good clean out? I clean my ashes after every cook but haven't necessarily felt the need to do a complete clean out until this week. I've noticed during the 3-4 cooks I've done in the last few days that I've had to leave my bottom vent open a bit more to reach temps that I traditionally felt I reached with the vent being closed down more. It's leading me to believe that I may have a bit of an airflow restriction in the egg, thus maybe its time for a real good clean out. I'd be curious if any of you do this periodically or at all. 

- Cornfed

SmokingPiney

I clean out the ash every cook or two. About twice a month, I'll pull all the lump from the firebox to clean the air vents on the fire box.

I use balled up aluminum foil to clean the gunk from the dome - it will never be clean ivory colored again, but the gunk will be gone.

As for the inevitable call for a "clean burn" you will get soon in this thread, I do not recommend it. It drastically increases your chances of frying your gasket and cracking your fire box or base. There's nothing to be gained from it. 

Be sure to check your dome alignment periodically, and make sure the band hardware is tight when you check the dome. 

Other than this, there really isn't a tight regimen of maintenance for an Egg.

Carolina Q

Hello and welcome!

I have a large egg. I scrape out the ashes every couple of cooks. Used to do it less often when I had the stock fire grate. Now I use a Weber Smokey Joe fire grate (like the High Que only cheap) so I have to clean out more often. It lets a lot more of the small stuff through.

As for "disassembly", I don't remember the last time I did that. Has to be a year or two. Now that I think of it though, my usual 400° setting DOES seem to be more open than before. Not much, but some. I'm okay with that.

Carolina Q

SmokingPiney said:

...pull all the lump from the firebox to clean the air vents on the fire box.

I never even remember those holes are there! Maybe mine are open, maybe they're clogged. Have no idea as I haven't checked in forever. I remember that I used to, when my egg was new... in 2009.

And I have never removed the lump from the firebox - for any reason.

SmokingPiney

Carolina Q said:

SmokingPiney said:

...pull all the lump from the firebox to clean the air vents on the fire box.

I never even remember those holes are there! Maybe mine are open, maybe they're clogged. Have no idea as I haven't checked in forever. I remember that I used to, when my egg was new... in 2009.

And I have never removed the lump from the firebox - for any reason.

I have found a few vents clogged with ash from time to time. 

CornfedMA

Good stuff guys. I really appreciate it. It's not necessarily something I'm concerned about at this point. Something I just happened to notice with a couple bourbons onboard during tonight's cook. Espresso spice rubbed pork loin. 

In the short time I've had this marvelous contraption, I've never taken lump out, nor do I see myself doing so. 

BrewerAdam

Get the kick ash basket. Makes cleaning out the ash really easy. 

poster

BrewerAdam said:

Get the kick ash basket. Makes cleaning out the ash really easy. 

This, you can pull the ashes out from the top, while you still have lump left. I hate using the lower draft door, it ends up everywhere, especially if you have a table

SmokingPiney

CornfedMA said:

In the short time I've had this marvelous contraption, I've never taken lump out, nor do I see myself doing so. 

At some point you might find your Egg taking a bit longer to heat up. If it does, you might need to clean the fire box vents. Pulling the lump, cleaning the vents, and pouring the lump back in takes all of about 5 minutes.

Saves some grief when you really need to get the Egg going and the vents aren't cooperating. 

Just sayin'.............

lousubcap

I will pull the guts out of the LBGE prior to any high-end protein low&slow cook (unless I'm doing one within about 2-3 weeks of the last clean out cook) and get rid of all the accumulated ash.  SBGE, generally 2-3 times per year unless I'm gonna run a L&S on it-then prior to that cook.
Pretty easy on the smaller rigs. FWIW-

GrillSgt

Kick ash basket is where it's at.