Altitude....how this affects cook

Burnttoastburgos

VERY new to the egg thing, but not to bbq'ing......we live at 7500' above sea level. Watched numerous vids on starting my medium sized EGG. Couldnt get above 130 degrees. Cleaned out the entire fire box, added new dry lump coal, kept lid off for 15 minutes while coals got up to a nice red hot glow, shut lid, opened bottom to 3/4 open, daisey wheel to 3/4 open....still nothing. It was 20 degrees outside with a measly 5 mph wind, so i tried again with a different lump coal.....nothing. 3rd attempt was kept both bottom and top vents wide open, finally got to 130 and that was it........is altitude a factor? 

DoubleEgger

No. Your airflow is restricted. Are you using small pieces of lump? I’m assuming that the vent opening in the firebox is aligned with the vent in the base.  I highly recommend a Kick Ash Basket or similar to help improve the airflow. 

DoubleEgger

Welcome to the forum by the way. 

nolaegghead

It shouldn't have that much effect - you'll have to open your vents up a little more than sea-level and water boils at a lower temp, probably your stall will be worse.  I think what doubleegger said - you have airflow problems.

lousubcap

First up, welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
If you have a full bed of lump with a "nice red hot glow" then you should be well above 130 *F.  Have you checked the calibration of your dome thermo??
Beyond that, the BGE is air-flow driven as noted by @DoubleEgger.  Something doesn't fit here...
Wish I had more insights.

Burnttoastburgos

will check oem thermometer when sun comes up.....thanx !!

1voyager

@DoubleEgger nailed it. Air flow and KAB.

I live at 7,000 feet and have no problem getting the Egg to 600 degrees for pizza. (Ran it up to 800 once which resulted in warped bands.)

Slippy

Burnttoastburgos said:

VERY new to the egg thing, but not to bbq'ing......we live at 7500' above sea level. Watched numerous vids on starting my medium sized EGG. Couldnt get above 130 degrees. Cleaned out the entire fire box, added new dry lump coal, kept lid off for 15 minutes while coals got up to a nice red hot glow, shut lid, opened bottom to 3/4 open, daisey wheel to 3/4 open....still nothing. It was 20 degrees outside with a measly 5 mph wind, so i tried again with a different lump coal.....nothing. 3rd attempt was kept both bottom and top vents wide open, finally got to 130 and that was it........is altitude a factor? 

Did it feel really hot? Are you sure the needle on the thermo didn't do a full 360 and back around to 130°? This has happened to me before, made it all the way to 300°... 

DoubleEgger

I assumed the OP was talking about 130C 

Slippy

C? Is he some kind of spaceman? 

Burnttoastburgos

Haaaa, thats the same reaction I had, no Sir....degrees in F....and no, it did NOT feel hot. The airway was completely open. The funny thing is i can start a fire in the wilderness with just sticks and cant even get this hot enough to make toast.

cookingdude555

What does the gap between your firebox and firering in comparison to the wall of the cooker look like? I bought a medium from another that could not get it hot. There was a large gap between the wall and the internals. I replaced the firebox and firering and it’s now a blast furnace. Hottest egg I have. 

Slippy

Burnttoastburgos said:

Haaaa, thats the same reaction I had, no Sir....degrees in F....and no, it did NOT feel hot. The airway was completely open. The funny thing is i can start a fire in the wilderness with just sticks and cant even get this hot enough to make toast.

How much coal are you using, and how many places are you lighting it? Do you use the stock perforated cast iron fire grate? We'll figure this out... 

Burnttoastburgos

About 5/8" between od of fire ring and i.d.of green egg. Too much??

SSQUAL612

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on Big Green Egg Cooks. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than success, than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you, we are in charge of our attitudes.

Burnttoastburgos

beautiful words, and agree 100% with them all, but I was curious about altitude affecting my stove, but yes, I humbly agree with all your words. Thank you Sir.

Burnttoastburgos

Slippy said

How much coal are you using, and how many places are you lighting it? Do you use the stock perforated cast iron fire grate? We'll figure this out... 

I filled the firepot about 3/4, using fatter lump on bottom and lit it in the center, got it red hot coals , moved them around a bit and closed the lid. still never got over 130degrees F. 
I am going to try it again tomorrow, but the high is supposed to be 20 degrees. Does the outside temp affect the EGG ??

Slippy

I have found that if I light the initial fire in 3-4 places around the firebox, is can get it hot pretty fast. 20F shouldn’t affect the interior of the egg much. Perhaps add a bit more coal just to be aggressive with the fire. 

brimee

Are you doing this with the plate setter in place? I have found that it gets to temperature much faster doing the following;

1. Light the lump and get it burning good with lower vent wide open and lid open and plate setter out for around 15 to 25 minutes
2. Close the lid, lower vent wide open and no daisy wheel and bring it up to approximate cooking temp (usually 300) and adjust the lower vent down to maintain.
3. After 15 to 25 minutes I then open and pi
ut the plate setter in and restablize the temp once the plate setter heats up and then fine tune with the daisy wheel.

the above works very well for me every time but of course I am no where near your altitude and the coldest I have ever fired it up was around the upper 20s. It does take longer to heat everything up on colder days.

Slippy

also, try to take some pics of your setup

Burnttoastburgos

24* outside.....this is after 10 minutes with lid open, going to listen to above post and close at 20 minutes....you mentioned about space around the ring and wall of egg....is this gap too big?

northGAcock

Getting high is never a good idea when messin with fire.....oh and welcome to the forum. 

Burnttoastburgos

northGAcock said:

Getting high is never a good idea when messin with fire.....oh and welcome to the forum. 

ahhhh....yes, my fellow "head" you are correct. although Jerry may dissagree !!

Burnttoastburgos

well, i dont know what happened but got a solid 240, below are two pics of the vents...good to go?

Slippy

What temp are you shooting for and for how long? For low and slow, you should be good to go. 

Burnttoastburgos

Ha e no idea, I figured 225 for 5hrs???

lousubcap

If you are able to stabilize in your desired temperature range for the desired duration then you are good to go....however, you get there.  FWIW-

MNEggerandStuff

that's about where my openings are for that temp.  Perhaps take pictures another day inside the Egg, showing the fire ring and grates without lump.

What lump are you using?

Slippy

Burnttoastburgos said:

Ha e no idea, I figured 225 for 5hrs???

Chances are, if you are cooking at 225, then it will need to go quite a bit longer than 5 hours. I can't think of any meats that would be ready at that temp in only 5 hours, so hopefully you can keep it going for longer...  ABT's would take about 3, but anything else would be longer... looks like you are heading in the right direction though. 

Burnttoastburgos

Oh, just a rack of ribs this go around as I'm still a newbie to the egg. Slower is better ,no?

jtcBoynton

You have about a 1/3 load of lump.  You may run short if what you are cooking takes a long time.