Eggspander, Woo, or Adjustable Rig?

cookingdude555

I decided to add the Eggspander to find out.  Right now the Woo has always been my favorite, even over the AR, and I have owned both for many years.  I love its simplicity, and every egg I cook on regularly has one.  The ARs are reserved for really big cooks in the XL and L.

I got a another Large egg last week for cheap, and instead of putting something that I already had in it, I decided to give this BGE kit a try.  I am really impressed with it so far.  It has some similarities to some of the CGS stuff, but it has other features that are cool.  Maiden voyage is Sunday, with some tri tips.

I have bought these fine products from Tom over the years:

2 adjustable rigs
6 woos
several stones and drip pans
several KABs
Woks
Spiders

I am probably missing things, but I know I have spent over well over $1K at his awesome playground, so I am not cheating on him much to give this a try.  I will need to order some half stones from him to take advantage of some of the stepped/staggered cooking the Eggspander can do.  New toys are fun.

GoooDawgs

Here come the blasphemer cries in 3....2....1 

I'm curious to hear what you think of the new eggspander. I have the AR and woo as well and have really enjoyed using them.

Now if only BGE could steal that new KJ heat deflector/diffuser idea too.....

cookingdude555

I’m excited to get some experience using it @GoooDawgs. I find it interesting how much people cry over BGE copying CGS, but not KJ copying CGS for the command and conquer. In fact I see more praise for KJ copying for some reason, and being given credit as an innovator. I doubt either of these companies engineered anything. They hired a firm to design and engineer the products, and another company in China to manufacture them. I would even wonder if the same vendor serviced both BGE and KJ. 

I know, lots of conspiracy theories. I haven’t checked the patents, but it would insightful to see who owns what design. If patents weren’t filed, that sucks.

All I know is that more competition is better for me as a consumer. Hopefully BGE eventually puts this product in every large they sell, or at least offer it as part of a bundle. They’ve got a really good product here, it shouldn’t be gathering dust on shelves at Ace Hardware. 

ryantt

@cookingdude555 I’m interested to see how it works out and holds up long term.  I too feel that BGE needs to start offering an all in one system with the grills, that seems to be what customers want and need. I went to an egg fest last weekend and the store owner said that he hasn’t sold a single eggspander to any one who already has an egg, but has sold 20-25 eggs this month with the egg slander combo package.  So far the feed back has been mixed, but many of these people are new to kamado cooking.   

cookingdude555

First run. Standard raised grid. Not really testing anything with this cook. Some basic teriyaki tri tips. 


I do like the two grill halves instead of the full grid. More options that way. 

cookingdude555

I’m a fan. Like I said tho, I think the best aspect is the half grids. 



Also everything is locked in there. It works very good together. 

MikeDV

@cookingdude555, thank you for the review. My wife got me an Eggspander for Christmas but I have avoided posting on my experiences due to the fear of starting another contentious thread.

I find that it works well, although I don't have any of the CGS racks to compare it to. The only issue that I've run into is when I first tried to use the pizza stone on the upper rack and the thermometer hit the stone. I found that I just had to move the stone further back to avoid this on my next cook.

Would be great to see some examples of using the half grids, especially if you mix and match different types.

cookingdude555

MikeDV said:

@cookingdude555, thank you for the review. My wife got me an Eggspander for Christmas but I have avoided posting on my experiences due to the fear of starting another contentious thread.

I find that it works well, although I don't have any of the CGS racks to compare it to. The only issue that I've run into is when I first tried to use the pizza stone on the upper rack and the thermometer hit the stone. I found that I just had to move the stone further back to avoid this on my next cook.

Would be great to see some examples of using the half grids, especially if you mix and match different types.

Good use of your eggspander there.  I ran into a similar issue with the thermometer, and my years using a mini helped.  I took the clip from the inside of the egg, and put it on the outside.  This allows more room inside the egg when cooking closer to the dome.

I am using the eggspander almost exclusively since I bought it (on the larges, still a huge woo fan for my other eggs).  I find it intuitive, easy to manipulate, and the way the upper and lower sections lock is awesome.  Now that I have the 2XL, I have considered getting an eggspander for my XL, and moving the XL adjustable rig into the 2XL.  I am surprised how much I like it.  I think the CGS gear offers more with the adjustable rig, I just dont do really big cooks with it.  I find more often I will just use another egg if one or two grids does not work.  I think for me, I prefer the eggspander, then a very close second is the woo, and trailing is the AR.  This is because of my use patterns, not because of a deficiency in any of the products.  This could change if my needs require the AR more.

KKoterski

I'm in the market for a new grill/grate system currently... If you could only choose one, would it be the Woo or Adjustable Rig? (BGE is likely outside of the $$ range).

cookingdude555

KKoterski said:

I'm in the market for a new grill/grate system currently... If you could only choose one, would it be the Woo or Adjustable Rig? (BGE is likely outside of the $$ range).

probably woo, it is more practical for most cooks, for me anyway.