Opening egg to cool off?

RandyC

i know that after the cook I am supposed to close the top and all vents to let the coals go out.  It I noticed that hours after closing the egg down it takes hours for it to cool down.

Was wondering if it would be better to close everything down for an hour to extinguish the coals but then open the top so that the mass of ceramic could cool down quicker?

thanks

stlcharcoal

Soon as you open it, you're going to reintroduce O2 and it can fire back up......sometimes even after an hour.  Just depends on how much heat the ceramic and charcoal held.  Doesn't take much to get it going again.

The only trick would be to extinguish, then remove the charcoal via a Kick Ash Basket.  If the charcoal is out in free air, then it's more likely to extinguish......then you're free to leave the lid up and cool it off.  That's how they do it at Eggfests.

keithinlouisiana

I shut all vents, give it time for the fire/coals to die down, and then open it to cool. I think the amount of time you need to keep it shut depends on the fire and temp. Could be as little as an hour or as much as 2 hours. If I'm cooking direct at about 400, I usually open lid at about 1 1/2 hours with no problems yet. YMMV.

hoosier_egger

Is there a concern about it taking longer than an hour to cool down? 

Carolina Q

ColtsFan said:

Is there a concern about it taking longer than an hour to cool down? 

^^^This^^^

Why does it matter? Even if it's still warm 12-24 hours later (for my next cook), so what?