Newbie! Help! Huge grease fire

macmilll

Hi All. First I want to say that this forum is great and I've learned a lot. I've done some low and slow plus I've grilled chicken thighs before which worked out awesome. Except for this time. I had the egg (M) on with full firebox of used charcoal with the conveggator. Brought grill temp up to 400F and put the thighs on. About 15min in a grease fire started on the conveggator. Totally out of control. I closed the lower air intake and removed the chicken, closed the lid and the daisy wheel. Currently waiting for the egg to totally cool down. Finishing the chicken in the oven.
What did I do wrong? Should I have trimmed the thighs first? Have a drip pan? Cook on a lower temp?
All help form you pros welcomed. 

GrateEggspectations

Sounds like your plate setter (convEggtor) is covered in grease - likely from the low and slows you speak of. Run your Egg without anything on it at 500 or so with the plate setter in for a couple of hours. That will burn the grease off. You’ll then be good to resume cooks. 

1911Man

I always use a drip pan when smoking anything. Easy to do with the Woo ring setup.  
I stopped using the conveggtor after about two months in on my old egg. That's when I got my first Woo ring setup. 
Seriously though, you can [easily] get a stainless drip pan to go on that to prevent this from ever happening again. Ceramic Grill Store is one great source for these.

PBandJ

And put an air gap between the stone and drip pan.

Elijah

Agreed about the grease on the platesetter. I try to always make it a point to burn it off after a fatty cook. It takes surprisingly long. 

RRP

I always wrap the top side of my plate setter with a piece of HD aluminum foil. I replace the foil after each use. That way the PS stays cleans and there is no need to burn off the old crud and there is no chance of bad odor from previous grease, sauces etc.

wardo

Sam's club has 32ct tin foil drip pans for like $7.  I use those.  I've got 4 pucks of crunched up tin foil they sit on.  The grid will sit nearly perfectly on top and the majority of drippings will be caught.  If you're cooking something bigger like a turkey then I'll put a sheet or 2 of tin foil down so they don't vaporize on the platesetter.

td66snrf

The only way you can a grease fire is too much oxygen. That's the  beauty of a kamado. 

stlcharcoal

Clean burn......fill it up and let it rip for a few hours.  The inside should return to a nice tan color and you're see a ton of white ash on the inside of the dome.

And use a drip pan on your low and slows, that will save you from this in the future.

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey. Above all, have fun.  Air gapped drip pan for the win, every time.  As mentioned above, any sized fire and grease is a recipe for " off to the races."  FWIW-

YukonRon

Welcome my new fellow egger. You have received sage instructions from the masters above.

Grease fires are no fun, but you can get a package of reusable round pans from Restaurant Depot or similar for the specific dimension of your plate setter. An air gap does help, but if the oxygen is properly controlled on the supply, it helps to reduce the possibility of flare ups and grease fires.

Good luck and post your cooks.

stlcharcoal

YukonRon said:

Welcome my new fellow egger. You have received sage instructions from the masters above.

Grease fires are no fun, but you can get a package of reusable round pans from Restaurant Depot or similar for the specific dimension of your plate setter. An air gap does help, but if the oxygen is properly controlled on the supply, it helps to reduce the possibility of flare ups and grease fires.

Good luck and post your cooks.

I always get the half buffet pans from costco since they're really cheap......you can stuff two side by side on top of a large plate setter and catch about 90%.  I'd love to get some bigger ones round ones for my xl though.  As much as I hate our restaurant depot in stl, I'll go check it out.

On trick I saw someone on tv use, they dumped a bunch of salt into the drip pan to prevent flare ups.

YukonRon

Double post.

rifrench

I cook "grilled' chicken parts like I do spatchcock, high as I can in the egg and direct at 400°.

kingsmoke

I buy the aluminum pans by the case from Gordon Food Store.  Nice to always have on hand for a variety of uses

Griffin

Wrap your plate setter in aluminum foil and discard after each indirect cook. Cheaper than pans and one less thing you have to find a place to store.

six_egg

One of the many things I have learned through years of cooking on the Egg. The dome temperature is just that the dome temp. Now the fire or pit temp big difference. It is easy to forget there is a fire down below when you see a gauge reading 250, 350 or 400. Make no mistake there is a fire that is way hotter than your dome reading and with the right make up can become a big problem if things are forgotten or not clean of fuel for fire like unseen grease left over. I have had this happen a lot to myself. Be safe and keep your area clean as you can. This will save you many problems later on.   

RRP

six_egg said:

 Be safe and keep your area clean as you can. This will save you many problems later on.   

I agree and to me that includes the occasional burn out. That's how I started 2020 - nice and white! Note my new dome scrapper - quicker and better than any ball of foil!

njl

RRP said:

I always wrap the top side of my plate setter with a piece of HD aluminum foil. I replace the foil after each use. That way the PS stays cleans and there is no need to burn off the old crud and there is no chance of bad odor from previous grease, sauces etc.

I've always covered my plate setter (and now my adjustable rig oval stone) with HDAF, but don't use drip pans.  I think that just lets the grease flow somewhere else.  I recently had a pretty significant grease fire in my egg below the fire grate last cook.  i.e. it looked like the very bottom inside of the egg was on fire.  A couple days later, I fully emptied it for cleaning and inspection, and found a sludge of grease and ash all around the base between the fire box and sides of the egg.  I'm talking handfuls of it.  I don't know if it's the amount of butt and brisket smoking I've been doing the past year, or if it's because I stopped the practice of opening the vents and getting it up to 600-700F before shutting down at the end of each cook.  
I think I'll go back to getting it good and hot at the end of each cook though.  During the fire, there was so much smoke, I got a call from my neighbor complaining about it, and the bottom got so hot, my table caught fire directly under the center of the egg.  I've been using a dealer wood table ~10 years with the egg just sitting on the 3 little ceramic feet.
I don't know if the fire was the cause or an effect, but my base is cracked.  There's a visible crack under the vent.  The past couple of cooks, it's been dripping grease at the back...but I can't see the bottom well enough to see any cracks where it was dripping  I'd assumed the grease was just flowing through the ceramic.  Now that I have a visible crack in front, I'm going to see about getting the base replaced.