New (to Me) XL in the Backyard- have some thoughts

xfire_ATX

I spent quite a bit of time reading this thread yesterday and I didnt want to hijack it.  Long opening thoughts I know.
https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1230360/contemplating-an-xl

I have had my Large for ~8 years, fully rigged out with the Woo and various stones to give felt direct, half direct, full indirect.  I havent used a plate setter in 7 years.

Neighbor started with a used Medium, too small found a used XL.
The other day he says come take this thing out of my backyard.  Turns out it has a 2nd cracked base.

littlerascal56 said:

Just make sure to buy at a dealer you can work with.  The XL is notorious for cracked bases.  I replaced several, and 1 dome before I sold mine.

 We can warranty the base I just dont think he wants to deal with it anymore.  Regardless I spent half of Saturday moving it across the street and re-assembling it.   Those shelves came off my Large, but it does have the KAB- otherwise its pretty basic.


So yesterday go to do first cook- Standard Spatchcock chicken, added some Corn on the Cob and then cooked some Chicken Breasts.  Not knowing this Egg I started early and kept an eye on it, looking for 400 to do the Spatch Chicken- took much longer to come up with the damper more open than on the large.  Got to 375 brought damper down and put chicken on.  After 30 min it was at 350 so I opened the damper a bit more, 30 min later when I went to check done with probe its at 450.  I then proceeded to fight the dang thing back to to 400.  On my Large I almost never use a top I control all the heat just with bottom vent, after it went to 450 I had the bottom where I would do a brisket and then put the top on and had it 90% closed and was fighting to stay down.  After I finished I just closed both top and bottom and watched it (from inside) sit at 450 for an hour before coming down, some 2 or 3 hours later it was still 250... thing holds heat.

Cook- all the food came out great as expected, I forgot how much I dont like the Plate Setter and conversed with Tom @CGS for the Woo and deflectors.  I just need to do some practice cooks and learn the XL settings vs the Large settings.

The Large will hang around for a bit until I get the XL base replaced then its moving a few doors down to another neighbors house unless hes changed his mind as we are all paying forward here.

I cracked up when I put the chicken on... felt like I was doing a Cornish Game Hen.

cookingdude555

Congrats you will love the XL. 

Photo Egg

Great read and great score on the XL.
I cut the legs off my plate setter and now it’s Tri shaped pizza stone and I use it with CGS Woo when I need indirect. So much easier to store a flat stone.
Is your gasket a little more used/burned towards the back? I had some alignment issues getting my XL to sit flat in the back. This made it a little harder to hold temps and shut down. But your new XL looks like it was used very little and looks “dry”. As it gunks up a little with grease it will seal up more and get easier to dial in temps. 

Congratulations!

SonVolt

I too hate the platesetter (and ceramic deflectors of any kind). I now use dual GrillGrate halfmoons with much better results. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL5IQ_00IMQ

littlerascal56

Agree with @SonVolt on the Grill Grates.  I use them on all my grills now.  Nothing to crack or break, lightweight, and easy to clean!

Grogu

I’m a brand new egger, so you probably already know this and it might not apply to your situation, but sharing for other new folks. I recently got my first egg and it’s an XL. I was having a very hard time with temperatures running away. I couldn’t control the temps with just the bottom like I was seeing in some YouTube videos etc. Then I realized I had a major gap along the back because I didn’t have my band installed on the lid correctly. I adjusted the band to remove the gap and now all of a sudden it behaves the way I see in the videos and I can hold temps much better.

Langner91

Grogu said:

I’m a brand new egger, so you probably already know this and it might not apply to your situation, but sharing for other new folks. I recently got my first egg and it’s an XL. I was having a very hard time with temperatures running away. I couldn’t control the temps with just the bottom like I was seeing in some YouTube videos etc. Then I realized I had a major gap along the back because I didn’t have my band installed on the lid correctly. I adjusted the band to remove the gap and now all of a sudden it behaves the way I see in the videos and I can hold temps much better.

Great Reminder!  Temps are generally easy to regulate, unless you have an unknown air leak.

lousubcap

@Grogu - Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.

Best test to check for dome to base seal is the dollar bill test.  Shut the dome as it lays across the gasket and then pull on the bill to see how tight the fit is.  If you get some resistance you are good.  Check several places around the perimeter.  BTW - you can use high a high roller bill if that's all you carry...

CGS

The xl is one of my favorite grills, across all grill lines, been cooking on one since they first came out. 

For grilling, I truly enjoy the added elbow room to spread out the cook. Also, the super large lump grate and steep firebox sidewalls make the xl best on the market for half direct/indirect configurations - way better than Joe. To grill small is easy, I shrink the firebox using one of CGS' various xl reducing accessories.  

For low n slo bbq, I can fit basically any brisket, 3 racks of ribs or enough chicken to feed a small army on the xl grid or CGS' 20" grid. Most of the time, I'll use the xl rig, as I can configure it with direct access to the lump - nothing to move other than opening the dome. Having the indirect piece above the fire ring really opens up the grill for more consistent airflow and temps too.

I've cooked on a large number of ceramic grills, and they all have a small, but different, learning curve. Most folks make mistakes early in the cooking process/set-up and struggle through the cook to recover. They can't figure out why it's not like their gas grill....just turn it up or down. 

On lump usage, I figure low n slo bbq cooks can burn more lump, as you need to heat up more ceramic mass. For grilling, I burn what I need to get the desired temperatures over the grilling area, same with any grill and again I take advantage of the large lump grate and ability to shrink the lump area.

Sorry for being absent for so long, had to get the account reactivated. Hope to spend more time here, like the old days.  

tom

xfire_ATX

So picked up the new base Saturday, had some extra hands around Sunday to help pull the old one out and set this one in. Then spent 1.5 hours putting it all back together.



Was planning on a cook anyway so I gave it a nice long slow warm up.


With the new non cracked base a lot of patience working on alignment (even though the dome is smaller) and using a plate setter its now working as expected just using the bottom vent and holding steady at 300-350 easily.

While I was at the dealer this caught my eye though


It was a thing of beauty.... wasnt coming home with me though @$799

xfire_ATX

xfire_ATX said:

I forgot how much I dont like the Plate Setter and conversed with Tom @CGS for the Woo and deflectors.  I just need to do some practice cooks and learn the XL settings vs the Large settings.

Finally gave up on visiting Tom in Denton so I ordered online and first cook (forgot to take pic) was perfect.


If you dont have a Woo or AR its a game changer.