New Egger - Won't heat up

kl8ton

This opening has to line up with the vent. 

Mark_B_Good

OK, to summarize what others have said and maybe add a few small points:

(1) calibrate your thermometer in boiling water ... you did that already
(2) check alignment of your top and bottom, getting a good seal?
(3) remove EVERYTHING from the BGE, the fire ring, the grate, everything.
(4) clean out all ash, everything.
(5) put the lower fire ring and align the "hole" with the inlet of the bottom air vent like kl8ton shows.
(6) add grate and upper fire ring
(7) I'd replace the charcoal with something fresh, to top of upper fire ring ... just to be sure (I doubt it's the charcoal, but to remove all doubt, plus you aren't wasting anything, you'll use all that charcoal at some point).
(8) open top and bottom vents 100%
(9) light charcoal in center, in a nice pocket ... doesn't seem to be your issue, but put this for thoroughness.
(10) use a secondary temperature measurement (do you have a probe? If so, put over the grill to monitor).

Before each new cook, top up your charcoal, and then STIR the charcoal to get fines through the bottom grate, then clean out the ash.

zaphod

had a thought this morning. Are you clocking the temperature gauge and not noticing? Has the needle spun all the way past 700 and back to 300 or so where it stays? A fast hot fire can move that needle around before you notice it and your picture of the fire does not look like a small fire.

zaphod

have you put an oven thermometer on the grate to see what it reads?

Vikings333

yes bowl opening is lined up with lower vent. i tried all vent settings - mostly wide open bottom and top to try and get it up to temp.

 I will check and see if fire bowl is upside down..

what is a place setter?

i calibrated with boiling water last time around, but again my steaks werent charred like they were sitting on 600 degrees for 20 min.

I am in victor, ID if anyone is close. No dealer, this was bought used.

Vikings333

Mark_B_Good said:

OK, to summarize what others have said and maybe add a few small points:

(1) calibrate your thermometer in boiling water ... you did that already
(2) check alignment of your top and bottom, getting a good seal?
(3) remove EVERYTHING from the BGE, the fire ring, the grate, everything.
(4) clean out all ash, everything.
(5) put the lower fire ring and align the "hole" with the inlet of the bottom air vent like kl8ton shows.
(6) add grate and upper fire ring
(7) I'd replace the charcoal with something fresh, to top of upper fire ring ... just to be sure (I doubt it's the charcoal, but to remove all doubt, plus you aren't wasting anything, you'll use all that charcoal at some point).
(8) open top and bottom vents 100%
(9) light charcoal in center, in a nice pocket ... doesn't seem to be your issue, but put this for thoroughness.
(10) use a secondary temperature measurement (do you have a probe? If so, put over the grill to monitor).

Before each new cook, top up your charcoal, and then STIR the charcoal to get fines through the bottom grate, then clean out the ash.

I will go through this checklist again next week before i try and cook again

DoubleEgger

Vikings333 said:

Mark_B_Good said:

OK, to summarize what others have said and maybe add a few small points:

(1) calibrate your thermometer in boiling water ... you did that already
(2) check alignment of your top and bottom, getting a good seal?
(3) remove EVERYTHING from the BGE, the fire ring, the grate, everything.
(4) clean out all ash, everything.
(5) put the lower fire ring and align the "hole" with the inlet of the bottom air vent like kl8ton shows.
(6) add grate and upper fire ring
(7) I'd replace the charcoal with something fresh, to top of upper fire ring ... just to be sure (I doubt it's the charcoal, but to remove all doubt, plus you aren't wasting anything, you'll use all that charcoal at some point).
(8) open top and bottom vents 100%
(9) light charcoal in center, in a nice pocket ... doesn't seem to be your issue, but put this for thoroughness.
(10) use a secondary temperature measurement (do you have a probe? If so, put over the grill to monitor).

Before each new cook, top up your charcoal, and then STIR the charcoal to get fines through the bottom grate, then clean out the ash.

I will go through this checklist again next week before i try and cook again

Go through the checklist without cooking anything. Just focus on building and maintaining the fire. 

I highly recommend this for the medium. It really does a great job of providing airflow up and around your lump. Take the original cast iron disk out and use this instead. It works wonders. 

https://kickashbasket.com/products/medium-kick-ash-basket

I disagree about filling it up to the top of the fire ring on the medium. You don’t need that much charcoal to cook a steak or on any shorter cooks.  It’s just going to further restrict airflow. You’ll end up with a lot of partially burnt lump which is harder to get up to temp next time because of the btu loss. You don’t need to touch the fire ring with lump on any hot and fast cook on the medium. Just my .02 from personal experience. 

zaphod

I fill to the bottom of the fire ring/top of fire bowl. BGE mothership recommends that level. works for me.

a "place setter" is me misspelling "plate setter" which was the old name of the conveggtor used for indirect cooking. mea culpa. 

Dyal_SC

Tomorrow after it is cooled down — make sure to physically remove the fire bowl and fire ring completely out of your base. Set them on the ground. Then completely sweep out your ash, or shop vac it, making sure there aren’t any stubborn gooey ash spots that are restricting air flow at the bottom. Scrape it out and get that puppy clean. Then place everything back in, making sure everything is aligned properly, and all air holes are unrestricted. Poke at the air holes with your fingers, because if they are dirty, sometimes you will have a clogged hole that blends in and you might miss it. 

Build your fire, making sure the lump is big enough to not clog the air holes. You can stir them after they’re lit, just to be sure you have air. 

It’s all about the air flow. 

lousubcap

As mentioned somewhere in this thread, there are three components to any fire: susceptible fuel, ignition source and air flow.  You obviously have fuel and an ignition source so as noted its the air flow.  Use lump no bigger than a deck of playing cards on the bottom and then add smaller pieces to some level (as this is offered to coincide with the test fire you plan to run.)  Light in two or three places with everything wide open.  No way that doesn't get hot.  
I don't have a MBGE but on Thursday I was intentionally running a LBGE (indirect at 400*F) with the bottom vent around a 1/4" open and a SBGE (indrect) with the bottom vent a bit less than 1/8" open.  (No dome to base air leaks...).
This is defying basic fire science. 
Edit-With the base level lump load angle a few pieces so that a part of them do not sit on the fire grate.  Guarantees air flow at the jump.  

Buckwoody Egger

TechsasJim said:

I skipped some reading but keep your vents wide open and your dome open until the fire breathing dragon is going crazy.    At that point close your dome and adjust vents.

If that doesn't help make sure your bowl is aligned.

agree. would like to hear (1) how the lump in the medium is being lit and (2) how long dome is staying open before closing

back when i used the rutland/bge square firestarter squares it was 1 for low and slow or 2 (spaced apart a few inches) for searing cooks. now i use the lp torch. much faster. 

same for closing the dome. close sooner for low and slow. close much later for searing.  

an egg with a roaring fire when you first close the dome (still leaving bottom and top wide open) should let you find those top end temps. if you over shoot, close top and bottom for a few minutes. do NOT open dome first. open vents slightly. fire relights itself.  always “burp” the egg at high temps.  also at high temps— if you leave dome open to work the food too long you will get a lot of fire. temporarily close the bottom vent to buy some time if needed. 

only other item i might have missed was how is lump stored.