Plate Setter vs. Fire Bricks

Charly

Let me start off by saying I have been egging for about 6 months now and I'm confused about something (not that uncommon).Am I the only Egger who uses a plate setter for indirect cooking?I use the plate setter/pizza stone combo for pizza and invert the plate setter with a drip pan for indirect.I was told when I bought my egg that the plate setter was a new accessory that was supposed to replace the need for fire bricks,but by reading all the posts and looking at all the pics,fire bricks seem to be alive and well.Let me know if I'm missing out on something and need to start calling the brick yards.

Gfw

<p />Charly, Firebricks will be alive and well for some time to come - nothing wrong with the plate setter and a lot of the forum members use them, except that BGE doesn't make one for any cooker except the large. [p]I use firebricks for a variety of things, mostly for low/slow cooks - I really believe the additional mass helps to stabilize the temp for longer cooks - I've managed 170-180 degrees for about 11 hours and 225 degrees for about 20 hours - but then I have a medium BGE![p]
[ul][li]Gfw's BBQ [/ul]

Char-Woody

Charly, Both!! [p]First a bit of history. The firebrick innovation preceeded the 3 legged "Plate Sitter" by about 6 months. The Plate sitter is made of the same ceramic material (in fact is made in the same factory) as the BGE Pizza Stone. The BGE Pizza Stone is approximately 3/4 inch thick and about 13" ind diameter, (Like TimM I don't have it in front of me to measure) and the tri legged "Plate Sitter" is about the same with legs.
Using the (PS for short) you can put two firebricks below it for additional heat dampering to the stone if you wish. Its all going to depend on how high you want to run on your Pizza Cook. If your doing pizza.[p]The disadvantage of the "PS" is that its rigid in its form and not veratile in configuration opportunites. Where it is used in baking and pizza, its wonderful. I have both and I do vary my methods of use for them. Spin uses a double pad of pizza stone, and it works for him nicely. I use a 3 brick on edge and a regular pizza stone at a lower temperature and it works nicely for me. I don't think you will find any two cooks that will agree precisely on a particular arrangement, but we all find that area of success that works for our own cook. You will find yours among the suggestions here.
Good luck and welcome to the party..!
C~W[p]

Unknown

Typo..veratile = versatile if that's correct? I'm human too.
C~W[p]

Charly

Thanks Guys,
I guess I'll be calling those brick yards now.

Char-Woody

Charly, try not to get the extra thick ones. [p]Waste of good space and cuts down on the air convection. Over use of the firebricks will cause excessive consumption of your charcoal.
1.25" X 4.5" X 9" from Menards or a good fireplace wood stove dealer is plenty thick..or get a thick ceramic pizza stone.
Not thin red clay stove type as they will not last in high heat. The ceramic types are fired to 2000F degrees. Clay is good to around 4 to 500F. Temporarily until a thermal shock situation arises.
C~W[p]

Tim M

Char-Woody,[p]I'd say you summed that up quite nicely. Lets don't worry about spelling errors here - -- I have almost as many thumbs as fingers when it come to typing and I often see many in my posts. I can't spell and can't type but hopefully we get the message across. [p]Tim

Unknown

Gfw,[p]Boy, that picture sure looks tropical, and much better than the scene out of my window right now. I'm getting tired of snow. But snow or no snow, my babybacks came out great today.

Char-Woody

Tim M, Thanks, I missed my "s" and I lisped..:-)
Happy New year out East..you get there first!!
And Frans in Australia is ahead of us all...Happy New Year down under "mates" if ya read this one..!!
C~W[p]