For those considering weedburners

WileECoyote

There have been a bunch of posts about using a weedburner to light the egg. I have one and tried it myself. Works fine and is kind of fun but I decided that the 91% rubbing alcohol method was better, easier, cheaper, and safer. The weedburner uses propane or MAPP which is more expensive, throws a lot of sparks and high flames, and requires you to stand close to the blast furnace until the lump is lit. It also lights a larger amount of lump surface area at one time which is a good thing for high temp cooks but can use too much lump and make the egg harder to cool down for low'n'slow cooks.

But for those that are still set on using or trying the weeburner method, many of your recent posts said something like "I am going to pick one up next time it goes on sale". Well your day has arrived. I just opened up my latest HF circular and weedburner item # 91037 is on sale for $26.99 (down from $39.99, price is good through 9/22). Their website shows it for $32.99 which is a little better than the regular store price but then you have to pay shipping. So if you are hell bent on playing with massive fire that is in the jet engine league then now is the time to visit HF.

If you do get a weedburner then post some action pics. I would enjoy seeing all the singed eyebrows, hairless forearms, etc. which are common to my namesake from Acme, Inc.

And on a side note: I have switched to using my weedburner for it's originally intended purpose. This thing is absolutely lethal to even the largest, tallest, thickest patches of weeds or grass. It almost instantly kills the weeds dead but it also incinerates anything that might be stuck or hiding in the weeds, such as old newspapers, litter, small animals, birds, snakes, bugs, or whatever. It is also very easy to start a forest fire if you are not super careful. Someone up the road from us just burnt their entire 32-acre wooded property to the ground by trying to burn weeds during a dry spell. Have fun but by all means please be careful!

BENTE

i had not seen that yet thank-you!!!


however i did see that egg was gold!!!


i remember a post from him but do not remember seeing anything except his original post about painting his glorious green egg gold

WileECoyote

You mean this gold egg?





Still looks like the day I painted it, matches the table well, and is definitely unique. It is still a Big Green Egg to me and always will be, despite the exterior color.

Grandpas Grub

Now be nice to us with Flame Throwers...

I do use it in the winter when it is freezing outside. I can have the large up to temp in less than 1 to 2 minutes.

Using it in a mini is not really pratical and is very hard ont he mini's gasket.

Now for your darn alcohol method... if I spread that small amount of alcohol in too big of a circle inside the egg I can't get it to light and usually have to get the MAPP out.

It is a bit much but today, I used two 2 oz. 1 - 2oz in one spot left of center then another 2 oz right of center. I let it soak a little longer and as expected when I lit it there was the big flair up. I did get the large going with that method.

Mini works good with the 2 oz. I haven't tried the small or medium egg yet.

I have been wondering if starting with oil/paper towel is what has caused a lot of soot to gather on the underside of the dome. When using oil/paper towel or cubes there is the black smoke, then it turns to white smoke then then that clears up.

With alcohol there is no black smoke and it seems like less of the white somke and possibly less soot buildup inside the dome.

Kent

Rick's Tropical Delight

"It also lights a larger amount of lump surface area at one time which is a good thing for high temp cooks but can use too much lump and make the egg harder to cool down for low'n'slow cooks."

i've never had that problem. you must not be doing it right. :huh:

emilluca

WOW a Boilermaker Egg. Gold and Black.
Go Purdue
E

Rascal

Another Boilermaker here!!~~ 8 - )

TomM24

I brought some 200 proof ethanol home from work to try. Used 60 ml maybe I didn't let it soak in long enough but it didn't light. I've been using a weed burner the last two months

Dawg Gone Egghead

WilE - what's that around the stem of your thermometer? I need to rain my TelTru up a bit and it looks like you did the same thing with yours.

Bacchus

The weed burner for sale at harbor freight for $26 must be the unit that has the ignition feature. I got mine on sale there and it was only $16-$18 I forget exactly. I use a Bic lighter with it. I think this cheaper unit is about $20 when not on sale.

momcooks

LOL, rubbing alcohol is working fairly well for me. I've had a few failures. I'm not sure about that one, but I bought a burner attachment with a orange hose and the darn thing started cracking within a couple months. And I keep it in the shed. It was leaking gas out of the hose.

Bacchus

The orange hoses are cheapies for sure. Mine has one also. I shut the propane off at the tank, and bleed the hose after every use.

thirdeye

You're right about the short handled weed burners being a little close to the work for comfort, or discomfort :laugh: I've had a long barrel one for many years and they put you at a safe distance, no matter what the task. You can also stand erect when burning weeds....The other tip is to get a 15 foot hose, so you are a safe distance from the bottle.

On this page you can see a starting demonstration video using a weed burner in my Large Egg. The example shows a "2 minute fire" for grilling. For barbecuing, only a "1 minute fire is needed".

http://playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com/2006/02/video-page.html

tjv

might want to check out the cast iron skillets and such too. They're not Lodge quality but then not price like Lodge either. I think a good fit for occassional use in the smokey egg. T

momcooks

I'm short, I'm always too close. Too long of a handle is hard to light. I also light mine in the wood shed, so I'm not fond of sparks flying. I do however use it for chilis.

BENTE

that is the one i never remembered who it was :( so sorry....



i like that spark arrestor in the last picture i had to look twice before i figured it out.... great idea

WileECoyote

GG: I can't imagine what is causing all the trouble for you. My egg never fails to light with 60 ml of 91% rubbing alcohol, injected about 1" or 2" down into/under the lump, spread in a 8"-10" diameter circle. Wait 10-20 seconds and toss in a match. Close the dome as soon as it lights, keep the bottom vent wide open, top cap removed. If you are using this exact same process then the only other variables I can imagine are: poorly stacked lump, clogged holes in the grate or firebox, damp lump, dilluted or contaminated rubbing alcohol, or maybe lack of oxygen if you live on Mt. McKinley or something. One person I know locally was using some kind of spray gun to spray the alcohol down on the lump and this did not work. The problem here was that much of the alcohol evaporated too quickly and the rest was only on the top surface of the lump instead of being injected down inside the lump.

The only trouble I ever had was when I experimented with 50-70% rubbing alcohol, or when I did not have good airflow inside the egg due to poorly stacked lump and clogged holes. I am now using a BBQ Guru Competitor fan at startup, which makes it even easier and lights in about half the time.

The main reason I researched the rubbing alcohol method in the first place was because of ash/soot residue and fumes generated by the other popular methods, plus they were slower. Weedburners are fun and effective but not as safe or convenient as the rubbing alcohol in my opinion.

Tom: it is CRITICAL that you do not use any other fluid when lighting the egg. I did a lot of scientific research about various chemicals and found that Isopropyl Alcohol was the only safe and effective method. Almost all other liquid fuels burn too fast and generate toxic fumes or byproducts, and some liquid fuels burn too slow or too cold. 91% rubbing alcohol is made of nothing more than 91% Isopropyl Alcohol plus 9% H20 and the chemical reaction (2C3H70H + 902 > 6C02 + 8H20) yields nothing but carbon dioxide and water vapor. 200 proof Ethanol has a similar combustion reaction with similar byproducts however it contains less than 1% water thus it will evaporate and burn too fast, plus it typically contains trace amounts of toxic benzene. Consumption of 200 proof Ethanol can be fatal so I would not use that on the egg. I stressed this and other factors in my video but you might have missed that part if you didn't watch the whole thing including part 2.

Dawg Gone: those are wooden wagon wheels from a woodworking shop. They have a hole pre-drilled in the middle and are just the right shape for stacking beneath the Tel-Tru to prevent it from sitting too deep inside the egg. This also prevents steam from seeping out of the dome hole and into the back of the gauge which was a problem on my old BGE thermometer. I can't take credit for this idea since I read about it on this forum. I purchased a bag of the wheels and have a few extra. If you want 2 of them then just post a note here and I will be in touch to ship them to you for free.

Bacchus: you are right on about the more expensive weedburner. It has an auto-lighting feature which I find invaluable, especially when burning weeds vs. lighting the egg. The torch often flames out so you can just press the trigger and it lights back up again. Worth the extra $6 in my opinion.

Bente: no worries on the gold egg. I know some don't like it and that is fine. I like it just the same. The spark catcher is a stainless strainer which I got at the dollar store. I only use it when firing the egg up to t-rex temps since it tends to generate a few tiny sparks when going all-out at 650-800+ and these were burning tiny holes in my nearby screened patio mesh.