Ping: GrampasGrub

Ripnem

You refered to your medium as being very slow last week. After using my small a handful of times now, I'm realizing that it is waaaaay slower than my large. What's the deal? I remember your medium having a healthy gap around the fire ring and mine is a very small gap.

Adam

Grandpas Grub

Adam,

I think part of my problem is that I am cooking at 5000' elevation.

At times I use aluminum foil and make a loose rope and put/stuff those 'ropes' into the gap. It seems to be that air into the lower vent is flowing up the outside of the fire box and not feeding inside the fire box and to the lump.

I would first suggest you buy or make a wiggle stick and when you experience a slow start up or a plateau in temperature rise, use the wiggle stick and clear/make some air paths up through the fire grate and into the lump.

This will usually reverse the stall rather quickly.

At times I use a personal fan - small hand held 2 AA cell to feed the lump from the top side.

GG

PhilsGrill

The small is slower than my large, for me too. The small vent is really what does it, but it does get there eventually. I use a small fan also and with that, it screams up to temperature.

BigGreenDawg

After my wife was getting sick of her hairdryer smelling like smoke I purchased my own dedicated only for the egg that I keep in the rubbermaid box along with mapptorch, planks and other eggcessories-it still takes about 15 minutes to get things going from first dumping the lump.

Grandpas Grub

A hair dryer does work well, however, that high volume of air stirs up the ashes.

A small personal fan is not as effective when introducing the air into the lower vent. It works well when blowing the soft breeze from an open dome.

The small personal fan also significantly enhances the performance of a propane/MAPP torch when starting the lump.

GG