Comments from a Newbie

Unknown

Hello Everyone,[p]Just cooked on my large egg for the first time and have a few comments. First of all, getting to temp and maintaining temp impressed me greatly. I was amazed at how repeatable obtaining the desired temp was after I closed the lid each time. I do have questions involving one issue. I filled the firebox with lump to well above the air holes, fired it up, and away I went. But after cooking for ~1 hour I noticed that my temp was falling (~10 deg from initial 350 deg). I wasn't sure why but quickly noticed that the amount of lump left in the firebox had decreased drastically. I think that they amount of lump required as mentioned in the literature, video, etc. is understated. There is not way I could have cooked for 3 hours without adding lump. And I might add that I am using the BGE lump.[p]If I am off base on this one I look forward to being corrected by one of you guys.[p]Thanks

WessB

NewOwner,
Fill it to the top of the firebox evry time you use it, it will not go to waste...you can check out my website for tips and cooks if you would like, hopefully it will give you some pointers....and throw the book away that came with it...while you are at my site download the Bill Wise BGE cookbook, between it and this forum you will have all of the info you will ever need..[p]Wess
[ul][li]WessB`s[/ul]

WooDoggies

NewOwner,[p]Yes, the amount of lump required as mentioned in the literature is understated.
In the same amount of time you will burn heck of a lot more lump at a steady 350 dome temp than you will at low and slow temp of 225.[p]If you want to cook for extended times at 350, then I'd suggest filling with lump at least halfway up the fire ring.... higher if you are using a raised grate.[p]Maybe Mr. Naked will make a graph of lump consumption rates at different dome temps...... [p]Good Luck and welcome to the forum!
John[p]

Unknown

NewOwner, for a newbie your pretty smart...you have just gotten to the heart of learning to use the Egg...something that took me several years to learn (only because I didn't know about this forum)...two things the BGE Co. and retailers do wrong is not promote this forum to new customers and not updating the book or at least telling everyone it is outdated. To emphasize what I have just said from my personal experience...I used mine several yrs before know s_ _ _ from shineola about it and thus wore out my gasket and had a bad band / hinge that has now been replaced with a better design. When I did my 20 lb ham and 10 lb brisket the other week , I filled it with lump half way up the ring...when I went yesterday to refill I found that I had done my first 18 hr cook with no problems , but also that half my lump was still there...so there...stay with this forum and you'll have no problems