First Time Buyer

SteelersGirl

Good afternoon all!

I am ready to purchase the BGE for my husbands birthday and need the advise of you experts before I purchase. I am hoping you can help answer some of my questions.

1. Is the "Plate Setter" needed to smoke food?
2. Are the 2 side Shelves really big enough to hold the necessary items? The shelves are pretty pricey and wonder if our table next to the BGE would work fine.
3. Assembly. Where I am going to buy the BGE from charges $55 to assemble. For me, it is totally worth it to have it done and done right. My husband is handy but not sure if it is worth his time or trouble. Thoughts?
4. I'm still on the fence if I should get a Large or Medium size. Half the time we will be cooking for 6 adults, the other half just 2 or 4 of us.
- Does the large take too much charcoal/time to heat up for just 2 or 4 people?
- I notice the Medium has the grill extender. Is that a good alternative to the Large BGE?

Thank you all very much! I (and my husband will) GREATLY appreciate your expert advise! Any other information you have for a newbie is much appreciated!

vidalia1

1. Get the platesetter...you will thank us later...and get the BGE pizza stone while you are at it.

2. The side shelves are nice but if you have a table near by that will suffice. Just make sure the table can handle hot items.

3. Spend the $55 on a platesetter and BGE pizza stone. He can assemble it himself.

4. Get the large. Like most of us you will get another BGE within a year anyway. The large is worth it.

5. Welcome to the addiction we call Egging.

Misippi Egger

Agree with all the above = Get a LARGE!

fishlessman

i would get the large, save the money from the platesetter and put it towards an adjustable rig, spider, and pizza stone. call tom at the grill store and he will set you up right. the platesetter is more valuable if your going to be baking alot of breads.
http://www.ceramicgrillstore.com/ceramicgrillstore/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=226

WessB

1. The plate setter is not "needed" but it is hands down one of the most used accesories, you will need some way to achieve an indirect cook for certain things, and the plate setter is perfectly designed to do this.

2. The side shelves "Egg Mates" are nice and sufficient, but if you will have room to have a table next to the egg, I would go with the table.

#. Assembly is not difficult, there will be a dvd included that will help with that and MANY more new owner questions, probably the most complicated part of assembly would be the bands and hinge assembly and that is not bad. If you do have them assemble it it will be larger and harder to transport rather than packaged, unless their fee includes delivery.

4. I vote for a large

Bacchus

I say get the plate setter and the assembly. Just have him make sure all the bolts are tight. The Mates are nice but not really necessary.
Your husband is a lucky man.

Pilcher Man

Get the largest egg you can afford, (suggest the large) get the plate setter and pizza stone. Other accessories can wait. Your husband can assemble the egg himself as long as he follows the directions strictly per step (else he'll get ahead of himself and have to redo a step or two). Enjoy.

2Fategghead

1. Is the "Plate Setter" needed to smoke food?

To smoke food on your egg you will need to cook at a low temperature indirectly so if you don't smoke with a plate setter you will have to do it another way ie spider and medium baking stone or something else.


2. Are the 2 side Shelves really big enough to hold the necessary items? The shelves are pretty
pricey and wonder if our table next to the BGE would work fine.

I think a table next to your egg will work fine. I have two large eggs one in a table and the other in a nest on the other side of the table.



3. Assembly. Where I am going to buy the BGE from charges $55 to assemble. For me, it is totally
worth it to have it done and done right. My husband is handy but not sure if it is worth his time or
trouble. Thoughts?

I assembled my own egg and later learned about the correct way to assemble it. All in all doing it my self was no biggie. There are even video's on how to assemble the egg your self. Check out this link to assemble a large bge. http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=748777&catid=1


4. I'm still on the fence if I should get a Large or Medium size. Half the time we will be cooking
for 6 adults, the other half just 2 or 4 of us.
- Does the large take too much charcoal/time to heat up for just 2 or 4 people?
- I notice the Medium has the grill extender. Is that a good alternative to the Large BGE?

Like I said I have the large egg and there is only two of us. We have two other couples over all the time and we can cook plenty of food for everyone. In my opinion I think the large BGE it the right choice. Also, The large egg has a lot of eggccessories to make egging more interesting. Just my opinion. Tim

Grandpas Grub

 
1. Is the "Plate Setter" needed to smoke food?
Not at all, but it is a handy accessory and or the Adjustable Rig & Spider

2. Are the 2 side Shelves really big enough to hold the necessary items? The shelves are pretty pricey and wonder if our table next to the BGE would work fine.

Personally I really like the eggmates, but they do get crowded once in a while. A side table is really nice. Member AZRP has some great tables he uses possibly he will see this and post a picture.

3. Assembly. Where I am going to buy the BGE from charges $55 to assemble. For me, it is totally worth it to have it done and done right. My husband is handy but not sure if it is worth his time or trouble. Thoughts?

It's a money vs time, that decision is up to you. If the dealer will assemble it at your house I would be more inclined to spend the money.

It is not hard but there are some things you need to do. Even if a dealer set the egg up double check the tightness of the bolts and the 'dollar bill' alignment of the egg.

Fortunately my dealer set up all my eggs but each of them need some double checking.

If the dealer sets it up at the shop and you take it home make sure you don't use the hinge assembly or handle to lift the egg. You could easily loose the egg or at minimum take the dome/base out of alignment.


4. I'm still on the fence if I should get a Large or Medium size. Half the time we will be cooking for 6 adults, the other half just 2 or 4 of us.

You are going to get a lot of varied answers on this one. Some people will defend their mediums and some who don't have mediums will tumped the virtues of the large.

For a new person I who reads all the different responses would be to ask one further follow up questions. For those who purchased or only have used a medium, would you or have you ever wanted a large. And for the large folks, do you wish you would have purchased a medium.

For me large without question I would get a large. Started out with a large, then medium, then small and finally mini. Two of us most of the time and more up to 26 once a month. The large handles it all.

Now there are a lot of people who use the medium or medium/small combination and cook for a lot of people. One member, Broc, has cooked several times for 150 people using his medium & small.

Doing it all over and for my needs I would get a large, then a mini and a second large or maybe an XL.

- Does the large take too much charcoal/time to heat up for just 2 or 4 people?

A lot of the time I use the large to cook a single chicken, which can be done as easily and as good tasting on the medium, small or mini.

Between the medium and large you won't see much difference in either.

- I notice the Medium has the grill extender. Is that a good alternative to the Large BGE?

The large has a "grill" (grid in BGE land) extender also. There are other accessories that will work for that purpose also, as mentioned above.

Get you egg and use it for a little while, you will quickly find some things you really want and others things you don't want or need.

Welcome the forum and pre congratulations on getting your egg.

GG

2Fategghead

Fish, What happened to your signature? :ohmy:

fishlessman

when i entered it, it looked like a fishfinder view screen but when it posts it gets all pushed to the left, it needs some work :laugh:

SteelersGirl

You all are fantastic! Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and suggestions. I'm going to go with the Large, Plate Setter AND Baking Stone, no shelves and we'll assemble. This Forum is wonderful!

If you have anything to add on, let me know. Thank you all so very much!

Village Idiot

Yes. Take pictures of your first cook and post pictures.

Hungry in Lilburn

Your going to love it! Welcome to the addiction..uh...I mean forum!