Questions about fire box replacement

SilverBack

For the past 3 or 4 years, I've been cooking on an old (medium) clay Egg that I picked up at a garage sale. Even though I have heeded forum members' warnings to avoid taking it up above 300 degrees or so, the fire box is beginning to fall apart from multiple cracks - no wonder, since the Egg is probably 40 or 50 years old.

So, I have two questions:

1.) Does anyone have the exact dimensions of the medium fire box so I can determine whether it will actually fit in my old Egg?

2) If it does fit, would replacing both the fire box and the fire ring make it safe to do higher temperature cooks - say 350 or 400 degrees?

The Naked Whiz

I'd say a new firebox and ring would not change the advice about high temp cooking. I'd still be careful with it.

Grandpas Grub

 
I have wondered about the below 300° advice on those older eggs.

If the clay or whatever material it really is was high temperature fired then I would "guess" those could be taken to a higher temperature. 350° to 400° is a great cooking temperature for most all cooks.

Buying a new fire box and fire ring at parts prices may go a long way to a new or a newer used egg.

Another thought, if the dome is reading 300° the old fire box is a lot hotter than that. If you have ever had a good red glow in the lump bed that temperature has to be around 800° if not higher. Orange lava looking 1100° thereabouts.

GG

The Naked Whiz

FWIW, if you have the vents wide open and stick a probe down into the orange glowing charcoal, it's about 2000 degrees down in there. Of course, it isn't that hot at the edges up against the firebox unless you have the charcoal glowing bright orange all across the fire.

By the way, I just checked my manual for a 1976 Pachinko Palace cooker, and it implies that 400 is as hot as you should go, and it says you should not heat them up too fast, FWIW....

SilverBack

If the 1976 Pachinko can go up to 400 degrees, maybe 350 wouldn't be out of the question with a new fire box.

But I'm still not sure whether a new one will fit properly in my old clay egg. Have the dimensions stayed exactly the same for all these years?