Throw away "too small" lump?

Theophan · February 2011

I've been puzzled a few times, recently, by having trouble getting my Medium up to temps over 400, 450 or so, and a few cooks when I'd have the Large and Medium going at the same time, I'd have the Medium set WAY open to get the same temps as the Large mostly clamped down.

This evening I think I may finally have figured out why. I've been re-using lump, and my Large is pretty new and I haven't cooked on it many times, yet, so I mostly have larger chunks of lump in the Large, but in the Medium, even though I always add new lump, I've also been putting back in all of the old lump from the previous cook. Well, a bunch of that unburned but pre-used lump has gotten pretty small in how big the chunks are: larger than marbles but much smaller than golf balls. I've been cleaning out the lump each time, making sure the air holes are clear, putting larger chunks in the bottom, and sprinkling the smaller, older lump on top.

I'm wondering if the small-ness, the "fine-ness" of the lump in the Medium is sort of filling up a lot of the air spaces and limiting the air flow through the pile of lump, whereas in the Large, I don't have as much of the smaller-size lump, so probably there are more, and larger air spaces between the larger chunks of lump, so the fire can "breathe" better and get hotter.

Does this make sense? Do you all throw away lump from previous cooks if the size of the pieces gets below a certain size?

Thanks!

Theo

Bacchus · February 2011

Never throw away lump, only ash.

Hoss · February 2011

I burn it ALL.

bwcegged · February 2011

Just throw the used smaller lump on top of new (larger) lump!!! :cheer:

howmeisterg · February 2011

I actually wondered the same thing (I have an XL) - That is, do the size of the pieces matter? So tonight, I was pretty much empty in the BGE - not much used lump. So I took my lump bin, which has mostly small pieces, bits and dust (about 12 lbs worth) and just dumped in, stirred it to settle the dust out, and lit it. I did not clear any airholes. The temp came up just fine after lighting with the MAPP Torch. I was pushing 500 dome in about 12 minutes.

So my eggsperience is that that size does not matter (in this case)

thebtls · February 2011

Toss nothing but ash...place small old on top of new large.

RNLV · February 2011

Just stir with ash tool, add new lump to the bottom of fire ring and fire up with your method of starting. Mapp Gas works the fastest IMOP.
Ron

aem · February 2011

When I first got my BGE I had a lot of trouble getting a fire started and burning hot. Air flow seemed to be the big problem. The bottom grate was getting clogged with ash and small lump. I picked up a Turbo Grate from The BBQ Guru and now I have no problems.

Little Steven · February 2011

Theo,

The older mediums had an issue. The fire box and ring were a much smaller diameter than the interior of the egg. A lot of air would bypass the fire entirely and draught up the outside. Some folks lined the outside of the fire ring with tin foil and had excellent results. I believe Grandpa's Grub had a pictorial.

Steve

Captain Paul · February 2011

I agree with all that has been said above -- burn all of the lump and dump the ashes. I have a large BGE and I take out the left over burned lump -- lots of small pieces -- and add new lump and then add the small leftover pieces on top.

I light the egg with a single wooden kitchen match and isopropyl alcohol (91% or greater percentage of alcohol) It is very inexpensive and doesn't take very much alcohol (about 1/8 cup or 50/60 ml) and comes up to temp quickly with no residue or odors. Just be very cautious when lighting: very hot flame for about the first couple of minutes.

Although I am a relatively newbie at this, had my BGE since September and use it two to three times a week and love it!

fishlessman · February 2011

i have two larges and the settings are different between the two. could be lump size, could be how the lower vent is mounted on the slots, could be how tight the firebox is to the base(more exterior gap gives more airflow around the lump instead of thru it), could be gaskets, etc. 225 on noe has a lower setting sometimes smaller than 1/32 of an inch, the other egg is about a quarter inch for the same temp. both old well used eggs, neither has a gasket, the settings are just different. now some of the mediums a few years back had very loose fireboxes, maybe yours is from that lot of eggs

Theophan · February 2011

Well, I'm fascinated by all of the very helpful answers. I'm frustrated, though, that I had thought I'd figured out the problem, but I guess I haven't, after all. Last night, for example, I had two spatchcocks in the Large and one in the Medium. I got them both up to 500 or more without the Plate Setter, but once I put the plate setter in each of them, even leaving the Medium WIDE open, it never got above about 425 again. (evenwhenitsraining's directions for spatchcock, which work GREAT for me, want it to start over 500 and then cook 450-475.) With the Large, I had to cut the air way down to get the temp down to 425.

My Medium is about a year and a half old, and I'll compare it to my few months' old Large, but I don't think my Medium has the fire ring too small issue. I bet those were older than mine. I'll look again.

I'm feeling sort of stuck, now, on why I'm having so much trouble getting the temp up on the Medium. Before starting the fire I completely emptied the Egg, cleared out all of the air holes, and put larger chunks of lump in the firebox. the last thing I did was pour in a bunch of the smaller lump. I didn't clean out the ash part, but the level of ash was below the lip of the lower air grate/opening, and I really don't think the ash could have restricted the air flow.

Too weird. Well, I'll keep trying to sort it out. Thanks for all of the replies, anyway! This forum is great!

Throw away "too small" lump?

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