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Just placed an order for an XL to go with my medium. Saw this on Ebay and was curious to your thoughts on the following product: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Charcoal-Ring-for-use-in-XL-Big-Green-Egg-/230880369895?pt=Barbecues_Grills_Smokers&hash=item35c18adce7#ht_25wt_1170
Should I only use it on direct cooks? Remove it on low and slow? Is it even worth it? As always, I appreciate any thoughts or comments you guys/girls could provide.
"Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great, Here's to "Down Home," the Old North State!"
Med & XL
Comments
The inner diameter of the XL BGE fire ring is 21". That reducing ring is 17.5". What are you gaining by spending $50 to reduce the diameter by 3.5"?
With or without a reducing ring, you still need to heat up the entire Egg. You're not saving any charcoal.
Then it only sits 3-4" high......with that minimal amount of charcoal, you do not have to be worried about clogging the grate or firebox holes. There is more than enough air to feed that little amount of charcoal.
I do not understand the concept at all. But if there is still some reason to do something like this, just use a few fire bricks in the firebox.
One upgrade for your new XL--a new firegrate. A $9 Weber 18" cooking grid from Home Depot or Lowes drops right in and replaces BGE's cast iron one. If you have problems with lump falling through, buy two, sandwich them together at a 90 degree angle to form your own cross hatching. Best upgrade yet, and CHEAP.
I didn't think the ring was worth it. I got these and use them almost every time I am grilling direct.
http://shop.ceramicgrillstore.com/ang-l-brackets-pair-xl/
Keller, TX
I have not taken it out in 6 months. I'll say that again so it sinks in.
I HAVE NOT TAKEN IT OUT IN 6 months.
It makes the xl superior in every way that counts. I've gotten 18 hrs of cooking out of one load.
Travis, clearly I should have listened to you when you advised me to buy a ring. When I cooked my butts this weekend, I was loosing temp at the 15 hour mark. The lump was too spread out to sustain a hot fire if that makes sense. There was lump left over, but spread out. Good thing I was at 193 IT. I was shooting for 200, but 193 seemed to be ok with these particular cuts.
Two lessons learned:
1. Lump reducing rings are good to have.
2. Listen to Travis.
Bay Area, CA
I've been thinking about this a lot recently, especially for using the wok on the XL.
@travisstrick, is a reducing ring like the one you have available now? Maybe CGS?
Cheers all -
B_B
Middleton, WI
That one makes a little more sense at 14.5" diameter. But it's still going to be over $50 by the time it's delivered. I guess it depends where you are in the country with charcoal prices, but around here you'd need to save 60-70 lbs of lump before you even broke even.
Even if the coals are spread out on the bottom, just pour new charcoal on top. You still need to heat the entire Egg. You can heat it with 5 lbs of lump burning fast, or 20 lbs of lump burning slow. At the end of the day, you still used the same amount of BTU's.
The only exception is searing something small, then it makes sense to have the fire ripping in the middle of the Egg and not the entire grid. To each his own, but I still do not the cost vs. benefit gain of the ring.
"Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great, Here's to "Down Home," the Old North State!"
Med & XL
LOL.....yeah, I'm not as big of a XL fan as I am the large. If I had it to do over, I would have three Larges rather than the Med, Lrg, and XL. It would be nice to be able to interchange all the accessories as well.
If they would have taken the Large and just blown it up by 50% to make an XL, it would have been a lot better. That short/squat firebox on the XL makes for hot spots and such.
I would really like to see someone engineer a Large "square egg" with a 18x18 square grid and versus the 18" round grid. You would pick up almost 25% surface area, without a bigger foot print on the deck. Primo tried it with that oval thing.
First time I've heard of problems with it.
I've heard of problems with the grate in the large ashing over and snuffing out the fire. This is why people are replacing with the Hi Q , but never the XL.