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Coals not burning evenly - need advice

Mriley
Mriley Posts: 2
in EggHead Forum
How do I get all the coals to burn evenly?
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Comments

  • nolaegghead
    nolaegghead Posts: 42,109
    Welcome to the forum.

    If you mean all lit on top to grill, close the bottom vent, light the top and leave the lid open.  The fire will crawl around the top of the lump bed.

    If you have noticed on a low and slow that the burn pattern is erratic, that's pretty much par for the course.  The objective with a low and slow is a fire that generates good smoke, sufficient heat and does not go out. There are some techniques of making sure enough of the giant chunks of lump are touching enough other pieces to keep the fire going, but typically I just dump a bag in until the lump fills the egg to the top of the fire ring.
    ______________________________________________
    I love lamp..
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  • Mriley
    Mriley Posts: 2
    Thanks!
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  • Lit
    Lit Posts: 9,053
    I stir the coals after I get everything going pretty good and it seems to help for hot cooks.
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 36,785
    Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun.
    The BGE is an air-flow driven machine, managing the air-flow to control the fire volume and thus the cook temperature.  That is how you get the long duration L&S cooks.  In that environment you will not get all the lump burning evenly as you don't care since you likely have a heat deflector between the fire and the protein and the cook temp is the driver.
    Now if Hot and Fast is the desire then you need to light in several places to get a good bed for caveman steaks.  
    If you are up for it as mentioned above, shut the bottom vent with the dome open and you will have Dante's Inferno rolling along in good time.   Should you have this type fire going and decide to shut the dome since things are getting out of hand, research backdraft before going down this road.  Trust me on this should you then decide to reopen the dome.  This must be done in a controlled manner.  That's more than enough for Friday PM.  All above, FWIW-
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period. CHEETO (aka Agent Orange) makes Nixon look like a saint.  
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  • johnnyp
    johnnyp Posts: 3,932
    nolaegghead said:
    Welcome to the forum.

    If you mean all lit on top to grill, close the bottom vent, light the top and leave the lid open.  The fire will crawl around the top of the lump bed.

    If you have noticed on a low and slow that the burn pattern is erratic, that's pretty much par for the course.  The objective with a low and slow is a fire that generates good smoke, sufficient heat and does not go out. There are some techniques of making sure enough of the giant chunks of lump are touching enough other pieces to keep the fire going, but typically I just dump a bag in until the lump fills the egg to the top of the fire ring.

    To elaborate on the whys, it comes down to airflow.

    With the bottom vent closed and lid open, all the oxygen is on top. Thus creating a surface fire.

    with the vents choked down and lid shut, the oxygen is coming from the grate below and initially it will burrow before erratically migrating throughout the firebox based on available fuel.

    always follow the airflow to build the type of fire you want 
    XL & MM BGE, 36" Blackstone - Newport News, VA
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