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slow medium egg

dandyegg
dandyegg Posts: 9
edited November -0001 in EggHead Forum
I like all my eggs, the small and large work great, I have trouble getting the medium hot and it's real slow warming up. It's not plugged up all the holes and grate are clean, Anyone else have trouble with the medium???
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Comments

  • Bob-O
    Bob-O Posts: 211
    I have a large and a medium and have never had the problem you describe.
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  • Celtic Wolf
    Celtic Wolf Posts: 9,773
    My only problem with the medium is not having one :whistle:
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  • Broc
    Broc Posts: 1,398
    I have a Medium -- Yes, I have had these problems... but have a couple suggestions [which cleared up my problems]...

    Have you removed the fire box, and cleaned the space beneath the holes? I use a shop vac... simple as pie...

    Second, be sure to use large chunks of lump when firing up... with smaller on top.

    Third, make sure the intake on the firebox lines up with the lower vent hole...

    Fourth, start a small fire, then add lump on top of the coals... Building a fire at the bottom of the firebox [rather than on the top of the lump] makes for a faster, hotter fire... more lump gets a-roarin' This technique isn't advised for slow cooks.

    Best!

    ~ Broc
    :)
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    Broc,

    Thanks for posting that. With all the 'playing' I have done with my medium I don't think I would have ever come up with that. Further, it gives me some ideas to I think I will give a try.

    GG
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    Yes, there are folks that have the same problem.

    What is the altitude where you are using the eggs?

    Do you have a large gap between the fire ring and the inside diameter of the egg wall?

    You said your medium is clean, so I will leave that there.

    Before I continue, Broc has a very good suggestion above. Try that first. I am going to try it tomorrow, depending on the weather.

    If that doesn't resolve your problem then...

    Check your fire box to see if the 'gap' is fairly close. If the gap is narrow then leave it centered. If the gap is wide then move the fire as close to the bottom vent as you can, but leave a small air gap between the egg wall and the fire box OD.

    Put the fire ring in the egg and slide move the fire ring over the widest gap of the fire box. Try to block as much free space between the fire box/ring and the inner egg wall as you can.

    If the above doesn't work, the following should.

    A word of caution. The following will make the outside of the egg hotter just above and below the band level. So be careful.

    Center fire box and fire ring.

    Take some HD Foil and make a 'rope' or 'Triangle' which you will use to plug the gap between the fire ring and the egg wall.

    I haven't tried or tested leaving smaller 'gaps' around the diameter of the plug yet.

    By forcing the air into the fire box you will get a quicker light and a hotter temp if the vents are not closed down. My max temp went from unplugged max temp of 500° to 700° with the gap plugged.

    Lighting time to 500° stable by 30 to 45 minutes.

    The lighting and max temp was as good or better than the large.

    Let me know about the altitude and gap if you would.

    GG
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  • UGAVET
    UGAVET Posts: 577
    I have every size except the medium so i cant comment, but i have the same problem with my small. I do all the recommended things but i still have great difficulty getting temp to 700 degrees. Usually 550 is about it. To me it seems like the bottom draft door may be too small but im no engineer. I still love my small though.
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  • Broc
    Broc Posts: 1,398
    Sorry, Amigo!

    I thought I had passed on all my "secrets" to you earlier. I have far more trouble controlling my Samall than I do the Medium.

    Thanks to MotherShip, I have my new firebox installed. I had glued up the five pieces of my old one -- which held for about three months, then the entire upper part disintegrated into itsy-bitsy pieces.

    Had lots of trouble with the dealer [not sure it was his fault, maybe the regional rep] but MotherShip saved-the-day... like Mighty Mouse!

    So -- I'm a Happy Camper, again!

    Got three big cooks coming up right soon!

    This coming weekend I have 20 coming over to the house... doing turkey breast roulade. Others will bring sides and desserts.

    The next week, Tri-Tip/steak sammies for 40 [still on the Medium]...

    Oct 17th we have about 150 gathering from the entire mid-west -- and we'll have about 6 Eggs going, will be demo-ing and serving all kinds of stuff from breads, pizzas, pork, beef, veggies... Big Thanks ahead-of-time to Casey -- Hope he gets lots of sales outta the deal!

    The hosting organization is providing all the food.

    Wish you could find your way across the Ole I-80 and could join us. We could get a keg-o Root Beer. In a wilder moment, we could switch to Sasparilla!

    Best!

    ~ Broc
    :) :laugh: :)
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  • Broc
    Broc Posts: 1,398
    Oh!

    You just said something that rattled my ole brain!

    My fire ring is cracked into two halves. I set these two halves "wide" on the fire box, deliberately leaving about a 1/8" gap -- and ignore where the spaces are between the two halves.

    Maybe this is part of my "fix." -- ?
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  • Broc
    Broc Posts: 1,398
    Yep -- It's the small I have trouble with... and it doesn't seem to want to go above 450F... occasionally drifts up to 500F.

    But -- no big deal for me, as I have the Small dedicated to breads, pies -- non meat stuff [except for whatever meat is on a pizza].

    So, I'm not searing meat -- and 400F is my go-to temp for breads, pies -- and 450 is OK for many veggies...

    ~ B
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    Is Casey the dealer that was having the problem?

    If your fire ring is broken, why didn't you get that at the same time? However, a split fire ring might just do the trick. If it wouldn't void the warranty I would cut mine in half.

    But first I am going to try your handy dandy little trick. Thinking about talking half of the lit lump and scooping it up with a 1 qt ss pan. Put on more lump then dump the pan on the top of the new lump.

    There is supposed to be a larger fire ring available. If the rain holds off I will put the bands back on the mediuim tomorrow and fire it up.

    Sort of suprised to hear the small is harder to control than the medium.

    This year has gone by fast. I hope next year is a little less eventful. Shelagh's arthritis has been really bad.

    I will do the I-80 trip at some point in time. Hopefully sooner than later.

    GG
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    My small has the same issues. I am not too concerned about the high temps. But, man, it takes a lot to get to temp and I am always having to fart around with a wiggle stick.

    I want to do some more testing with the medium then I will go after the small.

    I think Broc's idea about the smaller amount of lump is worth a try.

    I was cooking a chicken and I wanted to cook it at 450° for an hour. For me the small wouldn't go much above 370° that evening. I finally gave up and duck taped a fan to the vent opening.

    I usually use larger pieces of lump and when the fire is out, I use the remaining lump back in the large.

    It is odd, I don't think I have ever had a problem starting the mini and getting it to 400°.

    On the mini if the cooks are an hour or so, I usually can get 4 or 5 cooks out of one load of lump. On the last cook I might put another handful of lump but not always.

    I clean out the mini after about 4 cooks (or 4 hours of cookig) is all.

    There really shouldn't be too terribly much difference between the small and mini.

    GG
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  • Mainegg
    Mainegg Posts: 7,787
    I have to use the wiggle stick on mine a lot and it seams to be when I have gotten to the end of the bag of lump and i have just dumped it in :S I know better! the other night I used it and it had bent a little, I use a coat hanger so I grabbed the end of it to bend it back, I yelped and Neil said DUH all at the same time :( BUT on a good note, do you how many cold beers you have to hold to make the pain go away? He got mad cause i was just getting the beers out of the frig and holding them and not opening. He said it was not good for them to cold and heated and cooled again, I was going to ruin his beer :lol:
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  • civil eggineer
    civil eggineer Posts: 1,547
    I have a medium and never has any problems with achieving high temps, etc. When I clean out the ash I remove everything from the inside. Build my lump with larger pieces on the bottom. The medium, like all the eggs, take a while to heat up because of the mass involved. When using a platesetter it takes longer yet. I once put water in the drip pan and it was like putting the coals out.
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  • FrankC
    FrankC Posts: 416
    I was having the same problem, consistently. Tried all of the suggestions regarding larger lump in the bottom, proper allignment of the fire box...nothing seemed to work.

    Then I followed more than a few of GG's threads about the air gap btwn the fire box and/or fire ring...plugged up the gap with HDAF, and it worked! Temps of 600+ within 15 minutes of lighting are easy now.

    I then thought that I would have some custom made, thin ceramic gaskets made that would sit btwn the fire box and ring to eliminate the air gap. I can be done with gasket material that's heat resistant to 2300 degrees, but at a cost of about $250. I was really disappointed, especially since I'm in the industrial wholesale business. Needless to say, I'll stick with the HDAF.

    fc
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  • aaind
    aaind Posts: 235
    I did the same with my small ,went 600 in 20min
    Dave in NW IOWA
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  • Stanley
    Stanley Posts: 623
    You are in good hands if you listen to GG and Broc. It's clear to me from following GG's hard work that not all MBGEs are created equal. Thought I was having these problems with my MBGE (turned out to be hard-to-light lump) and started looking into fire box gap plugging. The gap at the top of my fire ring is significant - 3/4". When I pulled the ring, however, the gap at the top of the fire box is an insignificant 1/16". Thus the first gap is meaningless for me - I don't have a gap issue. GG and I'm sure others have a real gap and have had success with plugging it. Pull your ring and check it out.
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    I got a 3/16 rod bent both sides to make a 'L', well 2 'L.s' actually. One side for the large & medium and the other small and mini. I have grabbed the wrong side [ul]One Time[/ul] and one time only. :woohoo:

    I have since then decided wooden handles are a good thing.

    GG
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    Frank,

    'Plugging' significantly enhances the performance of my medium.

    For the most part I stopped posting the 'plugging' idea because for two reasons. On my last test the outside of the egg, just below & above the bands got extremely hot on the outside of the egg. Hot enough to cause a burn. The egg ceramic will withstand the temp just fine, it was the burn that bothered me.

    Secondly, I believe the excess heat is what took out the gasket on the less test. My medium also had a slight alignment problem which could have been what stressed the gasket.

    I got my new base and have replaced the gasket. I need to put the bands on the egg and I will fire up the medium to get a base line test again.

    I am going to try putting some gaps in the 'plug' to try and get some cooling effect on the egg wall.

    From several conversations it appears there are at least two different fire box designs and another fire ring which fits the egg tighter.

    Sorry to hear the ceramic gasket was so expensive, that would have been a nice accessory.

    Kent
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    I am glad you restated the smaller gap with your firebox. I will need to check mine today.

    Kent
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  • FrankC
    FrankC Posts: 416
    Hey Kent, thanks for the tip...actually, while using the HDAF plug, I leave 4 areas of about an inch open for just that reason. When I read your post about the excess heat, I noticed the same thing. No, buy leaving about 4 inches of gaps, it seems to be the best of both worlds.

    As always, thanks for your help.

    fc
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  • dandyegg
    dandyegg Posts: 9
    Thanks for the ideas about the slow egg, I have a pretty good space between the ring and inside of the egg, I'll try to plug with HDAF, if that works I'll have to give my dealer a visit he has great service there (Andy's Appliances, Chamberlain, SD), I bet he can get me an over size or right size ring.
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  • Stanley
    Stanley Posts: 623
    Please, pull the ring and look at the gap at the top of the fire box. If there's no big gap there, there's simply no big gap.
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  • dandyegg
    dandyegg Posts: 9
    Thanks for the tip about pulling the ring and looking at the fire box. I was just down town at the the dealership. Mexico, might be the problem, the older eggs were made in Atlanta, more recently in Mexico. The tops don't fit very nice, and the new ones on display have about 1/2 in gap between the inside of the egg and the firebox and the ring. Whoever gets that one will have trouble getting it over 250 in an hour. If this is the quality we can expect, we might as well try to fix them ourselves rather than look for new parts. The firebox in my medium sits like a four legged stool on a concrete floor, wiggles around. I'm going to take a large diamond stone and work on the bottom of the fire box. If I can get it to sit down lower it may seal up the "gap" I'll let you know what happens in a day or so
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