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How often do you...

Blazer
Blazer Posts: 47
edited November -0001 in EggHead Forum
Remove all leftover charcoal to clean the bottom grate and build a new fire?

And... what size small lumps do you discard at that time? smaller than an acorn? a walnut? a golf ball?
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Comments

  • Knauf
    Knauf Posts: 337
    I do it about every 10- 15th cook. you get a decent amount of ash in back of the fire box. Make sure you drag your ash tool on either side of the fire box as far back as you can and you will be surprised how much ash comes out! I use the coals until they are too small to pick out of the ash and fall through the bottom grates.
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  • BENTE
    BENTE Posts: 8,337
    or if they are too big to throw out in the yard. they all still burn no matter how big they are.. so if you don't want to step on it later BURN IT !!!!

    i proabably clean my egg out 3-6 months and i use THEM 5 times a week!!

    HTH

    happy eggin

    TB

    Anderson S.C.

    "Life is too short to be diplomatic. A man's friends shouldn't mind what he does or says- and those who are not his friends, well, the hell with them. They don't count."

    Tyrus Raymond Cobb

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  • Desert Oasis Woman
    Desert Oasis Woman Posts: 5,604
    :) 'bout every 3rd cook...
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  • Kokeman
    Kokeman Posts: 822
    I guess I'm too cheap. when I clean out my eggs I put the small pieces back on top and use them.
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  • Desert Oasis Woman
    Desert Oasis Woman Posts: 5,604
    :woohoo: me too!
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  • cookn biker
    cookn biker Posts: 13,407
    Me too.
    Molly
    Colorado Springs
    "Loney Queen"
    "Respect your fellow human being, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it."
    Bill Bradley; American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, former U.S. Senator from New Jersey
    LBGE, MBGE, SBGE , MiniBGE and a Mini Mini BGE
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  • cookn biker
    cookn biker Posts: 13,407
    Again me 2 :)
    Molly
    Colorado Springs
    "Loney Queen"
    "Respect your fellow human being, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it."
    Bill Bradley; American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, former U.S. Senator from New Jersey
    LBGE, MBGE, SBGE , MiniBGE and a Mini Mini BGE
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  • Desert Oasis Woman
    Desert Oasis Woman Posts: 5,604
    :P hmmm, maybe that's why, in Denver when CWM asked me to "empty the ash" in his SBGE that had gotten some rain, BGE Bruce and I felt like we were on an archeological expedition :woohoo: :whistle:
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  • Desert Oasis Woman
    Desert Oasis Woman Posts: 5,604
    :laugh: we must be twins!!
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  • BENTE
    BENTE Posts: 8,337
    only if you don't cover your eggs (i don't) :laugh:

    happy eggin

    TB

    Anderson S.C.

    "Life is too short to be diplomatic. A man's friends shouldn't mind what he does or says- and those who are not his friends, well, the hell with them. They don't count."

    Tyrus Raymond Cobb

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  • Desert Oasis Woman
    Desert Oasis Woman Posts: 5,604
    :laugh: you got that "concrete" stuff in yours too? Bruce chewed CWM a bit :whistle:
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  • BENTE
    BENTE Posts: 8,337
    no here if it is wet it is really wet... if it is dry drought!!! :angry:

    so i just pull all of my "egg parts" when i think the back holes are getting close to causing "air flow" problems :ohmy: B)

    happy eggin

    TB

    Anderson S.C.

    "Life is too short to be diplomatic. A man's friends shouldn't mind what he does or says- and those who are not his friends, well, the hell with them. They don't count."

    Tyrus Raymond Cobb

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  • Bacchus
    Bacchus Posts: 6,019
    Almost never. I discard no lump, ever. I sift the ash thru the grate then push the lump to the side, then dump in some fresh and mix it up a bit. Use the ash tool to clean it out.
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  • Blazer
    Blazer Posts: 47
    Ive read posts on here by BGE cooks who remove all charcoal for each new cook. They begin each cook this way, then build a new fire with larger lumps on the bottom, working up to smaller ones on top.

    I tend to just stir, poor more lump from the bag and light. If I have problems with the fire not burning well or not getting hot enough, I figure my charcoal has picked up some moisture.

    However, I do scrape out ash from the lower vent pretty often.
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  • Mr. & Mrs Potatohead
    Mr. & Mrs Potatohead Posts: 2,037
    I use ALL lump! It never goes to waste!
    Big clean out / clean up? Maybe every 10th fire...But still, no lump ever goes to waste.
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  • Hoss
    Hoss Posts: 14,600
    Never,Never !Never!Put it back on top!!BURN IT! ;)
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  • Little Chef
    Little Chef Posts: 4,725
    Blazer...Here about every 3-6 cooks....but we dont toss the old lump!! Rubber gloves, scoop out the usable lump into a bucket, then use the shop vac to vac out the dust. Refill the egg, put the used lump on top, and good to go!! The only exception is if we are planning a long, high temp cook like pizza. We load the egg completely new, and save the used lump for the next cook. Bottom line....we clean it out quite often, but don't throw away anything but ash and its equivelent. ;) The bonus is, if you save enough "used" lump, that "quick" cook, when you need a new load of lump, is just about ready to go once it it lit!! :);) VOC's are LONG gone....(I like the old lump cooks.... ;) )
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
     
    I haven't cleaned out behind the fire box on my large in 14 months and won't until April or May if then - I am going to see how long I can go.

    Ash under the fire grate, every cook that may take longer than 4 to 6 hours, pot roast in the Dutch Oven or over night cook.

    Shorter cooks I will go 6 to 8 cooks before cleaning out the ash. If the cooks are real short, burgers, steak and such I may only clean 10 to 15 cooks.

    If a cook has a good burn and I shut the egg down, I will simply relight, not stirring or adding lump. The air flow up through the fire grate and lump was good so there is not reason to mix things up and block the air holes in the fire grate.

    When I do clean I will toss pieces that will fall through the holes in the fire grate. About the size of a large grape. I use and reuse the rest.

    The following is a cook & test with a cleaned out fire box, all small sized lump and all lump from previous cooks. The larger pieces of lump are about the size of a marshmallow.

    The dome thermometer is just before opening the egg to take the pictures. The flame is due to the dome being open when taking the pictures.

    smalllumptst1.jpg

    smalllumptst2.jpg

    smalllumptst3.jpg

    smalllumptst4.jpg

    GG
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  • BobS
    BobS Posts: 2,485
    I don't even clean the ashes out more than about every 20th cook and don't clean behind the fire box more than 2X per year.
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  • loco_engr
    loco_engr Posts: 5,818
    Ohhhhhhhhhhhh . . . the Queens of the 4 hours to
    "git'r Lit!!"

    :lol::lol: :P
    aka marysvilleksegghead
    Lrg 2008
    mini 2009

    Henny Youngman:
    I said to my wife, 'Where do you want to go for our anniversary?' She said, 'I want to go somewhere I've never been before.' I said, 'Try the kitchen.'
    Bob Hope: When I wake up in the morning, I don’t feel anything until noon, and then it’s time for my nap
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  • Mainegg
    Mainegg Posts: 7,787
    we burn wicked good and do not seem to have that much ash. I have a french fry basket that I scrape all the ash into and the bottom of my bag of lump into and it cleans out all the really tiny stuff. getting a mini took care of using up all that little stuff :)unless I get to excited with my wiggle stick and tip the grate to much and dump hot lump in the bottom of the egg I hardly ever take it apart.
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  • Desert Oasis Woman
    Desert Oasis Woman Posts: 5,604
    :lol: Why the rubber gloves??? Don't you like to play in the ash? Shoot, I get sooty a lot :woohoo: thought that was the way you're supposed to clean the EGG B)

    other than that, we clean and burn the same way
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  • Desert Oasis Woman
    Desert Oasis Woman Posts: 5,604
    unless I get to excited with my wiggle stick and tip the grate to much and dump hot lump in the bottom of the egg I hardly ever take it apart.

    Mainegg, I'm SO GLAD someone else does that, too!
    :blush::blush:
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  • tjv
    tjv Posts: 3,846
    227322_front200.jpg

    I use the above for a scoop, single or double gang electrical box, found at any big box handy man's store for about a buck. just use a utility knife to skin the tabs off, easy to do, and pull the nails. single gang box works great for ash under the grate, as you have a short and long side.

    How often I change lump is up to what cook I'm doing. Long cook new lump. quick burgers whatever is in there. T
    www.ceramicgrillstore.com ACGP, Inc.
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  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817
    Michelle,

    I use a stainless steel spider and it works like a champ.

    Steve

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

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  • rrgator
    rrgator Posts: 25
    I use Royal Oak (American) from Walmart. After each cook, I have been stirring the remaining lump to knock the ashes to the bottom, make sure the holes in the firebox and grate are clear, and scrape as much ash out of the bottom as possible. I just add more lump to whatever is left, light, and cook. Seems to work just fine. My BGE is kept under a cabana poolside and I have the ventilated hood to save as much lump as possible after a cook and to keep moisture out. I will probably take everything apart and clean thoroughly with a shop vac next spring, but I'm not sure that it will be necessaey. Good grillin' to u.
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