How often to clean fire box?

I have a tendency to do it whenever there is not much charcoal in the egg. I just put the good pieces back in the charcoal bag and I don't have a vacuum so I get to grab all the dust out!

Navy,

Having your air blocked off by ash will make it harder to achieve high temperatures (will take longer to heat up, and may not get really hot at all), and can make it harder to control temp and keep your fire lit on low and slow cooks. If you experience either of these symptoms, it's definitely time to clean. Otherwise...

1) As Flashback Bob said, always fully clean before overnight cooks. This takes away one factor that can cause your temp to drop or fire to go out.

2) Every once in a while, take a look through your draft door. If there is a big pile of ash in there, clean it out.

3) Depending on the type of lump you use you'll get different amounts of ash, so it's hard to give a schedule for when you should clean. If you notice that every 5 cooks, or every two weeks, is a good time to do it, then try and stick to that. I generally just open mine up every other Sunday, since I'm nearly always cooking on Sundays, take out the ash, and dump it in my garden.

-John

I do it when I notice the temps aren't as high as expected, or it takes too long to heat up.

I do stir the charcoal around in the fire box prior to building a new fire. It keeps the small pieces from accumulating.

I used to not clean out very often but now that I have 2, I cannot justify cleaning out the small and letting the large get jealous and dirty!

I usually do it before a big over night cook, especially if I have been cooking a lot that week or month. I just use an old Breakstone sour cream container to scoop everything out or my hands.

Whatever you do just make sure everything is properly aligned before you set everything back up for a cook.

I have also found if there is a little bit of ash that I cannot get, I just brush it to the front and it causes no problems and I get it next time I clean.

I only clean mine before a low and slow cook, unless its been a really long time since its been cleaned. When you open the vent on the bottom, and the ash starts to fall out, then I guess its time :woohoo: I too utilize the shop vac, quick and easy.

Generally when talking about cleaning the firebox it is the area under the fire grate.

Cleaning the outside of the fire box. For the most part that is the area between the fire box and egg wall is different item.

It sure doesn't hurt to clean the ashes in the firebox before each cook especially if one is having problems holding temperature or getting to temperature. Doing so just eliminates one variable in heat control.

With that said I cook on average 5 to 7 meals a week on my large. I clean the firebox once every 8 to 10 cooks. I always clean before every 6 hour or longer or overnight cook.

I haven't cleaned out behind the firebox in 3 to 4 years. I will probable do it before winter sets in just to see how much ash has built up.

GG

We have a medium size Egg and after a couple of cooks I have noticed that getting up to cooking temps takes much longer and the temp continues to rise for a longer period of time.

Digging down into the firebox revealed that many of the smaller burned pieces of charcoal have fallen into and all around the fire box vent holes which appears to be significantly restricting air flow. After a good clean out of all ash and small burned pieces of charcoal, the cooker fires right up, quickly jumps up to any desired temp, and the temp is much more easily regulated.

It seems the smaller sized Egg is much more sensitive to restricted air flow than the larger Eggs.

Dave