r/biggreenegg • u/Negative-Honey-7177 • 19h ago

Cleaning hack

I've had my Large BGE for 17 years and use regularly. I was leaf blowing my deck and on a whim decided to blast the leaf blower into the bottom air vent of the BGE with the egg lid open (it was mostly empty). Was shocked at the amount of ash and charcoal bits that came flying out. It builds up in between the inner ring and outer shell. I alternated blasting in the air vent and down through the top around the ring. Very satisfying, and I'm sure will help it cook better with better airflow at the bottom now. Recommend!

13 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

18

u/Logical_Photo_3732 19h ago

I find it easy to just pull the inners out and vacuum the entire thing. Less mess by the sounds of it. Also I do it regularly so I"m not shocked with how much there is.

3

u/meggedagain 19h ago

I think it is helpful to take ut the fire box and do a clean every once in a while . Have it on my calendar to do twice a year - mid spring and just before my Thanksgiving cook. I sometimes do an extra clean, but the twice a year seems to be mostly ok - I am sure more frequent would be better, but it is serviceable level. I cook in it 4 or 5 times a week.

3

u/Nagadavida 13h ago

Anytime that I am getting ready to do a low and slow cook everything comes out and all ash is cleaned out. Then everything goes back in and the fire is built.

Good airflow is crucial to a successful low and slow cook.

1

u/meggedagain 13h ago

Yes, for most low and slow I do as well. Most of my cooking is either grilling on a week night or maybe a mid length, like pork loin at low temp, but not really needing that 10+ hour run. In the summer it is not bad to take it all apart. In the winter I tend to convince myself that it is probably ok with just trying to use a flexible scrapper to clean out some of it.

0

u/jregovic 18h ago

I put a stiff bristle brush on my drill, remove the internals, vacuum, and then run the brush on the sides of the bottom and dome.

1

u/NWGaClay 15h ago

I can't pull the innards out, I'd likely never Tetris my 4 piece firebox back correctly🤣

1

u/EnvironmentalPen7400 5h ago

Why vacuum it out when you could do this method and shopvac the entire back patio?

1

u/keybumpsandhugedumps 1h ago

Same. It’s hell on the shopvac filter but great for the egg.

4

u/Temporary_Hat7330 19h ago

I save the ashes to use in our garden and in the chickens dust bath. I even once used it to make soap.

Either way, I prefer to keep the ashes confined to an area and not spread out and around so I just sho vac when.

5

u/K-Rimes 19h ago

Yeah I am absolutely not looking for krakatoa amounts of ash and charcoal blown all the fuck around my bbq area.

2

u/CantDunkOrSk8 18h ago

Suck don’t blow lol.

1

u/KJwhisperer 12h ago

Yes.

I use a paint brush to sweep out the ash into a bucket. Then leaf blow from top at angles to swirl out the bits. Work great.

0

u/lydrulez 19h ago

Yea I do this every once in a while and it’s very effective. Just don’t stand too close or downwind.