- Messages
- 59
- Grill(s) owned
- BFG
I have done my full heat testing and my BFG will hold 629 steady for 45 minutes minimum. After that I got bored and brought it back down in stages. The 629 sustained was with Traeger Pecan pellets.
Note that the pellet box does get hot at these temps and I needed a glove to open the top of the pellet hopper. Not RED hot, but uncomfortable to grab.
An odd observation was that after the cool down and shut down, the surviving pellets in the hopper had a really nasty smell. My theory is that with the heat in the hopper the embedded Traeger Flavor oil in the pecan off-gassed into something really bad smelling. I have nothing to base this on other that they smelled bad and the pellet hopper had been well heated.
I have done two more 10 brisket cooks and 2 of the 16 pork butt cooks. No or low drama on all of them. All ran between 17 and 23 hours. My briskets now live at 250 for the whole run. I started my last 16 pork butt cook at 205 because I had the time. I bumped it to 225 after 8 hours. 23 hours total cooking time on this run. I had pretty heavy bark and good smoke flavor, but I don't think it was enough better to add the extra few hour to the finish times due to the low slow start. I am liking the good old 225 for butts where I have the 19 hour window available. No wraps, no spritzes, just close it up and don't look for the first 17 hours or so.
I basically feel I have to clean after every one of my cooks, but it is more a knock off the big pieces and clean the grease out than a make things like new cleaning. I use stainless steel commercial kitchen type scrub pads on the grills. I start at the top and clean my way down leaving the refuse eventually on the heat shields/grease trays that are foil wrapped. I scrub off each grate, then wipe it down with a paper towel and put it to the side for reinstalling.
The grease trays get pulled and the foil stripped. I then take my 4 in stainless steel putty knife and scrape off any overt carbon burns. I then put on a new layer of foil and set aside for re-installing. I clean the rails of the grease collectors with a scraper and then wipe with paper towels. I swab out the pass throughs and replace the buckets. I pull the heat deflector and look into the pellet bowl. If there is a lot of ash and "clinkers", I will vacuum it out. Same with the floor of the drum. If it is dry ash, I will let it go, but if it appears damp, I remove it with a scraper (it has trapped oil from somewhere.
At this point, I just look at everything. If a bunch of carbon has built up on the inside of the lid, I will brush the whole thing with a whisk type brush and then wipe the inside down with a damp rag. I may hit the rail sliders if they need it. Everything is subjective at this point.
My whole clean up takes about an hour. When it's done, I am confident that I am ready to go and feel I have no "fire hazards" waiting for my first big High Temp cook. I love that I can see everything on the bfg. There are no real "hiding places" for the ugly things to accumulate.
I am still thrilled with the BFG. This thing is a real cooker. I am to the point now where I believe I can trust what it is going to do and how it will act.
thanks to all who make this forum great.
v/r r
Note that the pellet box does get hot at these temps and I needed a glove to open the top of the pellet hopper. Not RED hot, but uncomfortable to grab.
An odd observation was that after the cool down and shut down, the surviving pellets in the hopper had a really nasty smell. My theory is that with the heat in the hopper the embedded Traeger Flavor oil in the pecan off-gassed into something really bad smelling. I have nothing to base this on other that they smelled bad and the pellet hopper had been well heated.
I have done two more 10 brisket cooks and 2 of the 16 pork butt cooks. No or low drama on all of them. All ran between 17 and 23 hours. My briskets now live at 250 for the whole run. I started my last 16 pork butt cook at 205 because I had the time. I bumped it to 225 after 8 hours. 23 hours total cooking time on this run. I had pretty heavy bark and good smoke flavor, but I don't think it was enough better to add the extra few hour to the finish times due to the low slow start. I am liking the good old 225 for butts where I have the 19 hour window available. No wraps, no spritzes, just close it up and don't look for the first 17 hours or so.
I basically feel I have to clean after every one of my cooks, but it is more a knock off the big pieces and clean the grease out than a make things like new cleaning. I use stainless steel commercial kitchen type scrub pads on the grills. I start at the top and clean my way down leaving the refuse eventually on the heat shields/grease trays that are foil wrapped. I scrub off each grate, then wipe it down with a paper towel and put it to the side for reinstalling.
The grease trays get pulled and the foil stripped. I then take my 4 in stainless steel putty knife and scrape off any overt carbon burns. I then put on a new layer of foil and set aside for re-installing. I clean the rails of the grease collectors with a scraper and then wipe with paper towels. I swab out the pass throughs and replace the buckets. I pull the heat deflector and look into the pellet bowl. If there is a lot of ash and "clinkers", I will vacuum it out. Same with the floor of the drum. If it is dry ash, I will let it go, but if it appears damp, I remove it with a scraper (it has trapped oil from somewhere.
At this point, I just look at everything. If a bunch of carbon has built up on the inside of the lid, I will brush the whole thing with a whisk type brush and then wipe the inside down with a damp rag. I may hit the rail sliders if they need it. Everything is subjective at this point.
My whole clean up takes about an hour. When it's done, I am confident that I am ready to go and feel I have no "fire hazards" waiting for my first big High Temp cook. I love that I can see everything on the bfg. There are no real "hiding places" for the ugly things to accumulate.
I am still thrilled with the BFG. This thing is a real cooker. I am to the point now where I believe I can trust what it is going to do and how it will act.
thanks to all who make this forum great.
v/r r
. The kitty litter analogy gave a perfect visual about grease potentially being in the drum.
