BFG Back Again and still learning

[rhouser]

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

 

[TheRicker]

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

I appreciate the info and sharing your experiences.

I have occasionally read on this forum about folks leaving the dry ash in the barrel. I’d like to know why you do that? Maybe I’m missing out on something.

I clean my RT-700 about every 2 - 3 months. When I do, I do vacuum out all the dust. I just don’t know any better.

 

[rhouser]

I leave the ash because it traps and marks any grease that gets into the bottom of the drum. It also lets me scoop out any spilled/trapped grease (kind of like cat litter clumps). It also shows that none of the last "rain fall" got into the cooker.

I don't let the ash go more than a couple of inches in the bottom. I don't want it to blow around getting onto the food.

Vacuuming it out is pretty easy and it is nice to see the floor of the drum all shiny and new looking. As long as it stays dry, the ash is not caustic. I use a Milwaukee battery powered shop vac for a couple of reasons. It is small, the 18 volt is very portable, and they have an optional fine dust/ash filter bag to go into it. It is like the old vacuum cleaner bags. I use it till it's full, then dump the filter bag. I have no loss of power due to fine ash accumulating in the air ways and motor.

Thanks to all.
v/r r

 

[TheRicker]

I leave the ash because it traps and marks any grease that gets into the bottom of the drum. It also lets me scoop out any spilled/trapped grease (kind of like cat litter clumps). It also shows that none of the last "rain fall" got into the cooker.

I don't let the ash go more than a couple of inches in the bottom. I don't want it to blow around getting onto the food.

Vacuuming it out is pretty easy and it is nice to see the floor of the drum all shiny and new looking. As long as it stays dry, the ash is not caustic. I use a Milwaukee battery powered shop vac for a couple of reasons. It is small, the 18 volt is very portable, and they have an optional fine dust/ash filter bag to go into it. It is like the old vacuum cleaner bags. I use it till it's full, then dump the filter bag. I have no loss of power due to fine ash accumulating in the air ways and motor.

Thanks to all.
v/r r

Roger all regarding the reason for keeping some ash in the bottom. . The kitty litter analogy gave a perfect visual about grease potentially being in the drum.

I have a big old Rigid brand shop vac with a bag in it and the filter accessory on the exhaust so I’m not just blowing ash all over the place. It does a good job cleaning up the drum.

I bought some $23 vacuum thingee from Home Depot that snaps on the top of a 5-gal paint bucket to vacuum out the hopper. I scoop most of the pellets out and use this vacuum to get cleaned to the bottom and get the dust out of the bottom of the hopper. I use a kitchen colander to sift the pellet dust from the paint bucket and “reclaim” the unused pellets. Probably a bit OCD doing that but they’re good pellets and I get that pellet dust out the bottom of the hopper. I like to think that’s why I don’t have pellet feed issues.

 

[SmokeZilla]

I appreciate the info and sharing your experiences.

I have occasionally read on this forum about folks leaving the dry ash in the barrel. I’d like to know why you do that? Maybe I’m missing out on something.

I clean my RT-700 about every 2 - 3 months. When I do, I do vacuum out all the dust. I just don’t know any better.

i have had my RT700 almost since it was launched and if I remember correctly, RT recommended leaving a couple of inches of ash in the bottom of the cooking chamber to absorb juices/spills, keep moisture from creating corrosion/rust, and to act as an insulator to keep the barrel temps from fluctuating. I have always kept a healthy layer in mine and so far the salt air has not been a problem. I’ll try to find my instructions to confirm their recommendations.

 

[Greg Jones]

I have always kept a healthy layer in mine and so far the salt air has not been a problem. I’ll try to find my instructions to confirm their recommendations

They just posted a YouTube video last week talking about maintaining the grill and Jody specifically mentioned that recommendation again.

 

[rhouser]

I may have to go ahead and buy that home depot bucket top just so I can handle the pellet removal in the 53 pound hopper.
Another piece of equipment.... Oh well at least it is multifunctional.

v/r r

 

[Jim6820]

Another piece of equipment.... Oh well at least it is multifunctional.

Unfortunately, it is probably not “multifunctional” since you will want to dedicate it to removing pellets and keeping them clean. At least, that’s what many of us do. Mixing pellets with ash or whatever other “multifunctional” stuff you might run through it isn’t very appealing to me.

Fortunately, they are inexpensive enough to be dedicated to a single task.

 

[TheRicker]

I may have to go ahead and buy that home depot bucket top just so I can handle the pellet removal in the 53 pound hopper.
Another piece of equipment.... Oh well at least it is multifunctional.

v/r r

…and inexpensive.

 

[TheRicker]

Unfortunately, it is probably not “multifunctional” since you will want to dedicate it to removing pellets and keeping them clean. At least, that’s what many of us do. Mixing pellets with ash or whatever other “multifunctional” stuff you might run through it isn’t very appealing to me.

Fortunately, they are inexpensive enough to be dedicated to a single task.

That’s all I use it for…hopper. I do like to occasionally swap out the different flavored pellets I have.

 

[TheRicker]

Looks like the “bucket head” has gone up in price.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-...ible-with-5-Gal-Homer-Bucket-BH0100/202017218

 

[rhouser]

My multi function I was thinking of plugging the hose into the exhaust side and using it to blow out the hopper and auger tube. I believe the hose fits. That makes it a "twofer"
v/r r

 

[Jim6820]

Somebody at Home Depot is probably monitoring this forum and seeing all the interest in the product.

 

[Threadcutter]

Looks like the “bucket head” has gone up in price.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-...ible-with-5-Gal-Homer-Bucket-BH0100/202017218

Up ? It's $29.97 now per the link. That's a steal. I think I paid $39.00 a couple of years ago.

No worries, it does everything I want it to, which is just vacuuming pellets out of the hopper.

After a break in (with lots of broken glass), I bought a Rigid Upright Vac, With a HANDLE. I got real tired of my Shop Vac that I was constantly having to bend down to push around, or drag it around by the hose. It was always getting hung up on something. The rigid also seems to have more suction and the filters need to be cleaned or replaced less frequently.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-...SHA-and-HEPA-Filtration-Kit-HD1800A/308710802

 

[Greg Jones]

My shop vac… I do have some smaller units dedicated to grill usage.

 

[Pacman]

@Greg Jones I see this photo and can only think, "I hope he's hiring a mover when the time comes."

 

[Greg Jones]

@Greg Jones I see this photo and can only think, "I hope he's hiring a mover when the time comes."

I think I’m going to hire an auctioneer instead. My best woodworking days are in the rear view mirror. Best to retire when I still have all ten digits on my hands. Although technically I only have 9 7/8. That bandsaw took the tip of one finger several years ago.

 

[TheRicker]

My shop vac… I do have some smaller units dedicated to grill usage. View attachment 21175

Holy cow!!!

 

[TheRicker]

Up ? It's $29.97 now per the link. That's a steal. I think I paid $39.00 a couple of years ago.

No worries, it does everything I want it to, which is just vacuuming pellets out of the hopper.

After a break in (with lots of broken glass), I bought a Rigid Upright Vac, With a HANDLE. I got real tired of my Shop Vac that I was constantly having to bend down to push around, or drag it around by the hose. It was always getting hung up on something. The rigid also seems to have more suction and the filters need to be cleaned or replaced less frequently.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-...SHA-and-HEPA-Filtration-Kit-HD1800A/308710802

My regular/big “shop vac” I previously referred to is that big Rigid unit without those big back wheels or the handle. It’s not the Shop Vac brand. And the Rigid is built well and powerful.

That said, I feel like George Castanza (Seinfeld character) in the “shrinkage” episode when I compare my “big” Rigid shop vac to Greg Jones vacuum system.

 

[rhouser]

Greg: That is a beautiful shop layout. I bet all that vacuum equipment "REALLY SUCKS"!
Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
v/r r