I've had my BGE for 18 months. I love every minute of it. My outdoor kitchen has a spot for grills like this but my BGE required a little bit of raised platform to clear the countertop on either side of it. We had a cookout for a birthday on Saturday. Long after grilling was done, while opening presents I noticed smoke still coming from behind the egg. I thought maybe it was leaking from around the seal. I looked closer and the wood platform was on fire. I have never spoke with more authority to 20 people (men women and children) than that moment. Everyone was under an overhang surrounded by wood abnd things could have gotten very dangerous very quickly. I cleared the patio and grabbed my extinguisher. One person said "This party is Lit!". Which helped ease the fact that I almost burned the house down……again. So this PSA is don't put wood under the egg. I'm sure an ember made it's way out of the intake and into the platform. I cant imagine what would have happend if the party ended sooner. I have since replaced the wood with Bricks. So happy grilling!

by zionxix2

14 Comments

  1. ShadowDV

    It wasn’t an ember, the egg just gets that hot. And when wood dries out, the egg can ignite it just from proximity. 

    Any proper advice is that there should be at least a 1 inch gap between the egg ceramic and any wood.  It definitely should have been on a paver.

    I’m not trying to be mean, but setting it on wood was dumb

  2. You need spacers if you’re gonna put it on wood my man

  3. es330td

    I used to put a large silpat under my BGE. That should prevent it from catching fire. When I built a new one I put a paving stone down as a base but was never worried with the silpat insulator.

  4. Deep_Shape8993

    Yeah this was dumb, why would anyone in their right mind put bge on wood?

  5. ilBrunissimo

    BGE says to use a table nest AND a paver.

    Thanks for posting those pics to remind us why.

  6. New-Chicken5566

    You want the air gap between the bottom and the surface below. Buy the nest for table usage

  7. DiscountDog

    I personally know someone that burned their family house down running a Weber kettle on the backyard deck, even with one of those metal shields. Wood is fuel whether it’s in the cooker or not. Even with a completely-effective metal heat-shield, embers exist.

  8. _gotrice

    There have been lots of pictures of people on the BGE group on FB whose deck has burned down from this setup.

    Thr egg gets so hot and burns the wood. Even with the bricks you have on there, the head has transferred through the brick and ignited the wood base it was sitting on.

    The best set up over a wood base is flat stone or brick, and then the BGE nest stand which is a a stand that holds the egg up off the stone maybe 2-3 inches. It allows airflow beneath the egg to cool down faster and mitigate heat transfer to something below.

  9. --Shibdib--

    Redditor learns that wood and extremely hot objects can result in fires.

  10. CarryInfinite5431

    The heat from mine split a paver in half, then eegnited the timber frame underneath.

  11. Agitated_Abroad1512

    I like the Skull face art in the 2nd pic. It looks like a good quality item. If you don’t mind me asking, how much it set you back?

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