Ash basket is not the most efficient at retaining smaller charcoal chunks.
This is 2 cooks worth of sifted ash. Perfectly good material makes its way to the bottom and I'm thinking there has to be a fix for this. I'm tempted to switch back to the stock grill configuration.
by We-Want-The-Umph
11 Comments
marcnotmark925
I use the basket on top of the original grate
90mileCommute
I use the iron bottom plate with ~dime sized holes (maybe stock? i bought from a weird vendor). After a cook, i close the grates and kill the flame. Before the next cook, I stir the remaining ash/coal with my brush so that ash and small pieces fall through while larger pieces stay on top (~20 seconds) then i add new coal, one more quick integration stir. If the pre-coal stir doesn’t successfully clear the chamber of ash as described, i let the flame burn all the way out after that cook instead of stifling (about every 4th-5th time) and clean out the remaining ash the following time instead of stirring. hope that makes sense. not sure what others do
Whitetiger9876
On a kamado joe I have the same issue
Roux_My_Burgundy
That coal isn’t worth much. Too small. It will compact and burn unevenly and choke air flow.
lotanis
You’re saying that the ash basket drops out too much of the small charcoal pieces? That would be a positive for me – I have too many small pieces that inhibit air flow.
PilotIsMyPilot
It’s intentional. Anything that’s small enough to fall through the basket, you don’t want.
abdoer2000
Small price to pay.
Alarmed-Goat1
That’s the conclusion I can to also. The only thing I found the basket useful for was increasing my charcoal usage. I went back to the original grate. I know some in here will justify their purchase by saying the small stuff chokes out the fire, but in the12 years I’ve had mine, I’ve never had that issue. As long as have a mix of the old small stuff and newer larger chunks my experience is it burns just fine. You can use this to finish off the crap at the bottom of a bag too. Add half of the left over, then start a new bag, use the other half on your next cook. Personally I’m not a fan of waste, so I like to optimize my usage.
Human-Equipment-3219
Kick ash basket for me is very useful because I smoke a lot of proteins on my 2XL. So after it’s cooled down there’s leftover fuel and a lot of ash I need to clean out before my next cook. With the basket I can just remove it and clean by taking out the kick ash can. With the stock grate I can’t do that as nicely and it’s a lot more work. So if small chunks fall through it’s fine because they begin to disintegrate anyhow.
Hobbz-
I know some claim those are too small to be useful. I use the old-school method of stirring up the charcoal with the ash tool before pouring in the new. I don’t have an issue with airflow and can easily get the temp to 700F. Absolutely no issues maintaining 250F either.
I’ve had mine 17 years and primarily use BGE charcoal. No issues.
smokingfast
Before i start my egg, i shake my ash basket to mix it up then scrape what falls out through the og grate at the bottom. I then remove the base grate and vacuum up the ash in the base of the egg. If its too big to go through the holes of the bottom grate then i take those chunks and put it ontop of my fresh topped up basket because those small chunks start up quicker with my eggniter.
11 Comments
I use the basket on top of the original grate
I use the iron bottom plate with ~dime sized holes (maybe stock? i bought from a weird vendor). After a cook, i close the grates and kill the flame. Before the next cook, I stir the remaining ash/coal with my brush so that ash and small pieces fall through while larger pieces stay on top (~20 seconds) then i add new coal, one more quick integration stir. If the pre-coal stir doesn’t successfully clear the chamber of ash as described, i let the flame burn all the way out after that cook instead of stifling (about every 4th-5th time) and clean out the remaining ash the following time instead of stirring. hope that makes sense. not sure what others do
On a kamado joe I have the same issue
That coal isn’t worth much. Too small. It will compact and burn unevenly and choke air flow.
You’re saying that the ash basket drops out too much of the small charcoal pieces? That would be a positive for me – I have too many small pieces that inhibit air flow.
It’s intentional. Anything that’s small enough to fall through the basket, you don’t want.
Small price to pay.
That’s the conclusion I can to also. The only thing I found the basket useful for was increasing my charcoal usage. I went back to the original grate. I know some in here will justify their purchase by saying the small stuff chokes out the fire, but in the12 years I’ve had mine, I’ve never had that issue. As long as have a mix of the old small stuff and newer larger chunks my experience is it burns just fine. You can use this to finish off the crap at the bottom of a bag too. Add half of the left over, then start a new bag, use the other half on your next cook. Personally I’m not a fan of waste, so I like to optimize my usage.
Kick ash basket for me is very useful because I smoke a lot of proteins on my 2XL. So after it’s cooled down there’s leftover fuel and a lot of ash I need to clean out before my next cook. With the basket I can just remove it and clean by taking out the kick ash can. With the stock grate I can’t do that as nicely and it’s a lot more work. So if small chunks fall through it’s fine because they begin to disintegrate anyhow.
I know some claim those are too small to be useful. I use the old-school method of stirring up the charcoal with the ash tool before pouring in the new. I don’t have an issue with airflow and can easily get the temp to 700F. Absolutely no issues maintaining 250F either.
I’ve had mine 17 years and primarily use BGE charcoal. No issues.
Before i start my egg, i shake my ash basket to mix it up then scrape what falls out through the og grate at the bottom. I then remove the base grate and vacuum up the ash in the base of the egg. If its too big to go through the holes of the bottom grate then i take those chunks and put it ontop of my fresh topped up basket because those small chunks start up quicker with my eggniter.