British BBQ Society Forums

I am looking at upgrading from my trusted WSM to the XL Big Green Egg but am not sure if I want to keep the WSM as back up. Looking at the XL it seems to offer a similar amount of cooking space as my 47" WSM and I have not yet ben caught wanting more capacity even for the bigger cooks. Is that a fair view?

One thing I like about my WSM is that it can go away in the garage quite neatly and I am looking at the XL trolly but how sturdy are they?

Having been a heat bead fan for some time I wanted to ask about the length of a cook you can get from lump wood in a BGE - I can't see how you could easily top it up if you needed to.

Does anyone use a forced air system on theirs? I have a PartyGuru on the WSM that I can convert but not sure it will be powerful enough.

One reason that I want it is actually so that I can have something to do long low and slow as well as hot and fast with ease - currently have a Cadac Neoway for the fast stuff. Is it equally adept at both or would I be better off just getting a OTP?

I am sure more will come out but wanted to ask the experts

I was in your exact position. I had a WSM and OTP and an egg, the WSM was sold as was the OTP and I haven't missed them, don't get me wrong it's a good cooker but it just wasn't being used.

Regarding lump consumption I can easily get 16 hours on a single fill, top it right up in to the fire ring and you can get 22 hours plus, especially if you use the 15kg BigK lump and pack it in to the egg to maximise the space

If it all goes wrong you can lift the grill and plate setter out with welders gloves and top it up, never had to do this myself for a charcoal top up but often lift the plate setter out at the end of the cook and raise the temperature up to do some grilling. The one tip I have, from personal experience is don't do it in flip flops, some grease on the foil covering it dropped off on my foot, ouch

Oh by the way the handler is really sturdy, moves the egg no trouble even over rough surfaces, lots put then in tables but I wouldn't want to loose the ability to move it around the garden etc, just make sure you only ever pull it!!

Or (just to be contentious) you could buy a Big Joe and lift all the internals out in one go to top up (should you need to) and save money in the process

GuyB wrote:Or (just to be contentious) you could buy a Big Joe and lift all the internals out in one go to top up (should you need to) and save money in the process

Nothing wrong with contentious, especially with that point, which is a major win for the Joe over the Egg, you can buy that set-up as an extra from the US but that's not the point. I have to be honest though for me the nest/handler on the egg is far superior to the Joe version, I would be worried about moving it around too much, especially with the load being too heavy. Whichever you go with you won't regret getting a ceramic kamado style cooker

I know that this is in many posts (that to now I have ignored) but is BigK the best of the lump wood selections for sizes and burn time or is there better?

ConorD wrote:I know that this is in many posts (that to now I have ignored) but is BigK the best of the lump wood selections for sizes and burn time or is there better?

Different charcoal is better for different cookers. I like the BigK ACH15 for WSM's and my Backwoods smoker, but for ceramic cookers, i prefer the smaller size pieces of BigK's RCH12

ConorD wrote:I know that this is in many posts (that to now I have ignored) but is BigK the best of the lump wood selections for sizes and burn time or is there better?

For me it's always been consistent, had stuff from Booker and Liverpool wood pellets and it's often more smaller pieces and dust, but that might just be my experience

Let us know if you do sell your WSM conor

JoeSalop wrote:Let us know if you do sell your WSM conor

Sure thing