Fan Size


 
M

MarkMi

New member
I have a large big green egg with a stoker, and a 5 cfm fan. Everything works great when I'm staying < 300 with the temp. Aweome in fact! But, the stoker seems to struggle maintaining temps higher than 300, with ~10 degree swings in temp. I'm wondering if it's the fan size. Is anyone running a 10cfm on a LBGE? If so, hows it handle the low and slows? How does it handle the hotter (> 300) temps. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to create a blast furnance or something, just better consistancy for the mid 300 temps.

thanks

Mark
 
Hi Mark,

Is your Egg clean and set up properly? I have the 5cfm fan for my Stoker with a Large Egg, and have run for for several hours at 325º. According to StokerLog, this was maintained using the fan only 16% of the time. So, empirical evidence from a Large Egg suggests that a 5cfm fan should be able to do what you are expecting.

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I would search within your Egg, rather than the fan for an answer.

Mark
 
I realize the your on a Stoker but the BBQ Guru folks recommend a 10 CFM fan for the Egg. based on what Mark P posted it would seem that 10 CFM is overkill and 5 CFM would work just fine.

Check out your grate or the holes in the firebowl, maybe they are clogged. Before each cook I stir up my coals, make sure the vents are free and clear and then vacuum out the old ash from the bottom.
 
I realize that I am not a BGE owner, but I am using a large WSM and the 5cfm blower seems to be more than this cooker needs. I can't imagine a fine cooking machine like the BGE needing anything more than a 5cfm blower . . .

Hope this helps . . .
 
I agree with everyone else I have done several cooks @ 350 for over 7 hours cooking multiple things that day, the 5 cfm fan is more than enough fan
 
I like the ten cfm better it's more versatile you can close the air slide down on it for smaller cookers and open it up for larger one if you have them. The price difference is small.
 
5 CFM should be more than enough. Although I no longer own a BGE I have used my Stoker with a 4 CFM fan to control temps on a large for over 2 years and had no problems. The key to holding stable temps in the BGE is learning what top damper adjustments work best for you. At times I had wild temp swings and found that there were three things that contributed to them,

1) The fire is directly below the temp probe, when the fan kicks on it blows the air up towards the temperature probe and the temp spikes. Try to position the probe toward the sides of the egg.

2) A good dome seal changes things dramatically, give the seal the dollar bill test, if it's snug all of the way around it's good, if not adjust the bands.

3) Spend time fiddling with the top damper openings. For > 350 the daisy wheel should be all of the way open and maybe even the other part, I forget what it's called, should be slid to the side a little.


I now use my 4 CFM to control a Stumps Clone with a 24" wide x 24" deep x 32" high cooking area and have no problems getting it past 350 Degrees. I also have a 10 CFM fan that I purchased for the clone and I find it to be massive overkill. It sits in a box in the garage.
 
My ceramic is larger than a BGE and my 5 CFM fan is more than adequate for maintaining 300 + degrees. The only time I've experienced big temp swings was when I used too much wood.

As Joe Thomas wrote the key really is the top damper position. I'd recommend looking on the BGE site for recommended positions.
 
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