Looking and studying BGE. Would like your honest and unbiased opinion. Which cooks better Large or Extra Large? I know there is more space on EL but which one holds heat, control heat. Can take to Bank on cooking, slow cooking and high temp cooking. Which one is the best over all performer as for as producing best product
Thanks

I only have a large but have been told the XL's are a little tougher to regulate and have a large appetite for lump. Wait for byc, duxndogs and RatherBHuntin to chime in. I'm pretty sure they all either have or have had both sizes.

Mike

I went to an egg-fest today down in Greenbelt MD. They had about 8 folks cooking a variety of stuff including brisket, breads, veggies, chicken, pizza and quesadillas. Impressive stuff.

To the point of the question. I ask the same question to the egg-masters present and they all said the the large was the best one to start with and to only consider going to the XL if you consistently cook for big groups otherwise get the large and a small for the times you need a little more space.

I would say the exact same thing. The xl will require more lump and unneccessarily so when cooking for 4-6 or less. Unless you have a very large family, I'd go with the large with out a second thought.

I have both and a medium and a Primo Oval and I concur. In short, the higher dome on the LG actually provides more smoke. The XL is great for cooking more food at one time but honestly the end result is about the same for both. Meaning the food is outstanding. Even if you screw it up!.

Glad you made it to the fest Alan. Too bad there not more cookers. I think Atlanta has about 300 already registered.

This was their first year so don't know how much PR they did. It was interesting though.

I have both and as far as cooking goes there is no noticeable difference. Both light the same and get up to temp at about the same rate and both are very easy to hold a wide range of temps for long periods of time. The XL of course uses more lump but not as much as you would think. You can get or make a lump reducing ring to help with lump consumption if you go XL. I like the real estate the XL offers especially when I'm cooking ribs (I like to lay them flat on the grill surface vs stacking them) but I use my large egg a WHOLE lot more than I use my XL and I'm now even use my mini egg more than I do my XL. For an avg size family and a few occasional big cooks I would advise you to go with the Large. You can cook a lot of grub on a large.

Ill be cooking at times for about 2 to 8 and 10 to 15 people I,m leaning towards Large. Herd New XL have higher dome and made this upgrade and its better than regular XL.
But I appreciate everyones input

Thanks Lester

The newer XL does have a bit higher dome. It's the one in the forefront.

Whatever you do take note:

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=983209&catid=1

Wow byc, that's quite the basket of egg's you have there!! I'm impressed and jealous all at the same time.

Mike

Hey I've been on that deck!! BYC do you know "YB" (Larry)? He's actually got more eggs down below the deck in a gazebo area. I think he had 11 at last count.

I got that shot off the net as I do not own one of the newer XL's with the higher domes.

But I do know of YB from the other forums. I used to post there as Sandlapper and BYC. ThirdEye, YB, wessb, drbbq, Celtic Wolf, Nature B, BobbyQ, Terry, Sandbagger and Naked Whiz who oddly enough works for the same company as I do---all good people and full of ceramic cooker knowledge for sure!!! In fact, all eggheads are good people.

As others have said you cannot stop at 1 cooker. My inventory consists of:

5-XL's (old style)
3-Lg
1-Medium
1-Primo XL Oval (which I like a lot)
1-Primo LG
1-Orion
1-Big stick burner that needs some work.

I keep everything up at my Dad's ranch who swears they're having babies. ::))

Thinking I now need to get one of the new higher dome XL's to keep up with YB and others from the BGE and Smoke ring forums!

For now we use 4 XL's and 1 LG for competitions. The rest are scattered amongst 2 houses. Next time I load the trailer for a competition I'll post a picture of the family.

large still in the lead!!!!!!!!!!

What's your sectret to keeping those lower vents so darn clean? I have to replace the lower half on mine. It seems I devolped a crack on my bottom!
I received an entirely new lower half in about two weeks from the MotherShip but it's been such a hectic year I haven't got around to replacing it yet.

Stetson, those aren't mine. I do not have one of the higher domed XL's so I pulled that off the net. But mine do look every bit as clean.

As you're probably aware the original-updated ceramic design did not include the stainless bottom dampers. Mine (non-stainless) started to rust and accumulate gunk. So I replaced all of them with the newer screened dampers, which actually do a pretty good job of taking care of themselves. My oldest still looks almost brand new with no rust. Also, I try to keep the elements off of the cooker as much as possible.

David

I do keep mine covered but the SS damper this season got a bit tarnished and the mesh was getting a slight build up on it. The new ceramic bottom I have has a new SS Damper already installed so no worries there. I just gotta get around to tearing it down and replacing the lower unit. The crack was only a problem on slow cooks. I kept getting a puddle underneath.