The BGE only has to be cleaned every 5 - 6 cooking cycles. The ash from natural lump charcoal is a fraction of Kingsford briquettes and as noted above, you almost never use a full fire bowl of charcoal in a single cooking session.
Snuffing the fire by closing the damper and putting on the ceramic cap saves the unburnt charcoal for the next time. I cleaned the BGE today and I only removed about half a foil pan's worth of ash. I did buy the little L shaped ash scraper at the dealer when I bought the plate setter (i.e., a heat diffuser) because it is that much easier to pull out the ash through the little door
Snuffing the fire by closing the damper and putting on the ceramic cap saves the unburnt charcoal for the next time. I cleaned the BGE today and I only removed about half a foil pan's worth of ash. I did buy the little L shaped ash scraper at the dealer when I bought the plate setter (i.e., a heat diffuser) because it is that much easier to pull out the ash through the little door