Is my gasket fried?

txkbaldlaw

Hello everyone.

I'm thinking I may have fried my gasket.   I'm attaching some photos.

I've only had my egg about 6 weeks.  I first noticed it after I cooked pizza the first time, using the plate-setter with legs turned down, and my pizza stone.  I was cooking at around 500-550.  It got worse the second time I did pizza.   Prior to the gasket getting in this condition, I had only used the egg for low-and-slow smoking, and twice for pizza.  I've done a couple of hi-temp steak cooks since.

Do I need to look at replacing the gasket, and if so, what am I doing wrong so I don't repeat the problem?

Also, as you can (hopefully) see in the last photo, the top and bottom of my egg don't sit perfectly squarely.  I loosened the top band, recentered it, and retightened the band, and it's still off by a 1/8".   Is this normal, or should I be concerned?

Many Thanks!
TxkBaldLaw

Little Steven

Looks OK to me. Get some firebricks and raise the platesetter above the felt line. Don't have to be firebricks truth be told. Your pies will be better too.

reh111

No, it's not "fried" yet - but it probably will be eventually - the problem with doing pizza with plate setter legs down is that it puts the most extreme heat right at the gasket line - I've been doing pizza with legs up - grate on legs - pizza stone raised either by bricks or the feet that came with the BGE on top of the grate, which does a couple of things - you want to get the pizza as high in the egg as possible so that the crust doesn't burn before the toppings are done - also it gets the highest heat above the gasket line and doesn't affect the gasket as much so it lasts longer

BTW - you'll know that your gasket is "fried", i.e. not doing what it's designed to do, when you smoke something and the smoke is escaping from the area where the gasket is - as long as the smoke isn't coming out there, you're fine

Kosko

I fried my gasket on my 3 week old large egg cooking a first time pizza just like little Steven said. I had my plate setter with legs down and my pizza stone and the flame just destroyed my gasket. (600 degrees) . Good thing is I called BGE and talked to a guy named Bruce in the warranty dept. and he sent me a new high temp. Gasket to me for free, without hesitation.

txkbaldlaw

Thanks guys!  I appreciate it!

Austin Egghead

Not yet but a couple of more cooks with the plate setter legs down and it will be.  If you don't have a Woo or fire bricks beer cans will work. Cooking high in the dome works for other foods too.