Pizza:-) / vaporized gasket :-(

shortfire

Made grill pizzas Thursday for dinner all turned out great except the last one...it was condemned because the gasket fell off of the dome, and the bottom side was charbroiled. Has anyone had or heard of this before? Was the egg to hot? And what the best way to clean the egg off to replace the gasket? Should I use a BGE gasket or are there other better ones out there? As always thanks in advance.

Unknown

shortfire, there are a ton of gasket threads you can find on this exact problem, it is very common (search 'gasket'). The egg was only too hot if you burned the pie, which it sounds like you did on the last one. As for the gasket, there are many options & they all work well, call your dealer & pick one up. I currently use a nomex, attached with 3M adhesive, works ok, but the longer you egg the less you'll be concerned about the gasket. How about some pictures of your pizzas, folks here love the pictures...

gdenby

At is quite common for fairly new gaskets to fail under high heat. Pizzas seem to be the main culprit. It seems that there can be days, if not weeks, before gasket adhesive really sets up. When there is a really hot fire, the adhesive seems to re-liquify, and either the top gasket falls off when the dome is lifted, or, worse, the two gaskets fuse after the fire is out or down, and the Egg is sealed shut.

Anytime there is a gap between the dome and bottom, there is a good chance that escaping hot gasses will burn away or melt the gaskets.

I haven't removed my dome to replace gaskets, although that is recommended. I just use a putty knife, and a propane torch, and peel away the remaining gasket. Then I scrape the edge with a single sided razor, and wash with rubbing alcohol. Takes about 10 minutes from start to new gaskets.

BGE sells a Nomex gasket, which appears to withstand heat much better. Other folks have used a Rutland gasket on the bottom. It has asbestos fiber, and so is not recommended in cases where the fibers might fall into the food. Others have used the $$ Cotronics ceramic fiber rope for a gasket.

Vetereggnarian

The Rutland is fiberglass, not asbestos. There is still plenty of debate about fiberglass particles, though.

guzzijason

I lost my gasket the same way (pizza). Then proceeded to use the BGE for about 3 years with only the crusty gasket residue in place - and never really had a problem. For some reason, I recently decided to put on a new (original style) gasket, but *only* put it on the bottom, not the dome (having it on both sides seems like overkill to me).

I'm starting to think the purpose of the gasket is to simply protect the Egg from damage - from ceramic-on-ceramic contact when closing the dome. Beyond that, I haven't noticed much difference with/without gasket. Unless your egg has particularly large gaps where the dome/base come together, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

__Jason

Phrettbender

I did pizzas this afternoon and noticed the same thing with the gaskets. Sections looked almost liquid and melted. Have to see what they are like when things cool down. Pizzas came out pretty dandy for my first try!

RRP

Rutland is NOT asbestos, but Fiberglas.

Tell you what...how about reading the three fine reports that The Naked Whiz made?

Rutland:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/gasketsafety/rutlandgasketsafety.htm

Cotronics:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/gasketsafety/cotronicsgasketsafety.htm

Nomex:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/gasketsafety/nomexgasketsafety.htm

After reading them all carefully I'll be glad to be the first to suggest "pick your poison" but at least you'll be informed!

shortfire

Thanks for all the replies guys. they were lots of help, yesterday i burnt all of the old gasket off and im going to put a new ceramic one one just the bottom, figure its better than it melting shut one day, Thanks for the tip "guzzijason". @gasket man the pizza wasnt burned it had gasket melted in it so i figured it wasnt worth worring about trying to pick all the crud out. and sorry for not posting pics....i dont have a computer so i can only post and reply off of my phone. till they "make an app for that" i'll be posting text. but Phrettbender has an awesome looking pie and a good looking peel. Home grown or did ya buy it? thanks again.