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Gasket and Stoker Question

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rathersmokethanwork
rathersmokethanwork Posts: 5
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Long time lurker here but broke through with my first post. Thanks for letting me steal ideas, thoughts and recipes.

I have had my egg over year and a half and have been able to manipulate the egg to control temps pretty well. So I bought a stoker as I love low and slow and sleep.

Like everyone else I have fried my gasket and have been putting off replacing as the fit is fairly decent. Does this become more an issue with the Stoker? I am thinking I know the answer but am fairly comfortable in putting this off.
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Comments

  • SMITTYtheSMOKER
    SMITTYtheSMOKER Posts: 2,668
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    If you can hold a temp down at sub-250 temps your gasket is functioning. If you find that the Egg wants to bottom out at 300 then we have a gasket failure.

    Your Stoker should not make a difference.

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

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  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,889
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    I sort of agree with you, but whether it's a Stoker or a Guru the point is when the unit is calling for air then gaps in a gasket will show the escaping heat - especially if using woods to smoke. The more the leaks then the more the felt gasket will continue to deteroriate until it becomes a problem.
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    My large gasket is old, old, old...

    When the Stoker powers on some comes out all around the gasket area. The egg can hold 200° and possibly lower.

    Do as Smitty said above. If you egg holds the low temperatures the Stoker will work fine.

    Enjoy your cooks and welcome to the forum.

    GG
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  • SMITTYtheSMOKER
    SMITTYtheSMOKER Posts: 2,668
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    All gaskets will deterorate as time goes by. They certainly don't get better. I wasn't saying otherwise.

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

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  • WokOnMedium
    WokOnMedium Posts: 1,376
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    Welcome to the forum, a new voice is always welcome, don't be a stranger and good luck with your Stoker. I bought a DigiQII, and after awhile found that I could trust my Egg to stay steady, so in the garage it sits! :woohoo: I worry about spending $8 on a micro brew, but a $300 unit sits in a plastic tub in the garage...not touched in a year. Aw geez!
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  • rathersmokethanwork
    rathersmokethanwork Posts: 5
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    I bought for two reasons; I am basically a geek and for a new toy
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  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,889
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    sorry if I offended you - my point merely was whether air flow was enhanced by a Stoker or a Guru there's more chance a faulty gasket with gaps will deteriorate quicker than an NON-enhanced egg.
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
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  • SMITTYtheSMOKER
    SMITTYtheSMOKER Posts: 2,668
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    Certainly no offense taken here Ron. So your point is that a power draft system may accelerate the deterioration process? Maybe, like Kent I haver some very old looking gaskets on my Eggs now and they run with a draft system 95% of the time. Still no problems holding them down in temp.

    When was the last time you cooked with a felt gasket?

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    A geek!!! What's that. Last Labor Day I cooked a brisket with my Stoker on the large and a couple of Boston Butts on the medium.

    My digiQII controlled the medium and my Stoker controlled the Brisket as well as monitoring the q2 cook at the same time.

    Here is the butts You can see the SS cables of the q2 and the orange stoker cables.
    ldbutts.jpg

    The Brisket
    ldbrisket1.jpg

    and the geek part The Stoker Log to track the cook.
    brisketlog.jpg

    More toys = more fun.

    Take some pictures of your cook and share it with us.

    GG
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  • thegrillster
    thegrillster Posts: 348
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    I have no gasket and the stoker works fine. I usually cook low and slow at about 230-250.
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  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,889
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    LOL - answers to your felt gasket question are all relative with the varying time that I've owned my four eggs - but I can't explain more on this forum, so touche' my friend! Good night.
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
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  • Charlie tuna
    Charlie tuna Posts: 2,191
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    I have the Garu on a large egg and originally when my gasket was half way intact it could maintain cooks below 250 degrees. Now the original egg gasket is 90 shot and i find my grid temperatures drifting sometimes as high as 300 degrees. This was a problem with a whole turkey for Christmas and Thanksgiving. A pork butt is more forgiving than a turkey so i'm OK at this point. I would like to replace the gasket, but i want the best product --not the cheapo that came with the unit. :evil:
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    Charlie tuna wrote:
    not the cheapo that came with the unit. :evil:

    The original felt gasket works just fine, the problem has been with the adhesive being used, IMO.

    Flashback, extremely high cooks, clean burns, and or cast iron furniture in close proximity to the gasket line will put stress on or destroy the gasket. BGE recommends Nomex for higher temperature tolerance, however that still does not address the lower temperature failure of the adhesive.

    With the felt gasket it seems that long exposure time to temperatures of 600° and higher will melt the adhesive. On my medium 7 to 10 minutes at 700° will melt the adhesive every time.

    When doing some felt gasket testing I happened to catch the gasket failure before the adhesive melted. I simply applied some 3M adhesive membrane back on the failed gasket and it his holding just fine.

    Here is where I caught the failure
    atg1.jpg

    atg2.jpg

    For the fix I used an ATG gun and 3M adhesive membrane.

    atg3.jpg

    atg4.jpg

    Sometime this spring/summer I am going to install a new felt gasket on one egg, Nomex clone on another egg and high temperature silicone on the third egg.

    Hopefully someone can post a link to the silicone gasket install.

    GG
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  • RU Eggsperienced
    RU Eggsperienced Posts: 1,527
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    No Promblemo!! Stoker w/new, old gasket will work fine.

    I enjoy my Stoker - Try the Stokerlog too. ...Also remote access is a thing to play around with.. At a Christmas party one year, I monitored and adjusted the temp of a turkey cook on my egg from my mobile phone while I was at a party about 1 mile away. When it was done we drove over picked it up and served it at the party....
    Cheers.....Jerry


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