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Gasket or No Gasket

thegrillster
thegrillster Posts: 348
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I have not replaced the gasket on my large egg since the original went south.

This has not affected my cooks, low and slow or high temp, with or without the stoker in any way.

The only downside to this seems to be the fact that if the dome gets dropped it may damage the egg. I don't intend to let this happen but anything is possible.

Has anyone who is cooking with no gasket actually damaged their egg in any way by accidentally dropping the dome?

Seems to me that no gasket solves a lot of problems.

Comments

  • Hoss
    Hoss Posts: 14,600
    I have no gasket,have dropped my dome pretty hard a few times.No damage.To each his own but personally I do not believe gaskets are worth the hassel and bother.
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    i borrowed a gasketless egg once that i stoked with cowboy lump, filling the empty firebox as full as i normally do, up past the joint between the upper/lower castings.

    after cooking, i tossed the ceramic cap on and shut the lower vent. next day, i noticed that the lump had continued to burn and was pretty much all ash.

    next day i fired it with not as much Wicked-Good (i didn't want it to burn up, so i used only what i needed for the cook). after cooking, i shut down. next time i went to cook i saw that the wicked Good (much denser) had fared better, but that it still kept burning. it did go out though.

    it happened to be fishless' rig, and over the years i have heard him say that he cooks a little differently than he used to (when he had a gasket), and that it otherwise doesn't affect the cook.

    i'd agree. although, i DID see some waste from the fire continuing to burn. I didn't run a lo/slow on his, but i can't imagine it affecting temps, really. i might think that at 400 it might have a tendency to run away due to the stack effect, but i dunno.

    guess what i'm saying is you can make anything work. though when i shut down, i know my fir is going out, and i know the dome is cushioned. i'm running a permatex rutland, anout 4 years or more old. the small still has the felt.

    the old manual mentions the felt is a cushion. i don't think the original understanding of backyard 'Q in the 60s/70s called for air-tight low and slow cooks, or people firing steaks at 1000 degrees. but when it was discovered the egg could do it, the gasket met its match. that, coupled with some manufacturing/ass'y issues, and the gasket is a weak spot.

    frankly, if the new dude is going to take the company to the big leagues and start selling bajillions of these ala Weber, he's going to need to solve (or do away with) the lifetime warranty on the inner guts (which are expected to break, and hence an added cost to every egg), and he'll have to solve the gasket issue. the lazy semi-enthusiast who buys this thing on a whim at a retailer is not going to understand or put up with 'gasket issues'. here, on the hardcore forum, it's a point of pride. in the real world, it's a liability. if they magically double their sales, they will have magically doubled their exposure to warranty replacements and gasket freebies.

    that won't happen. somethin's gonna change
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • NC-CDN
    NC-CDN Posts: 703
    I don't have a gasket to speak of either. It went long long ago. I haven't had any issue getting temps high or low and it has all sorts of gaps where a stack of 50 one dollar bills could escape. Still, I have no problems what so ever. I'm sure it isn't as efficient as it could be, but when I do a long overnighter I don't have to reload my lump. I might not get 20 hours out of it, but whatever. No biggie for me.

    When I shut my EGG down it dies pretty readily. The next day I go to cook I always have plenty of unspent lump waiting to do me proud. It's never continued burning.

    I want to see how people like the copper stuff as their only gasket. I have a tube and am thinking of using it as my gasket. Just like that buffer so if my lid falls it has something to soften it. Plus if it gets more efficient it isn't a bad thing.

    It's been years for mine without the gasket.
  • Mickey
    Mickey Posts: 19,669
    I'm with Hoss, have 3 with NO gasket and life is still good.
    Salado TX & 30A  FL: Egg Family: 3 Large and a very well used Mini, added a Mini Max when they came out (I'm good for now). Plus a couple Pit Boss Pellet Smokers.