Fire Ring Gap

I've been cooking on a large for about 8 years and added a small about 2 years ago. The small worked ok some of the time, but seemed to take longer to get up to temp than my large. A couple of weeks ago, someone mentioned in another post about excess gap between the fire ring and the wall of the egg causing air to go up the outside of the ring rather than through the coals. I checked mine out, and sure enough, there was a gap of at least 1/2 inch most of the way around. My large has no more than 1/16 inch gap at any point. I made some rope out of tin foil and filled it in, and now it gets to temp much more quickly.

My question is, which piece is out of spec, the fire ring or the egg? Should either one be covered under warranty replacement or is such a gap within acceptable tolerances? It's usuable as it is, but I really don't like having to improvise to get optimal results with such a first class product as the Egg.

Thoughts?

Ken