New Eggowner: I think I broke it!! Help!

jessie318 · May 2014

I just bought my first Egg last weekend and have only cooked twice on it. Last night while cooking steaks, the heat apparently was too close to the lower draft door and not only singed the metal, but also melted the seal around the door! Well, maybe melt is the wrong word, but while cooking at about 500 degrees the silicone (??) over the top of the door crumbled and started flaking off.

(The rubber tips on the nest arms did in fact melt off though.)

This morning when I went out to survey the damage on the now-cool Egg, it appears that the door is still firmly attached, but the silicone is white and crumbly.. falling off when I touched it.

I'm hoping I'm not the only one who has had this experience - though I've searched and searched and seen no other posts on it. Please help!

And I guess, any pointers you can give on keeping the heat away from the door, I clearly need those too.

Thanks!
Jessica

johnkitchens · May 2014

Can you post a picture of the damage?

Thatgrimguy · May 2014

You did have the fire grate in right? The cast iron grate below the cooking surface that the charcoal rests on?

marysvilleegger · May 2014

My silicone has done the same thing. Interested what others have to say on this. Never really been happy with the way my lower vent slides.

jessie318 · May 2014

Well, now I'm going to sound like a total idiot.. but I don't know! I didn't set it up - bought it fully set up - and I can't remember if I saw that. When I get home from work, I'll dig out the charcoal remaining and see. OMG - what if it's not in there?? (If it isn't, I didn't get one!)

(Picture coming soon, as well.)

jessie318 · May 2014

See picture for damage. Thanks for all help!

Raymont · May 2014

Jessie, open up the egg, remove your top grate (what you cook on) and take a picture of the insides and share with us. It certainly does appear to have gotten overly hot (which isn't normal for an egg..).

nolaegghead · May 2014

Don't worry about the lower vent silicone as long as the door is attached well. As far as the ease in which it slides, you can pull off the vent doors and bend them to match the curvature of the egg at that point, also you can sand the metal down a bit on the top and bottom edges to make it fit better. A little graphite powder lube can also help.

The rubber tips on the nest should stand the heat. I'd pull out the egg and scrape what's left of them off and put something like some aluminum duct tape or gasket material (anything softer than the ceramic) so it doesn't scratch the egg. Mine are bare, but I don't care.

mmomega · May 2014

Wow that must have been hotter than 500 internal!

I just received my XLBGE Friday and I cooked on Saturday, Sunday and Monday for the 1st times.

A few things I noted as a 1st time Egghead.

- The thermometer that came with my egg was "off" by 15-20deg.

- I did watch plenty of videos and read the 1st timer dos and don't on the main website. One of those being do not cook above 350 or so the first few times.

- That being said 2 separate times when I lit my egg I had a roaring bed of coals so much that when I closed the lid flames were coming out of the top almost a foot.

- I quickly dampened the egg down to try and reduce airflow and get it under control, the temperatures did start dropping but the thermometer was 600+ for just a few minutes and nothing "that I could tell" was melted or damaged.

The way I found out my thermometer was off was that I have an iGrill with dual probes, while cooking I just decided to drop a probe through the top about 8-10" down and the iGrill was showing 400deg while the BGE stock thermo was showing 350.

I then removed the stock thermometer, with my welding gloves on of course, and placed a probe through the stock location hole and it read the same 400deg temp.

I then went inside and placed a pot of boiling water on the stove, boiling water stays at a constant 212-213, I placed my iGrill in, the stock thermo and 2 more while I was doing it. All thermometers except for the BGE one showed 212 maybe 214 while the BGE one showed 185.

I tried calibrating but just decided to cook with my iGrill with 1 probe in the meat and the second stuck into the stock dome hole.

jessie318 · May 2014

Here's the picture looking down into it that was requested. I can't get my teen son to dig out the charcoal to check for the fire grate - so I'll do that when I get home tonight. I'm quite concerned that it didn't have one - I don't recall anything cast iron at all.

Thanks all!

Jessica

HAWKCARL · May 2014

You appear to be missing the fire box.

jessie318 · May 2014

Really? Well, that would explain quite a lot. I wish it didn't weigh so damn much. Taking it back is not an easy task.

Do you think I've done irreparable damage by cooking without it?

Thatgrimguy · May 2014

Get us that pic with it empty. Too hard to tell with all that lump still in there. But it would explain a lot.

No, I don't think you have don't anything that will be a big deal after you get all the pieces in there.

RRP · May 2014

For one thing your egg is not sitting in the nest properly and the reason the black cushion melted like it did was it was directly exposed to the high heat coming from the bottom vent. That nest egg must have gotten extremely hot. You need to turn that egg so the legs are on each side of the bottom vent. I've never seem silicone melt that way so it does sound like you cooked without the bottom charcoal grate in place. And your thermometer is probably way out of whack so it needs to be calibrated. I wish you well - and hopefully you have a helpful dealer!

RAC · May 2014

You need to rotate you egg in the nest and get the nest leg away from the vent. Here is picture mine below.

YEMTrey · May 2014

Did you watch the temp go up on the Egg thermo? Is it possible you lapped the thermo and your reading of 500 was actually closer to 1000+.

minniemoh · May 2014

HAWKCARL said:

You appear to be missing the fire box.

Good call @HAWKCARL! The fire ring appears to be sitting tight to the sides of the egg.

@jessie318 - is there a bowl shaped piece of ceramic that looks like the photo below. This should be under the fire ring (the part that your grate sits on). Do you recall putting that piece in under the ring shown in your photo with the charcoal? There should also be a cast iron fire grate that keeps an air void below the burning charcoal so the ash can fall to the bottom of the egg.

Here's a diagram of how it should be set up.

johnkitchens · May 2014

@jessie318 I agree with the other posters here.
Here is a pic of what the egg should look like on the inside with all of the pieces in place.

(This pic was borrowed from here: http://www.outdoor-cookery.com/2012/05/how-to-light-big-green-egg.html)

You mentioned that "I didn't set it up - bought it fully set up" if all you did was bring it home from the dealer in the nest and cook then I have to lay the blame on the dealer for not setting it up properly.

They would be hearing from me if I were you.

SmokeyPitt · May 2014

It is kind of hard to tell from the pic but it does appear like you may be missing the firebox. If you can open the bottom draft door and see the pile of lump there then that is definitely the case. As shown above, the lump goes in the firebox (the bowl) that holds the lump above the draft door.

I could be mistaken, but it looks like some of the glaze on the outside might be pulling away from the egg. I think what we may be seeing is the glaze (the outer green part) pulled away and what is chipping off is the white ceramic.

Closer look:

If a dealer sold it to you without a fire bowl and there is any sign of cracks I would talk to the dealer about getting a new base and the missing fire box.

Canugghead · May 2014

+1 with @rrp and @rac - perhaps the leg smack in the middle of the lower vent picked up excess conducted heat that melted the plastic, it also exerted too much pressure that caused the crumbling? Also, like others mentioned, the cast iron lump grate and/or firebox may be missing.

nolaegghead · May 2014

If the firebox and grate are missing, that would explain the heat damage.

berndcrisp · May 2014

Welcome to the forum Jessie. Sorry that your first experience was a downer, hope the steaks were good. This is the best site to get help with cooking and Egg problems.

I think all abovementioned is correct. Take all of this post to the dealer (have you a smart phone? ). Carefully examine ALL of the egg, inside and out, for cracks and peeling. They will correct the problem.

GeorgeS · May 2014

That would definitely go back for a full exchange. You are missing pieces for sure! The aluminum on the draft door/screen got so hot it dis colored. I bet your lump is right in the bottom of the egg. Agreed with folks above, take it back if assembled by a dealer.

FATC1TY · May 2014

If you can't take the egg apart, look inside the vent door at the bottom. Is that full of lump charcoal, or does it just have some small parts and ash in there?

If it's got charcoal all the way in there, you don't have the fire grate, and probably not from the pictures, the fire box. That would keep the side of the egg from getting so hot it would cause the silicone to melt off.

Your nest is fine, other than the burned up silicone boot, but your egg is put into the nest wrong, and the head coming from the vent, and the assumed lump burning right at the door, most certainly would have caused that kind of damage.

Looking closer, I can see a lip of where you fire ring is sitting, which is close to the wall of the base, and I can see some lump under what appears to be a lip, due to the fact you don't have a firebox in there. Would explain the problem completely.

Regardless- I'd contact your dealer that put it together- you did buy it from an authorized dealer, right? They will be able to fix the situation hopefull.y

jessie318 · May 2014

Hi all,

Thank you so much for all the feedback! I'm going to be placing a call to the dealer ASAP - once I get home and validate that the firebox is indeed missing. (Yes, it was an authorized dealer - and I'm in Atlanta, with the BGE headquarters just down the road. So there's no excuse!)

Someone asked if I could see coal through the draft door and yes, I could. In fact, at one point when the screen caught and opened a little, I had a coal fall out. I thought that was strange - but everything is strange at this point - so I just made a note to hold that screen shut. (Which by the way, also had all the plastic melt off.)

I'll definitely rotate the Egg (or the next Egg!) so that the legs aren't in front of the opening, but I also wanted to add that even the legs on the sides and back had the rubber melt off the tips. (And they were nowhere near the door!)

I'm 99% certain there's no firebox, from the pictures posted above, and the descriptions. Plus, when we went to put in the charcoal and I saw reference to "fill the firebox", I recall scratching my head wondering where that mysterious "fill line" would be.

Sigh... I honestly don't want to haul it back to the store, but it sounds like that's going to be necessary.

Thanks again! I'll report back when I get home and dig into this more (pun-intended).

Jessica

jessie318 · May 2014

YEMTrey said:

Did you watch the temp go up on the Egg thermo? Is it possible you lapped the thermo and your reading of 500 was actually closer to 1000+.

Yes, I did watch it go up and in fact it was slow to rise - and then fast to fall. I suspected there was an airflow problem or I didn't stack the charcoal correctly, but now I think the answer is the missing firebox and/or grate. Stay tuned and thanks for the help!

johnkitchens · May 2014

Your dealer should really be embarrassed over this. There really is no excuse to send someone home with an "assembled" egg in this condition.

When I bought mine it was also assembled and the fire ring and the grate were both upside down. My local dealer has high school kids putting them together. That may also be the case with your dealer.

Either way that is bad business!

Thatgrimguy · May 2014

jessie318 said:

YEMTrey said:

Did you watch the temp go up on the Egg thermo? Is it possible you lapped the thermo and your reading of 500 was actually closer to 1000+.

Yes, I did watch it go up and in fact it was slow to rise - and then fast to fall. I suspected there was an airflow problem or I didn't stack the charcoal correctly, but now I think the answer is the missing firebox and/or grate. Stay tuned and thanks for the help!

I'm now willing to guarantee you are missing both. IF you lost all the rubber tips, it's the only explanation.

grill4us · May 2014

Hopefully you don't have any more problems. One reason I decided to go with the egg over the primo was the customer service. Good luck and welcome!!

grill4us · May 2014

You know I was thinking - before you haul it back there, why not call them and maybe email them some pics. They are responsible if they set it up wrong and maybe they'll just get the ball rolling for you. So when you do go back there you'll come home with exactly what you need.

lkapigian · May 2014

Wow

New Eggowner: I think I broke it!! Help!

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