Water got inside my BGE

saildawg · December 2014

Hello everyone,

I have recently moved, previously I had my Large BGE under an awning outside, I actually moved twice one time to Charleston SC where I left the egg closed but not covered by an awning or cover in a table I custom built for it. It did not get much use over the course of 6 months, and the humidity was incredible so I had to do a few high temp burn off to kill mold. I have just moved to Athens, GA and was preparing to do another clean burn. It rained for 3 days strait, and when I came back to do it I noticed about an 1 1/2 inches of water at the bottom. I had the stainless steel vented chimney cap on, and full shut. I am not sure what to do, I believe people can leave BGE uncovered. I used a bunch of paper towels to soak up the water and I am now doing a clean burn (500 degrees or so). Any suggestions?

Thanks

bud812 · December 2014

Put the ceramic cap on.

saildawg · December 2014

Ok that is what i thought, although I was under the impression the stainless vent was water tight?

Tjcoley · December 2014

If you are not up to high temp yet, I would start with a slo burn to dry the ceramic before going real hot.

saildawg · December 2014

I started around 300 for an hour then brought it up, have a lot of cleaning to do of grates etc. and thus a lot of drinking. Thanks for your advice,

Terrebandit · December 2014

Yeah, I bet heating the water-soaked ceramic is probably not the best thing to do. If there is a weak spot in there, you'll know it pretty quick.

saildawg · December 2014

Luckily no cracks and all is well and clean. Probably not the best idea but I guess live and learn. Ceramic top will be on full time from now on

rtt121 · December 2014

My lazy butt I have been just using steel cap closed for many years. 2 1/2 with XL and 6 with Medium.

The medium cracked but that year it was covered and no rain touched it. So I don't attribute it to water.

finster · December 2014

Just curious, why Chucktown to Athens in 6 months? Did you not like it here or work related?

johnkitchens · December 2014

Athens is a great place. I like Charlestown as well.

GaBGE · December 2014

Welcome to northeast Georgia! I'm not to far from you. All I use is my smoke ware stainless cap and never had a problem.

theyolksonyou · December 2014

johnkitchens said:

Athens is a great place. I like Charlestown as well.

Well, it beats north ave if your looking for babes!

bboulier · December 2014

For the future, make sure you use the ceramic cap and a cover.

saildawg · December 2014

Thanks all for the comments. Moved to Athens after finishing my residency. Charleston is a great place to visit, but hard place to live at least for medical profession. My family and my wife's are in Atlanta, nice to be closer. We wanted to move back to Athens, nice mix of things to do and not dealing with Atlanta traffic. It is raining now, have the ceramic cap on, will check to see if all is dry when it stops.

saildawg · December 2014

So just checked it out after rain storm, it appears water is getting in through the thermometer opening. The thermometer is slightly bent and i do not use the internal clip I know getting a cover would help, but isn't the BGE supposed to be water tight if left outside?.

As you can see in pics below the BGE is just outside the overhang of roof, and all water in the egg is in the front where i is getting in from the thermometer hole. Thanks for any help

SMITTYtheSMOKER · December 2014

Get yourself a BGE dome cover.

Mattman3969 · December 2014

A cover would be the cheapest and quickest cure. The second option is to move the egg away from the eaves. I noticed there are no rain gutters so the amount of water coming off the roof and hitting the egg will be at a higher volume than if the egg was setting in the middle of your yard. Another thing to check would be the alignment of the base and dome. A few years back I had an alignment issues and the felt was wicking up the water and letting it run into the egg after it was fully saturated.

Durangler · December 2014

Pull the thermometer & stuff a whittled twig into the hole. B-)

Terrebandit · December 2014

If you refuse to cover it, why don't you just spin the whole thing around so that the hole faces the house. I don't think BGE designed the egg to withstand large amounts of water pouring on it and it still be waterproof. Just sayin...

saildawg · December 2014

All good suggestions, I have moved it for the meantime, will probably get a cover, or maybe something like this would work? http://sugru.com/about

Mattman3969 · December 2014

I would not put any sealant on the stem as it will make it somewhat permanent. For bigger chunks of meat you will need to pull the thermo out a bit to not stab the meat resulting in bad temp readings. You also want to rotate the thermo do at a quick glance you can see if you are at a desired to or not not to mention taking it out to calibrate it.

Jeepster47 · December 2014

If you want to experiment, this idea might work. Buy a short piece of hobby brass tubing that will fit tight in the hole in the dome ... not tight around the stem of the probe 'cuz it would be hard to remove when it gets gunked up. Cut off a piece that is long enough to go through the dome and stick out a half inch or so on the outside. Apply a very small bead of high temp RTV around the brass tube where it exits the dome. Then place a small o-ring around the probe ... push it up against the nut. Now insert the temp probe in the brass tube. That should provide a rain tight seal. The hole in the dome seems to be a different diameter for different eggs, so YMMV.

minniemoh · December 2014

Just a thought, an inch and half of water seems to be a lot to have leaked through the thermometer stem hole. Any chance it ran down the outside of your dome and leaked through your gasket? If you had it under the overhang of the house, it was certainly subjected to large volumes of rain water since it sits right at the edge of the roof.