gasket seasoning

I keep touting I am not a believer in break in/curing.

However, I also am of the belief why push the limits if one doesn't need to.

My reasoning is after loosing 2 gaskets on my large, last year and before these current problems.

I wanted to make sure I "cured" my gasket/adhesive. I had 40 cooks under 400° - 450°. The next cook was higher temp and I lost the gasket (adhesive actually).

A little further explanation, I had a poor dome alignment where the failure happened. I also had a cast iron dutch oven close to the gasket area.

I consider my first gasket loss my fault - BGE stood up to the bar and helped me. My second loss, I think alignment problems. The third explained above.

My last felt gasket has been on over a year now. However, it is worn out. Natural causes and a lot of great food.

I am going to replace it with nomex.

I have no answer to your question.

Watch the alignment, be safe and don't go nuclear for a while, be careful with pizza stones, dutch ovens, cast iron skillets and other furniture that are close to the gasket.

You should be fine.

GG

Thank you for your thoughts and concern.

Happy to help you if needed. As of late it seems there has been a 'rash' of gasket issues. Those of us affected just need to get them replaced and on with cooking.

I think I read a post below from stike where he used high temp silicone with rutland gasket.

I am going to try the 3M 77/Nomex. I just want to see if that combination works. If that fails then I will pick up the high temp silicone under the Nomex.

Kent

all -

BTW - I should have said I have a great wife & absolutely love my BGE. I've always been the cook between us & now she has the added benefit of very few dishes to wash after a great meal. We're both lucky.

jeff

LOL... I am one of those asbestos/fiberglass worriers.

If we are on the same track, the unnamed source helped get mine also, which I have always very much appreciated the help given me.

I then learned of the Rutland warning and decided not to use it. Went back to the BGE felt solution.

Your rutland comment is interesting. I have now seen two posts where the rutland has failed. First time I have ever heard that other than someone not using enough cement or not applying propery.

There sure are a lot of rutland installs out there. Once can see them in a lot of pictures.

Several times I have thought to heck with it and was about to install the rutland. Cotronics also has a high temp gasket material that seems to be working.

I am going to give the BGE Nomex a try as it sounds from other forum members that it is working well - once installed with 3M 77.

If that fails there are another couple of ideas.

Thanks for your post MAC.

Kent

i think it's a bit of a myth, frankly. seems that the run of failing gaskets was due to BAD gaskets, not that people aren't breaking them in.

like a few others here, i lit my brand new egg and went right into steaks at 700. no issues. i think i eventually replaced my gasket, but not because it fell off, just because it got gunked and flattened.

still. why tempt fate, right? if you can, stick to 450 max for the first, i dunno, 5 cooks?

problem is that i think we are lumping gasket failures into one type of category. the old ones (any wool felt one, actually) would melt if held at 800 or so for a loooong time (like opening vents and letting it burn out in order to clean it). not that the gasket melts at 800 9it melts at 1100 or so), but that when you GRILL is at 800, the gasses can be 1200 or more at gasket level, not to mention the radiant temp from the coals.

the more recent spate of gasket failures have been more about adhesive failure. specifically, the (i think double-sided) adhesive tape that sits between the gasket and the rim. i can't help but think that the older gaskets were cemented into place maybe (rather than with that cello/tape kind of adhesive). a bucnh ran thru the production line, and so they are sitting in distributor warehouses intermingled with 'normal' gaskets maybe. depending how fast your distributor rotates stock, you could end up with a bad gasket maybe even a coupla years from now. sitting in the back corner... someone buys it in 2010, etc.

long story not-so-short, if it fails, your dealer should handle it. if they don't BGE corporate will trip over themselves to make it right.

we get postcards every now and then from the car dealer telling us about a recall, and to bring the car in for a fix. it's like that. 'cept maybe BGE can;t track down the bum gaskets.

would be good if the registration was tied to a production number and they could track things like this. maybe they can. i don't think they do, though....

it may be safer to blanch those raw vegatables first.

driving to work today i was behind a toyata prius with a liscense plate that said lvbngrn, great marketing ploy. i wonder how much polluting it took to manufacture that car, how much it will take to dispose of the car, how much damage breathing battery fumes from a monster lithium battery will cause, how bad lithium probably is, how much the cleanup by clean harbors will cost if its in an accident, how many cars will she own compared to me with my 20 year old dodge.

Wondering why MAC changed his original gasket to a Rutland? (if there are no problems with the original).

your working too hard with the gasket issue. just set your dome as close as you can to minimize the space and get to cooking. ive got a huge gap, no gasket and can cook jerkey in the 140 degree dome range, i just have to plan a jerkey temp on nonwindy days as i live on the windy side of the lake or lay a nonglued gasket on the lip. it holds low and slow temps just fine. an egg leaking smoke doesnt hurt a thing, its a smoker, its supposed to smoke. temp can be controled by air in only with the bottom vent, it doesnt really matter if its venting at the lip or daisy, you can even take the daisy completely off and control a low and slow