cleaning and gaskets

DHW

i am looking at doing a burn out to clean for the first time. any suggestions on how hot and how long? where is best place to get new gaskets if it gets damaged? thanks

travisstrick

It WILL get damaged. I, however, wouldn't worry about it. In my experience, the gasket is not needed and no value added. I haven't had a gasket since my second cook. My suggestion is to let the gasket go and see if it effects your cooks. If not, don't replace.

Doc_Eggerton

While it irritates me that the gasket is gone (within a week) on both the Eggs, I can't say it makes much difference.  Travisstrick is right.

I did a smoke of salmon on the XL yesterday, and an 11 hour pork shoulder today on the L.  Both have completely toasted gaskets.  Doesn't appear to have been a problem.

The thing I wonder about is why they don't make some sort of overlapping joint for the dome and bottom, and skip the gasket.

Smoker_Guru

While it irritates me that the gasket is gone (within a week) on both the Eggs, I can't say it makes much difference.  Travisstrick is right.

I did a smoke of salmon on the XL yesterday, and an 11 hour pork shoulder today on the L.  Both have completely toasted gaskets.  Doesn't appear to have been a problem.

The thing I wonder about is why they don't make some sort of overlapping joint for the dome and bottom, and skip the gasket.

If they did that where would we put the probe wires through??

stike

the domes and lower portions of the eggs aren't perfectly registered together.  they are fired separately and married after the fact.  underbite and overbite are common (not a defect), because the things aren't really made perfectly round

i always thought they could cast in a groove, rather than machining the surfaces after firing, and then key in a silicone gasket.  did these sketches a while ago of the idea.

if they cast a groove, then you could drop a stock o-ring into it, and it'd stay there without adhesive.



other thought was a custom gasket that keyed into a machined dado, but cutting ceramic would chew up the tools, even industrial diamond coated stuff.  probably easier to cast it and be done

boatbum

I primarily do low and slow stuff, most pizza's are between 5-600 for me.   That said, I have a gunk build up, starting to see some unattractive sweating...  ewwwwwww.

Time for a burn out - hoping I can do it without toasting the gaskets - we will see.  My thinking is to heat things up for a while, but not open the lid.   Something in my mind thinks gasket failure is related to opening the dome at very high heat.   We will see...   

If I do lose the gaskets, then will follow Travis's advise, try it without them or replace with one of the more durable options.

Smoker_Guru

Stike, you need to be on the BGE design team!! That design would make life much easier.

MaskedMarvel

Along the lines of @Stike 's idea - I thought about just buying a high temp exhaust hose from a muffler shop, slitting it open on the bottom, and "capping" the lower half of the Egg.  Haven't looked to see if it'd interfere with the raised grate or not...

I'll let Stike do the CAD on that...

Bear 007

This is how I do mine

twlangan

Not sure how hot those weed burners that some of you use to light your lump get, but has anyone tried one of those (or a torch) to just burn residue off the interior? The ceramic can certainly survive it and you wouldn't put your gaskets at risk. Just a thought...