Humpty Dumpty moment with LBGE

smokingal

I was going to fire up some ribs for dinner today and noticed that my BGE had some mold in it and the grates had some rust.  I decided to do a burnout.  The bolts and whatnot were tight so I fired him up.  After an hour I checked to see how the carbon steel grates were coming along.  When I pulled down on the handle to shut the lid, the lid just slid out of the band and fell backwards.  I'm not sure how the lid became loose.

I bought it pre-built from a dealer back in 2012 and I know the band setup has been updated since then.  Should I get one of the new bands?  I vaguely remember reading about alignment issues when using the new bands with older model BGEs ?

Sigh.  I was really looking forward to some ribs tonight.

Cornholio

Been there done that.. https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1214737/psa-check-your-bge-bands#latest

Mine was during a high heat pizza cook after moving not too long before the catastrophe and failing to check my bands.  

Cornholio

I just got a replacement lid from a local dealer and BGE sent me new hardware to install it on my existing band.

fishlessman

if you went for a full high temp burnout the bands will thermally expand with the extra heat, they will get loose but will shrink back down when things cool back down

smokingal

I should have indicated that the lid surprisingly did not break.  It picked up a few dings though.  I'm now able to handle the bands and bolts and can see that the bolt holding the lid has a nut that will not adjust.  It may have been stuck for quite a while, with the lid becoming looser as I thought I was tightening it.




@fishlessman Well, then the bands must have started to cool down when I had the lid up for 30 seconds.  It's 90 degrees out and the fire was so hot I couldn't leave a hand over it for a second.

fishlessman

smokingal said:

I should have indicated that the lid surprisingly did not break.  It picked up a few dings though.  I'm now able to handle the bands and bolts and can see that the bolt holding the lid has a nut that will not adjust.  It may have been stuck for quite a while, with the lid becoming looser as I thought I was tightening it.




@fishlessman Well, then the bands must have started to cool down when I had the lid up for 30 seconds.  It's 90 degrees out and the fire was so hot I couldn't leave a hand over it for a second.

i used to do pizza cooks between 900 and 1200 degree dome temps, the bands expanding were very problematic

smokingal

I lucked out on this one and got Humpty Dumpty put back together.  All bolts sufficiently tightened.  Now on to the rusty grates.

@fishlessman So did you get a pizza oven or do you just cook at lower temps now?

thetrim

Wow!  You did get Lucky!   

@lousubcap will definitely have some comments about this one.  

HeavyG

fishlessman said:

smokingal said:

I should have indicated that the lid surprisingly did not break.  It picked up a few dings though.  I'm now able to handle the bands and bolts and can see that the bolt holding the lid has a nut that will not adjust.  It may have been stuck for quite a while, with the lid becoming looser as I thought I was tightening it.




@fishlessman Well, then the bands must have started to cool down when I had the lid up for 30 seconds.  It's 90 degrees out and the fire was so hot I couldn't leave a hand over it for a second.

i used to do pizza cooks between 900 and 1200 degree dome temps, the bands expanding were very problematic

It has always puzzled me why BGE/KJ don't modify their molds so there is a "mechanical key" that would prevent bands from sliding off a dome/base like the "trench" that Vision Grills kamados have.

fishlessman

HeavyG said:

fishlessman said:

smokingal said:

I should have indicated that the lid surprisingly did not break.  It picked up a few dings though.  I'm now able to handle the bands and bolts and can see that the bolt holding the lid has a nut that will not adjust.  It may have been stuck for quite a while, with the lid becoming looser as I thought I was tightening it.




@fishlessman Well, then the bands must have started to cool down when I had the lid up for 30 seconds.  It's 90 degrees out and the fire was so hot I couldn't leave a hand over it for a second.

i used to do pizza cooks between 900 and 1200 degree dome temps, the bands expanding were very problematic

It has always puzzled me why BGE/KJ don't modify their molds so there is a "mechanical key" that would prevent bands from sliding off a dome/base like the "trench" that Vision Grills kamados have.

for some reason, maybe assembly issues, bge removed a pin that locked the bands to the ceramics. the pin hole is still in front under the bands. atleast i think its still there.  you could feel the band get loose but it would not tumble off, just meant it was time to retighten. the pin has been gone from about 2004 when they stopped making the bands in mexico