Replacing band assembly

ThirteenDaysAWeek

Hi all - this past fall, we had our deck rebuilt, which meant I had to get my large egg off the deck.  I zip-tied the band shut and removed it, then moved the bottom and top of the egg into the garage.  The gasket was in desperate need of replacing, so I decided not to put the egg back together until I'd tackled the gasket replacement.  Considering the weather was already below freezing, I opted to postpone the gasket replacement until spring.

Fast forward to spring, the weather is finally nice here and I've been able to get things ready for the gasket replacement.  Getting the old one off was a piece of cake but removing the stuck-on adhesive was considerably more challenging.  Acetone worked mostly OK for the lid but the layer on the base wouldn't budge.  Finally ended up going after it with a propane torch and a scraper, things are now looking pretty good.  New Smokeware gasket arrived this week, so I'd planned on putting everything back together today so I could be ready to do some pork shoulders next weekend.

Unfortunately, I'm not able to locate the screws to attach the band back to the egg.  I'm 99% sure that when I took everything apart in the fall, I put the screws in a ziplock bag and taped that to the band.  I've pretty much torn the garage apart and they're MIA.  At this point, I'm thinking back in the fall, I thought of some clever place to leave them, which I'm sure made a ton of sense at the time, but of course now I can't remember.  No doubt my wife or I will come across them in 5 years while looking for something unrelated.

All of this is a really long backstory to get to my question.  I spoke to my local dealer, they said they most likely didn't have any extra screws but, being a hardware store, they were sure they could find something that would fit and some high temp paint to make their screws black.  I'm not opposed to that plan, however, when I was looking at their stock of eggs, I noticed the newer band assemblies have a sort of tab, that from what I've been able to tell through online searches, is supposed to make it easier to get the band lined up properly.  This got me thinking that maybe I should just get a new band.  Mine is about 8-9 years old, it's got a bit of rust and the handle is looking kind of tough.  What I'm hoping someone can clarify for is is, will one of these newer model bands work on my older egg?  I'm guessing it's just a matter of whether the screw holes are in the same position or not.

Apologies for the novel here and thanks in advance for any insights!

Buckwoody Egger

New band assembly is not a bad idea, depending on the severity of the rust-  and this link may help. 

https://www.nibblemethis.com/2021/04/faq-replacing-bands-on-large-big-green.html?m=1

Otherwise someone will very likely have the info on the bolt sizes you need.

WeberWho

If you're only missing a couple bolts I'd just replace the bolts. The band can always get replaced down the road if it becomes inoperable. The tabs what I believe you're talking about is a "safety net" for the top dome. The bolts can loosen up over time and unfortunately the dome can slip out of the band and go crashing down to the ground. The tabs keep that from happening. 

I found this in a previous post:

"There is nothing special about these bolts. they are 5/16x2" galvanized carriage bolts, available at any hardware store. So replace them if you wish."

ThirteenDaysAWeek

@WeberWho - interesting comment about the tabs being a safety net.  Based on what I've seen of them, it's not clear to me how that would work.  If you look at the link that @Buckwoody Egger posted above, the tabs are are the top of the assembly, I don't see how they could prevent the dome from slipping but entirely possible I'm missing something (besides my bolts of course ).  Also, thanks for doing the work of digging up the size of the bolts!

buzd504

The newer style bands are a nice upgrade.  I would get them.

Langner91

Agree on the new bands.  I think they are great, unless you use "the claw" to remove your plate setter.  The new bands do not allow the dome to open as far as the old bands.

But, they keep things aligned and work well.  

Pick up a rEGGulator while you are there.

dbCooper

If you take the path of replacing the bolts on the old bands, get grade 5 bolts.  They will have three lines on the head.

This is important as BGE does not publish torque specs for the bolts.  Their guidance, unless it changed, states "tighten until the bolts bend".  The logic of this has always baffled me.  Be interesting to hear @JohnInCarolina weigh in on the topic.

WeberWho

ThirteenDaysAWeek said:

@WeberWho - interesting comment about the tabs being a safety net.  Based on what I've seen of them, it's not clear to me how that would work.  If you look at the link that @Buckwoody Egger posted above, the tabs are are the top of the assembly, I don't see how they could prevent the dome from slipping but entirely possible I'm missing something (besides my bolts of course ).  Also, thanks for doing the work of digging up the size of the bolts!

Here is the link about the tabs.

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1225906/top-band-tabs

We might be thinking of different tabs. High heat cooks will slowly loosen up the band overtime. When you go to open the dome the dome itself will slide out of the upper band and go crashing to the ground. I've unfortunately seen it happen a few different times here on the forum. The tabs will prevent the dome from completely falling out of the band. A little extra security if you will.  

Every change of seasons is a good reminder to go and crank down on the bolts to make sure the bolts have remained tight. 

JohnInCarolina

dbCooper said:

If you take the path of replacing the bolts on the old bands, get grade 5 bolts.  They will have three lines on the head.

This is important as BGE does not publish torque specs for the bolts.  Their guidance, unless it changed, states "tighten until the bolts bend".  The logic of this has always baffled me.  Be interesting to hear @JohnInCarolina weigh in on the topic.

I don’t know for sure, but my first guess is that the bending of the bolts is simply a good, visible proxy for there being sufficient tension in the bands.

RRP

John, it is late here so I don’t want to get too long reciting MY OLD proven suggestion of “double nutting”. That isn’t porn nor reason for some here to flag me. Double nutting is an old mechanics’ proven method of merely running a second nut back up against the first one that securely bent that bolt. Then that first snug nut will NOT budge!

JohnInCarolina

RRP said:

John, it is late here so I don’t want to get too long reciting MY OLD proven suggestion of “double nutting”. That isn’t porn nor reason for some here to flag me. Double nutting is an old mechanics’ proven method of merely running a second nut back up against the first one that securely bent that bolt. Then that first snug nut will NOT budge!

No argument there Ron.  The question I was trying to answer is why BGE tells people to bend the bolts in the first place.

SmokeyPitt

I agree if you have the old style bands I would consider just upgrading. The new bands will fit an older egg. My egg is from 2010 and I replaced them. Of course like a month after I replace them I found a crack in my base and had to replace the base...thus had to install the bands again. I was happy i had upgraded because they are much easier to install  and align. It does suck that the bands are way overpriced...but spending $150 to get a 10 year old grill back in perfect shape isn’t too bad.

Tango574

Why Replace The Bands on a Big Green Egg?

1. Rust
2. Frequent need for realignment due to overbite, underbite issues 
3. Smoke leaking from between the top and bottom, but your gasket is in good condition
4. Dome lid occasionally slams shut on its own
5. Spontaneous Catastrophic Disassembly 

Credit: https://www.nibblemethis.com/2021/04/faq-replacing-bands-on-large-big-green.html?m=1


Watch Jay Wilson's video. It's worth the 28 minutes. https://youtu.be/qkYl5PEsgXQ

These tips helped me a lot. Thanks everyone.