Residue flaking from inside of dome

Babyray

As I was doing chicken cordon bleu last night. When I raised the dome to check, several pieces of thin dry black residue fell from inside the dome to the ground. Fortunately none fell on the chicken. This morning after examining more closely there are several more large flakes that I can easily pull off and they leave the white inside of the dome shining thru. Have had this large BGE about 5 years now and this is a first. Seems that high heat might have caused it (but was only 400 and the chicken came out great). I was cooking with platesetter and extended grid. Have any of you had this happen? Almost like a self-cleaning process.[p]Thanks,
Ray Price

The Naked Whiz

Babyray,
Yep, this is pretty much normal. The black flaking stuff is soot/smoke/grease/you-name-it that has accumulated on the inner surface of the dome and then hardened/charred. I try to remember to break away any big flakes every now and then to avoid them coming off and getting into the food, like you experienced. High heat definitely causes it to loosen from the dome. [p]TNW

YB

Babyray,
I crumble up foil paper and rub the inside of the dome down from time to time...Seems to work pretty good.
Larry

WessB

Babyray,
Similar to what Larry said, I use a 3M scotch brite paid to scrub mine down from time to time...kinda like the green side of one of them sponges.....HTH[p]Wess

Cajun

Babyray,[p]This is normal. Don't fret. Like YB, I sometimes crumble up so tin foil and run the top before starting up. Other times I use my grill brush and make a quick pass over the rough spots to loosen the flakes.[p]This just means you are using the BGE and not just letting it sit. It's a good thing.[p]Cajun

RRP

<p />Babyray,
last month when I had my large apart to install a spring hinge I went ahead with that dreaded project and got my 5 year accumulation cleaned off. Unlike you of finding white ceramic underneath the crude my dome is this shiny gray tone. I used a 3M wheel for paint and varnish removal. Trust me - it was a messy job, but like you I was having pieces start to flake off so I'm glad I did it.

fishlessman

Babyray,
every once in a while i clean all the ash out then add about a cofee cans worth of lump. light it and leave the vents wide open daisy off. in the morning you can give the dome a quick scraping with a tin foil ball and it cleans up easily, even the firebox will be back to the origional color. probably not recommended with a new felt gasket

stike

RRP,
the shine and grey are from the wire brush, i'd imagine...[p]ceramic is soft enough to grind and polish just with the spinning brush and the added pressure of bearing down.[p]
did you try an extended burn first, nuke temps for 20 minutes to burn it off? that might be easier, though potentially tough on the gasket.

RRP

<p />stike, no it is not from a wire wheel - I used a 3M product which I also highly recommend for people to use when installing a Rutland gasket. I agree the metal brush wears down and fills the ceramic pores and IMHO is one of the two leading causes of adhesive failure.
As for burn off - I've had moderate success getting some of the crude off that way - but this stuff was the extremely hard cresote that was rock hard in some places that even a putty knife couldn't remove, but the 3M wheel was no match.

stike

RRP,
well, sir, then i stand corrected!
-stike