BGE "Frozen" Shut Without Ice

Woody

[p]On my last two cooks, I could not open the lid, even the the temp outside was above freezing. I got it open by throwing a parrafin starter in, a minor pain, but can I avoid this in the future?[p]I assume it is due to build up of the same greasy, smoky, fatty black smegma that coats the inside of the egg. My gasket does not leak.[p]Any help?[p]Happy New Year to all.[p]Woody

Clay Q

Woody,
After my egg cools off I'll tear strips of waxed paper and lay that on the rim then close the dome on wet days when the temps dip below freezing at night. The dome can't freeze shut this way. This could work with a greasy, sticky gasket also.
Clay

dhuffjr

Woody,
Some have mentioned putting a couple small pieces of cardboard or some other such material in between the lid and base. I guess you'd need to do this after the fire has died out.....I guess you could use foil. Thin enough you could still shut it down for the night day and have it burn resistant and thin enough not to cause leaks.[p]H

Sundown

Woody,
When I finished a cook the other day I noticed the felt was wet because of a lot of condensation during the cook. I've had it happen before that way. Even after over 20 hours of cooking it was still damp enough to wet a newspaper that I pressed on it. I let it dry with the lid open and the cover off of course and this morning the felt seemed dry to the touch so as a little added insurance I took small strips of aluminum foil and placed them around the rim and closed it.That should keep it from freezing together. Yours may appear to be dry but check a little closer. The foil should eliminate the stuck closed problem. The other problem could be the gasket has fused itself together. That happened to me once and I lost the whole thing. Someone on the forum later said you can take a thin bladed knife and carefully insert it between the top and bottom gasket and slide it around lifting very gently all the time. It's the grease and stuff that cook together. Enough babbling I hope this helps. HAppy New Year.