High Burn - cleaning...

OttawaEgg

Well, its about time I cleaned my egg.

After being away 3 weeks (and no egg) - a bit of mould developed, plus it was overdue for a clean (its also replace the gaskent and fix the alignment time).

I got the egg going - made sure no blockage. DFMT off, bottom vent has just the screen closed. Its at about 550 after an hour - should I open the screen up or is 550 good enough for a clean job? I'm going to let it go for at least another 4 hours.

Also, I noticed some wet "gunk" on the outside of the egg - is this normal?

PS: whatever remnants are burning in there... sure smells good! LOL :side:

fishlessman

just make sure not to let the gaskets fuse together or you may find yourself cutting it apart

mad max beyond eggdome

if you are going to replace the gaskets anyway, then really go ahead and crank it up. . .i'd go up to the 650/700 range and let it go there for about an hour... . and go ahead and stick your plate setter in as well if its grungy. . .. and if your daisy wheel is all gunged up, go ahead and throw it right into the fire as well. ..the paint will burn off as well as the gunk, but what the hell, it will spin like a top when its done. .. .

OttawaEgg

Thanks - I did consider that, but then I am changing the gaskets and doing an alignment adjustment afterwards.

Its up to almost 700 now - I'm thinking about 3 more hours and shut it down. Does that seem about right?

gdenby

On a few occasions, when I've left an Egg unused and uncovered in really wet weather, it has "wept" brownish water, and taken hours to come up to full heat. Sounds like yours has soaked up a lot of moisture, and the fire is baking it out. If there is enough lump, and not too much ash, I'd bet the temp will rise after awhile.

fishlessman

should be plenty, i would still put a ball of tinfoil or something between the dome and base when its shutting down, you dont want to add another hour or two getting them unstuck before replacing them, they can get really stuck

OttawaEgg

Got the platesetter in, along with the grill that came with it. Forgot about the DFMT.. duh...

Oh well, I'll give it another hour and shut it down.

Thanks

OttawaEgg

EGGzactly the case here.

I cleared out all the ash, no blockages - its doin fine.

It'll be gasket time tomorrow - already have the stuff for it.

OttawaEgg

Doesnt that let air in and keep the burn going? :S

fishlessman

i figure 700 for three more hours and it would run out of lump anyways i had one melt solid once, it was a good amount of work to get them apart.

OttawaEgg

Well, the high burn is finito. Noticed the temp had dropped so decided to have a peak.

Started at 11am - went til 2pm. Got over 700, was down to 500 when I peaked.

Now, the gasket was stuck - I gave it a nudge and up it came. Remember, I wasn't worried about the gasket since I'm putting a new one on (and aligning the top).

Is this puppy ever clean - almost looks like it came from the store! Platesetter looks brand new.

At the cool-down stage now - T-storms on the way, so I'll probably do the gasketectomy tomorrow.

It was a shame to blow lump on a clean-up burn - but it was just leftover scraps.

I have all the gasket replacement stuff and the instrutions - but I'll probably have some questions anyway.

After that, a good old low n slow coming up. Ribs anyone? (a family favourite!)

Cheers!

Grandpas Grub

 
A ball of foil towards the end of the burn is a good idea. While cooling down get a putty knife and take it to the gaskets, the adhesive should release pretty easily while warm.

If you are concerned about fusing together take some foil and lay it around the base and then close. The gaskets won't fuse together with the barrier.

GG

Bacchus

Kent, when you say "take a putty knife to the gaskets", do you mean to just keep them from bonding together or is there any hope of salvaging them?

Grandpas Grub

 
If the gasket is going to be changed, at the end of the clean burn the ceramics and gasket is going to be warm/hot. That is a perfect time to take the putty knife and remove the gasket, top and bottom.

I had a gasket failing on the medium and the egg was still hot. It took about 5 minutes to finish removing the gasket and adhesive both top and bottom.

I closed the lower vent and put some foil over the burning lump to quench out the burn. I then put in the plate setter leggs up to keep the radiant heat from somewhat hitting my arms. It was warm working but saved some time.

Kent

Bacchus

Is it possible to maintain gasket integrity?

Grandpas Grub

 
The only time I did this was when removing the gasket.

I have used foil to keep the top/bottom gasket from freezing together in the cold winter.

GG