Seal gone first try

Unknown

I love my egg, but in my first go around with the egg I left the vents open and had a huge temperature increase. I tried to open the top and it fused the gaskets and now one of them is stretched. Any thoughts as to how I can recondition the felt or should I go to the store and buy another one? Or am I just a clutz and should be happy not to be in the burn unit?

Wise One

Terry in Phoenix, explain a bit more what you did. Did you just start a big fire, leave the the vents wide open and then just walk away letting it burn out? Did you cok something where you may have opened the dome a couple of times duringthe process. Normally if you have a good seal (no gap bigger than 1/16") the gaskets will not heat up enough to cause a problem.. Most gasket problems are caused by a gap between the dome and bottom or by food spilling on the gaskets or by leaving the dome open during the cooking process. I have replaced mine but it was caused by a big gap that I did not notice.

Unknown

Wise One, OK, here is what happened. I was cooking a prime beef and trying to smoke it at the same time. I started the charcole, put on some nice soaked apple wood chunks and started cooking. Well, I probably tightened things down too much so I opened things up and managed to cook the roast just fine. At the end I threw a potato in. The potato didn't cook that well so I opened everything up and kind of forgot about it while I was slicing the roast, watching the Bosox pitching cream come to the top -- and then I went out to get the potato. Well, the top didn't open very well so I pulled it apart and the felt stuck together. Shut down the ssytem and the one felt piece is a bit stretched and off. The potato survived and was delicious.

Wise One

Terry in Phoenix, if there is a gap, typically the felt will burn off not stick together. To stick together there must be some kind of pressure and heat. Now, if the place where it stuck was close to the gap, that might explain it. However, it might also be that there was just too much adhesive in that particular spot of the felt. My suggestion would be to explain to you dealer what happened and go ahead and replace the felt. If it lifted off the rim and is stretched, you will continue to have problems with it. No sense in that.

Unknown

Terry in Phoenix,
Due to the facy the spud was OK, I would think that super high temps would not be the source of your problem.
Best,
Gary