New guy question

Wood333 · July 2015

thanks for all the amazing advice and guidance throughout this forum. Truly an amazing resource for my obsession. Things have been going quite well for about 2 months on an XL with CGS AR set-up. I haven't missed the place setter or at least don't know any better. Low and slow, meatloaf, pizza - all successes. My biggest struggle is to minimize overpowering smoke flavoring for family, but getting a handle on that.

My concern right now is whether the grill was put together properly. I'm worried there's smoke leaking from the hinge area. More than there should be possibly. Assuming this is common, my retailer put the XL together prior to delivery. I've had no problem hitting and maintaining temps.

Thanks for the continued advice.

gdenby · July 2015

Here's a basic gasket seal test, often called "the dollar bill" test. Take a piece of paper and put it on the gasket, and close the dome. At each spot around the dome, there should be obvious resistance to pulling the sheet of paper away.

If not, there could be several problems. Given the newness of your Egg, a worn gasket isn't likely. The next problem is that the dome band was not quite tight enough, and/or a high heat cook caused it to expand. So the dome ceramic slipped a bit. If the band is not fitting snugly up against the ceramic ridge, loosen the band bolts, and push down hard. Then re-tighten. Its more problematic if one of the bolts holding the hinge is a little loose. There are a bunch of them, and if even one is a little too loose, the dome starts shifting, often both opening towards the back, and pushing forward. Check for tightness on those. If one or more is loose, re-seat the dome in the band, and then tighten the loose hinge bolts.

I had a hinge nut loose on a medium, and until I figured out the fix, the back gap got bigger and bigger no matter how many times I reseated the dome. Eventually, I could not do a low and slow because there was to much airflow even with both vents completely closed.

Note that because of the Egg ceramic's weight, the metal parts can go out of alignment if the Egg gets moved around.

lousubcap · July 2015

@Wood333-your post implies that your dealer did the assembly. Regardless, the above from @gdenby- is the true test. The only air escape from the BGE should be thru the DFMT or whatever you have on the dome. And yes you should get it remedied. But just an opinion---

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