Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg to Experience our World of Flavor™ at:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  Youtube  |  Vimeo
Share your photos by tagging us and using the hashtag #BigGreenEgg.

Want to see how the EGG is made? Click to Watch

Underbite and Gasket Advice

Folks, am looking to crowdsource some advice from fellow eggheads on how to adjust a pretty significant underbite on my large egg (lid closes just level with the inside edge of the bottom half of the egg. Unless I address this now, any further underbite will lead to smoke and heat leakage). I asked BGE customer support who repeatedly ignored me on this topic. Does anyone have good step by step instructions or experience in how to do this ? A YouTube video would be great.

Same for gasket changes although this is significantly easier. Best practices, hints and tips welcome. Thanks folks !!


Comments

  • BilZol
    BilZol Posts: 698
    First, make sure you don't have hinge on upside down. Loosen both bands and all eight hinge bolts. Make sure indents under bands in the front are lined up. Center top and bottom. Tighten bands equality. If you don't have spacertain you need to eyeball it so bands have same gap as hinges. Tighten hinge bolts in cross pattern. 
    Bill   Denver, CO
    XL, 2L's, and MM
  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 26,454

    Overbite/Underbite: A quote from a poster


    "I called this morning and spoke to Dewayne at BGE HQ Customer Service.  He was extremely helpful and guided me through the steps to level out the top.  It was extremely simple to do, even for someone who didn't understand the way these things are put together. 

    So basically here's what was the problem and what I did.  The first problem was that the lower band was not wrapped around evenly - it was lower in the rear than in the front.  He explained to me that the lower band should come right up to the edge of the lower gasket all the way around the lower half.  So I loosened the carriage bolt on the lower rear band and GENTLY tapped along the band using a block of wood and a rubber mallet until the band was placed evenly around the whole bottom.  Then I tightened the band.  From that point, the underbite had improved significantly, but there was still a bit of unevenness along the planes where the gaskets met and it still did not pass the dollar bill test.  In fact, the gap on the rear side between the gaskets was slightly worse, but I wasn't worried because I knew there were a couple more steps to 

    Next step was to adjust the front to back placement to fine tune the sitting of the top to the bottom.  There are two slotted acorn nuts on the top part of the hinge (above the spring) on both sides of the top that needed to be loosened so that I can 'wiggle' the top into a centered position.  So I loosened all 4 nuts, wiggled it into position, then tightened.  Now the top was centered properly (no under or overbite), but there was still unevenness on the plane of contact - in other words, it still failed the dollar bill test. 

    The last step was to somewhat repeat the first step (loosening the carriage bolt) except for the upper band.  Wherever there was the largest gap between the two gaskets, I GENTLY tapped the band upward which essentially pushed the lid downward by it's own weight.  Once I saw that the upper band was positioned in such a way that the entire top part of the egg sat nicely and evenly on the bottom, I tightened the carriage bolt of the top band and vuala!  It was fixed.  Dollar bill test passed all the way around the egg.  No more underbite (or overbite). "

    Re-gasketing the USA one yard at a time 
  • PSC
    PSC Posts: 148
    I also have underbite, fine with me because the egg is thight sealed. no biggie
  • ^^ The advise @RRP gave above worked for me. My XL shuts perfectly now.

    Lititz, PA – XL BGE

  • I forgot to mention that @RRP is also the resident gasket expert. He can provide all the info needed to change your gasket.

    Lititz, PA – XL BGE

  • I had a bad band. Overheated somehow when I was cooking pizzas. Could not adjust it. Made a warranty claim and got a new one. If it is less than five years old, make a claim and get a new one if you can't get it adjusted. 
    LBGE 
    FWB, FL