Gasket melt-down

Unknown · July 2007

I just experienced a melt down of the gasket on my relatively new XL BGE. Cooking steaks by the recommended method (650 to sear, then shut down for a few minutes) and when burbing before taking the steaks out, I noticed the two gaskets had melted together and were pulling off of both rims. Got the steaks out and shut it down. Next day, found the charred remains of the gasket pieces that had pulled away.[p]I need suggestions as to how to properly clean the rims and what product to reapply. [p]Please take pity on this BGE noob. Thank you all in anticipation for your patience and assistance.[p]

Unknown · July 2007

Gumbo Steve,
Remove the top half of the egg. Take a torch and a scraper, burn the remaining gasket while scraping. This will get most of the gasket off. Take some rubbing alcohol to get the remaining adhesive off hit it with the torch to burn off any alcohol, spray the edge with 3M 777 adhesive, and lay down the new gasket.

Unknown · July 2007

Gumbo Steve,[p]Steve,[p]This happened to me on the second use of my lg BGE. I will probably give details in a new post in a short while.[p]However, after getting a new gasket (free from the dealer). I was told he sold a XL on Friday last and that guy had the same problem. He was too cooking steaks, dome at 600 +.[p]My melting of the gasket was also when I tried to go nuclear. I read a lot of posts and there are statements/rumors that the gaskets need to be ‘seasoned’. However, there was nothing in the literature or on the CD that I could see.[p]Anyway, I tried a lot of different things. I let the bge cool somewhat. While still warm I pulled both gaskets off. A lot ‘fuzzy’ remains were left and a non uniform yellow stain/mark. [p]The gasket replacement instructions said to use acetone (preferred) or rubbing alcohol. Neither worked very good. Both evaporated way to fast and did not do a very good job. [p]I then went to several other methods, non satisfactory. The yellow mark I eventually figured out was the old adhesive. Goof Off barely worked but again, not very well. I was just about to use WD40 which I think would work, but I remembered reading something about taking an orange and using the peal to clean off sticker gum. Got me thinking even more… [p]Goo Gone is a citrus remover, so I got a big bottle from Wal Mart and that worked. I used a VERY STIFF narrow paint scraper, cloth towel (then switched to paper towel).[p]Left the dome attached and began the chore. Old gasket completely removed. I sprayed a 10 inch path directly on the rim, let it sit for 3 to 5 minutes, light second spray and began scraping. The scraper got pretty stick and I had to wipe off often. I decided to use some disposable gloves I had and ended up changing them quite often as the glue kept balling up and sticking to everything. The 10 inch spray ahead process got up to ¼ of the diameter of the rim’s and that seemed to work for me.[p]I left in the grill and covered it with paper towel (news paper would have been as good or better), in order to keep the glue and chemicals out of the bottom of the bge and out of the lump which I left in the cooker.[p]I scraped pretty hard but made sure I did not do any digging at all. There were a few high spots from manufacturing, I took them down to the level of the rim.
The Goo Gone took off the yellow/old adhesive and some parts took three coats. I found the paper towel left little bits of paper on the rim, I took care of them after I got as much off as I could.[p]The rim looked pretty clean. I then took acetone and again rubbed down the rim, bottom and top. Let it dry for 5 to 8 minutes, removed the paper towel and grid. I took the torch (for soldering pipe – my flame is a round, not pencil tip flame) and burned off all the little paper towel bits. I got the rim pretty warm but did not let the torch burn on any particular spot for very long. Both surfaces, body and dome. Let things cool down ambient temperature and began to apply the new gasket which was fairly easy. [p]The top rim I cut the gasket just a few mm’s too long and used a razor blade to remove the overage. The bottom rim I cut a few mm’s too short and then had to cut a small filler piece to fill the gap. No 3m spray adhesive was used on my repair.[p]The finish time was Sunday morning at 3:30 am. At 10 am Sunday I had to began another cook for Sunday evening family differ to show off the BGE. Everyone thinks I am nuts anyway as I have had 8 or 9 non BGE smokers then I spend the money for this monster. My back yard looks like a testing center for smokers. However, now I am happy to say I am going to have a lot of smoker flower pots and one working BGE. Back to the 3rd burn, the one with the new gaskets. That cook was explained on an earlier post with some great responses and help.[p]The highest temp this last burn was got to 380 dome. I worked to get it down to the low 300’s.[p]The end result is the new gasket after this cook looked great, no apparent gasket leak, and not one person was laughing when they tasted the pork (short burn) and chicken which I cooked just in case I messed up the port roasts.[p]I will update after I have some more cooks on the new gasket. [p]My personal thought is trying the high temp cooks to soon. For me I am going to ‘season’ my replacement gasket for 8 to 12 cooks and no dome temp over 400 degrees. After that it is nuclear, the first time and the glue melt down was me trying to nuke the stakes, but they were goooooooood![p]Good eggin, kent

mule · July 2007

Gumbo Steve,
Have a look at this site.[p]mule
[ul][li]http://www.tm52.com/bge/gasket.htm[/ul]

Jeeves · July 2007

Gumbo Steve,[p]Wow, all this talk about 'nuclear' levels really scars me. I'm a newbie and luckily, I've been doing nothing but briskets. I did read about the 'break-in' period and I think the highest that I've had it up to is 400, whew![p]Anyway, when I get to the point of doing a steak, I'll have to sear it on my Infrared burner in my Regal II, then move them to the BGE.[p]P.S. Did you go see Tony win on Sunday? What a race![p]-Jeeves

Mike in Abita · July 2007

Gumbo Steve,
I too had a melt down on my XL. I have not replaced my gasket. The only thing I noticed is it takes longer to completely cool after cooking. I have cooked a 24 hr butt on it and everything appears normal.
My meltdown occurred in the rear and front. I know I have an alignment problem due to the spring assist. I read a thread earlier about not using the spring assist.
I tried the dollar bill check with springs attached and removed. Attached very loose bill in rear not as loose in front but very tight on sides. Removed real tight all the way around. I know the XL has a heavy lid but I go without springs. Reminds me to BURP anyway.[p]Just my $0.02
Mike in Abita

Gasket melt-down

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