general temp/gasket question

JohnB · January 2009

A few days ago I posted a question regarding pizzas, which included some info on how to cook at 900 degrees. The poster mentioned that this will melt the gasket off.

When my egg was delivered the delivery/set-up guy advised me to crank the egg up twice to about 350 to set the gaskets. He mentioned that a lot of first time users fire up the egg and don't keep an eye on it. Soon its up over 700 degrees and the gaskets are toast.

My question is pretty simple: How hot can I get my larger BGE before I need to worry about the gaskets failing?

thanks,

John

Morro Bay Rich · January 2009

The potential is always there if you light the EGG.

Zippylip · January 2009

It also depends on what is in the egg, if you have items in the egg that will re-direct the flame to the outsides forcing them into direct contact with your gasket, that will speed up the melting/failure

JohnB · January 2009

Are you talking about one of those three legged platters?

Zippylip · January 2009

Could be anything, plate setter, drip pan, airbake pan, something home-made... the flame is just trying to go up, it may hit the sides anyway, but if you give it no alternative, it will blast your gasket. I get this often when preheating for pizza, you need pretty high temps but you also need your stone in there, & I use a platesetter under the stone like a lot of people, so those three gaps around the setup end up getting all the flame... I wouldn't worry about it, cook what your're gonna cook, you'll singe off parts of your gasket no matter what you do, you can prolong its life by being careful but in the end you gotta eat right? I went at about 10-20% gasket capacity for a few years before I finally put on a new one, it isn't critical for high temp cooking and most mid-range grilling anyway, you'll notice more of the downside when you do a low & slow...

Grandpas Grub · January 2009

The Naked Whiz site has a great writeup about egg temps and temps around the gasket area.

I have found that if the ceramic close to the gasket gets about 450° the adhesive will fail and possibly following the felt gasket melting.

On a new gasket on the large I did 40 cooks under 400° to try to prove to myself that curing was real or not. Thought I was safe. The next cook dome 450° and a large cast iron dutch oven close to the gasket, gasket failed.

I have had adhesive and gasket fail with flashback - opening the dome several times 1/2 inch or so trying to avoid flashback.

On a medium I plugged the gap between the fire ring & inside of the egg. Great performance. Outside of the egg about 1" down from the lower hinge strap the temp read 453°. Opened the dome and again adhesive failure and light felt failure.

Lost a gasket with the plate setter 1" spacer then large pizza stone. Dome 600° pizza stone surface 550°, lost adhesive with felt gasket.

On the other had I have had a lot of high temp cooks where I have kept furniture away from the gasket area and there have been no problems.

If one pays attention to what they are doing they should know if they are putting the gasket at risk and for the most part can experiencing problems.

GG

JohnB · January 2009

OK -- I guess I'm more worried about the thing falling off.

4Runner · January 2009

What gasket do you have? I "blew" 2 grey ones with the adhesive backing in my first week. The original on my very first cook. I have the nomex one now and used the Super 77 adhesive, broke it in over a couple of cooks and now I fire it up at full temp and no problem.

JohnB · January 2009

wow -- for the price you pay for one of these you'd think the gasket would be good for over 450 degrees.

fishlessman · January 2009

i just havent used gaskets in the last couple years, i see the only purpose being that it cushions the dome. some have troubles holding low temps (i think this has more to do with experience and practice than any thing) without the gasket but really it still works fine unless your cooking in 30 mile winds. for those cooks i have an old rutland gasket i lay on the edge and i only do that for cooks under 250 dome in the wind. now with that new gasket, two things can happen, one is that it melts sticks and falls off, the other is that it eventually just gets charred black and brittle looking. if it gets charred black your good to go, that gasket will last a long time that way, over time reseat the dome to lessen the gap. now im the only one here really pushing the extreme hot cooks, and the only gasket that will endur it is a correctly applied rutland and you ned the right glue, the glue needs to be new as there is an expiration date code on it, prep needs to be perfect, and still there is the chance of failure with it. problem with this gasket is that it is not approved for use around food so safety concerns are yours.

JohnB · January 2009

OK -- I guess my concern is that the gasket will fall off. If it gets charred over the years that's fine, I'll just re-seat it as needed. Now that I've cooked about 12 meals on my BGE, included searing at about 600 degrees, its seams like my gasket is OK. Also, I guess I'll see what happens when I try to sear some steaks at 700+.

thanks for all of the replies.

fishlessman · January 2009

check behind the hinge area with the dome closed, thats the biggest problem area for gaps, the gap causes the melting

Unknown · January 2009

Where do you get the nomex gasket material. I have gone through 3 grey ones. They work fine until I heat it up for steak. Have cooked steaks 3 times and melted the gasket all 3 times.

FrankC · January 2009

4Runner wrote:

What gasket do you have? I "blew" 2 grey ones with the adhesive backing in my first week. The original on my very first cook. I have the nomex one now and used the Super 77 adhesive, broke it in over a couple of cooks and now I fire it up at full temp and no problem.

John, I had a pretty similar experience...just took a little longer. Within 2 months, my gaskets were toast. I cooked without for a while, and the only real issue for me was wasting lump when I wanted to shut it down...too many air leaks. I finally installed the nomex...now, no problems.

fc

Cha-Cha · January 2009

fishless,
I have recently started to notice smoke leaking from this area on my large. I am unable to see a gap and my gaskets look ok. How would I go about resolving this issue?

fishlessman · January 2009

loosen the bands and reseat the dome. drop a light in there thru the daisy vent and look for light to see the leaks. i pry the bands apart to get the gap to disapear when retightening

Cha-Cha · January 2009

Thank you, I will give this a shot this weekend.

general temp/gasket question

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