Kettle gasket


 
J

James Mundy

TVWBB Member
Hello all,

Has anyone applied gasket material on the lid of a 22.5 kettle? And if so has it shortened shutdown?
I have gasket material and adhesive leftover from the gasket kit from my wsm.

When I finish cooking bottom vents are closed and the lid is on properly with top vent closed, the other day I found a basket of coals cooking in the morning around 10 hours after I'd shut all the vents. This is the only time it has happened so far, but I figure shorter shutdown equals more leftover coal.

Edit - after a cook today I noticed that one of the cleaning blades has a noticeable gap, can these just be bent back? On a cook today using the snake method with the bottom vents closed and top open it was running around 275 quite happily.

Thanks ladies and gents.
 
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I'm a little late but I have done it to two Kettles of mine and one for a friend. It helps on shut down as well as temp control.
 
Did this earlier, cleaned and degreased the horizontal area around the edge of the lid, 1/2" nomex gasket fits quite well. Just leaving it to air dry for 24 hours now. The adhesive is only rated for 500f continuous so I'm not sure how well it's going to cope with high heat pizza cooks.

Don't think there's really much I can do about the gap on the cleaning blade, but I'm hoping a tighter lid will help temp control.

Edit - Seems the sealant is good for short periods at up to 650f, so high heats shouldn't be a problem.
 
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James Mundy said:
Hello all,

When I finish cooking bottom vents are closed and the lid is on properly with top vent closed, the other day I found a basket of coals cooking in the morning around 10 hours after I'd shut all the vents. This is the only time it has happened so far, but I figure shorter shutdown equals more leftover coal.

Edit - after a cook today I noticed that one of the cleaning blades has a noticeable gap, can these just be bent back?
Click to expand...

I think you may have found your oxygen source when you noticed a gap in the cleaning blades. If the gap is substantial, try removing the blades and bending them a bit so as to reduce the gap. On the newer style sweeper, you can use a flat head screwdriver to pry up the notch on the lever handle, then rotate it and remove. On the older style sweeps, you can loosen the thumbscrew (unless it has corroded) to remove the lever and sweeper. You'll likely never totally eliminate the gap, but you can get them close enough to quash the fire and sweep more ashes.

I would also check to make sure your lid was on correctly, as I have unknowingly left mine ajar and had the remaining coals burn up as a result.
 
OGlenn said:
I think you may have found your oxygen source when you noticed a gap in the cleaning blades. If the gap is substantial, try removing the blades and bending them a bit so as to reduce the gap. On the newer style sweeper, you can use a flat head screwdriver to pry up the notch on the lever handle, then rotate it and remove. On the older style sweeps, you can loosen the thumbscrew (unless it has corroded) to remove the lever and sweeper. You'll likely never totally eliminate the gap, but you can get them close enough to quash the fire and sweep more ashes.

I would also check to make sure your lid was on correctly, as I have unknowingly left mine ajar and had the remaining coals burn up as a result.
Click to expand...

It's not a huge gap, but enough that it's not able to sweep ash as effectively as the other blades, perhaps 3-4mm. Mine is the newer style kettle so I'll try and take it off and adjust it a little. Thanks very much for the info, wasn't quite sure how they went together, and yes, lid was definitely on properly apart from the small gaps made by the probe cables.
Learnt that lesson when I accidentally left the lid ajar on my wsm for a few hours on an overnight cook, cue one burnt pork leg.
 
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Just thinking... Could you fill the underside of the sweeper with wadded-up alum foil or other non-combustible to get better sweeping action? I've never seen one apart so not sure what the underside looks like...
 
Two other solutions If you looking to seal bottom vents to kill fire:

You can use aluminum tape used for hvac work or
Use magnets. The thin flexible magnets that people give away as promotional items like calendars or fridge magnets are perfect for this.

Both can be used to further restrict airflow for a slow and low cook by covering one or two vents, too.
 
Is there any reason why I can't just clean the horizontal flange on the inside of the lid and apply some high temp RTV silicone? Then I would coat the rolled lip of the bowl with a release agent (Pam?), set the lid on and let the RTV set?
 
Did my first cook on my kettle since installing the gasket, it was a high heat chicken cook using lump so I wasn't trying to control the temps. But shutdown time was massively reduced, I checked the kettle around 2 hours after shutting down all the vents and it was stone cold, I am very impressed indeed, considering it went from approx 400f to 0 in that short a space of time. There was also much less smoke leakage from around the lid. Haven't done anything about the cleaning blade yet, I'll leave that for another weekend.

If you haven't done this mod already then I very highly recommend that you do it!
 
James Mundy said:
Did my first cook on my kettle since installing the gasket, it was a high heat chicken cook using lump so I wasn't trying to control the temps. But shutdown time was massively reduced, I checked the kettle around 2 hours after shutting down all the vents and it was stone cold, I am very impressed indeed, considering it went from approx 400f to 0 in that short a space of time. There was also much less smoke leakage from around the lid. Haven't done anything about the cleaning blade yet, I'll leave that for another weekend.

If you haven't done this mod already then I very highly recommend that you do it!
Click to expand...

I've written and posted before about doing this on the mods I made to my 26.76 turning it into a smoker more or less. I work with my lower vent set at 1/4 open plus or minus the width of the rod diameter for the lever. I did the same thing last weekend with a friends 22 and it worked really well. The other thing I do and nobody on this site has bought into it but instead of closing your upper vent wheel so all four vents are vent a little each I plug 2 or 3 of the vent holes with a piece of dowel. We have used aluminium foil rounded and shaped to fit each hole with the vent wheel wide open. In this way you are forcing the smoke further across the kettle and allowing it to vent in only one or two ports. It does help to maintain lower temps. Fire on one side and vent on the other!
I have found it is easier to maintain a steady temp for a longer period of time by burning briquettes. I start out with a certain number and then add so many every hour or two. Temps stay relatively even over several hours. There is also the snake method you can use as well. Absolute control of air is the secret.
 
this is a great idea!

the lid on my new 22 doesn't seal real well, i have to spin it to get a good seal.

maybe my lid was dropped in mfg? or maybe they're meant to be that way? (seems odd if so).
 
I'm starting to wonder if I should get gasket. Temps get too high at times and completely closing vents does little to bring it down. Lid is a little wobbly too
 
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