Help with new Big Green Egg

[Rick R.]

Long story short...where we live there is nothing that sells some of this stuff, so the wife and I went out of town to look at the 26.75" Weber Kettle and the 22.5" WSM. Wife said "just get both". Sales lady was very happy. They had a Large Big Green Egg in the showroom and my wife was looking at it. The lady said that she was going to stop carrying them and she would make me a deal. The wife says"we'll take it too"!?!?:-P
First cook, lump charcoal, Rib Eye Steaks. Followed instructions, got it up to 675 degrees, Seared the steaks, pulled them off. Shut the bottom damper, closed the top. Don't know why I did it but decided to open the lid...poof..flames shoot out:shock:..close the lid. NOW IT WON'T OPEN!!!!:mad:
No more hair on the arm as well:oops:. What went wrong???? HELP.

[peaspurple]

You melted the gasket. You should be able to take a puddy knife and wedge between the top and bottom of the egg and work your around to losen and open. Then of couse you will have to replace the gaskets.

Try this link, and I also reccomend upgrading to the nomex gasket:

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64479&highlight=gasket+replacement

[Diver]

Long story short...where we live there is nothing that sells some of this stuff, so the wife and I went out of town to look at the 26.75" Weber Kettle and the 22.5" WSM. Wife said "just get both". Sales lady was very happy. They had a Large Big Green Egg in the showroom and my wife was looking at it. The lady said that she was going to stop carrying them and she would make me a deal. The wife says"we'll take it too"!?!?:-P

You may not have stores that sell this stuff but they must grow some mighty fine wives! Sounds like you got a keeper.

[JD McGee]

What peaspurple said...^^^...and congrats on the cool new toys and especially cool wife! :-P

[Rick R.]

Yea, she's pretty cool for a chick. My question is why did this happen and is it going to happen all of the time? The temps did not exceed what they claim as safe temps.
?????????? By the way, the steaks were very good,but I was mad so I probably didn't enjoy mine as much as I should have.

[rolf]

They warn about the fireballs in the manual, and pretty much on every bge page. Since the oxygen inside is used up the flames make their way upwards to oxygen rich areas, i.e eye-brows and arm hair. 675 is high for a first grill! How about breaking in gently with a 18 hours brisket?

[ljh34465]

ok, from an absolute newbie egghead- first off, you have to do some low temp cooks to "condition" the gasket. Then go to www.nakedwhiz.com (http://www.nakedwhiz.com) and read about flashback or what the firemen call backdraft. Did my first high temp cook today and WOW - had to discuss if it was the best steak we ever had. :-D:-D

[Tom5601]

The manual recommends "burping" the egg, meaning lift the lid an inch or two, pause, then open the rest of the way. Doing this keeps a rush of oxygen from hitting the fire too quickly. It is a good idea to have an oven mitt on as well. This will keep your arm hairs intact.

[Mark Stanton]

Congrats on the new toys!

[gtsum]

If you shut down the dampers to let the steaks dwell, you should open the top vent all the way, then open the bottom vent and let some of that smoke out..then burp the egg a couple times, and then open her up...otherwise you will get that flashback everytime....and it ain't good!

[Ron_L]

They guys above have it right. By shutting down the top and bottom vents you had a raging fire that was starving for oxygen. When you opened the Egg you gave it a huge rush of oxygen, hence the fireball. Sorry about the arm hair! I lost an eyebrow in my first Egg flash!

From now on, whenever you are cooking on the Egg get in the habit of opening the lid an inch or so and pause to let the air in slowly. Then you can open it the rest of the way. I just do it every time regardless of temp so I don't forget when i really need to do it.

[swibirun]

Before assuming the gasket is totally shot (which it MAY be), see if you can get your lump coal restarted by dropping in a fire starter through the top (with the bottom vent open).

I did this not long after I first got mine in Feb 08 and the fire got it warm enough to let me open the Egg and the felt gasket didn't tear off of the top or bottom. I still have the same gasket today. (Although it's admittedly in need of replacement NOW).

[Rick R.]

Thank You guys. I didn't open it too far but obviously enough. The wife was excited about doing some steaks so we thought that we would start with that. Afterall as far as I'm concerned,she earned her choice. I got all those new toys. I may be a little crazy but I already owned an 18.5" WSM, Performer Grill, and 2 other Weber kettles.
Kind of a Webermaniac with a Big Green Egg. I forgot to mention that the money was from a successful weekend in Vegas. But she's the one that said "your worth it".

[Big Poppa]

where are you in central california?

[singingwolf]

I'll admit, I get a bit nervous when burping the BGE during high temp cooks. Anything over 600, and I use the ash rake to raise the lid the first couple of burps...

[Norcoredneck]

Here is what happened
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff72/bbq-brethren/th_flash.jpg (http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff72/bbq-brethren/?action=view&current=flash.flv)


Here is some reading.
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/gasket/gasket.htm

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/flash.htm

[early mornin' smokin']

wow, you guys werent kidding when you said flashback!!!

[Rick R.]

where are you in central california?

I'm in Merced.

[wheels61]

we got a service bulletin from bge a month ago. it said they had some bad gaskets and the glue was seeping through when they got really hot. they have corrested the problem and replaced lots of gaskets. they recommend telling customers to never leave the egg open for over 10 minutes when starting the fire, thats where alot of the probs were coming from.

[openstudent]

all the toys, with no pic's :-?

[Big V]

Pretty impressive video there Norco! :shock: Hey Rick, you have a great wife there! She's a keeper! :smile: