Kamado frozen shut and what to do about it

[Rusty Kettle]

Ok so I am up in the early AM because I am going to be smoking a brisket on my kamado. Brisket is a rare treat in our home so this is exciting as we primarily eat pulled pork made from picnic roasts and chicken and sometimes ribs. Brisket though is rare as it is expensive.

I was already to get fired up with my kamado grill. Well it was frozen shut. I don't want to pry on the gasket as it is nomex and well cost me a nice penny and was real pain to install. So what to do? I can wait until it thaws out on it's own, drag my poor wife out of bed to help me move the kamado into the kitchen, or I can try something totally different. I decided to leave the wife alone. I followed the directions I found here to keep from ruining my kamados gaskets.

http://hrmcreativebbq.blogspot.ca/2014/01/how-to-properly-unthaw-frozen-shut.html?m=1


So far I got both vents free and now I am waiting on the lid to come free. I will let you know if it works alright. Seems to work great so far.

 

[Titch]

Wow, I never thought of a BBQ freezing shut.
You must be freezing your Brass balls of
get on with the brisket and let us know how it goes

 

[Rusty Kettle]

Wow, I never thought of a BBQ freezing shut.
You must be freezing your Brass balls of
get on with the brisket and let us know how it goes

Your telling me lol. 7 degrees Fahrenheit here. Never had this happen before. I heard of it just never had it happen. Still trying to get it warm enough to free it up. Oh well what you going to do? It is Pennsylvania after all. Just got to roll with it and adjust temps to get it done on time. I moved on to putting a lighter cube in the bottom vent and hopefully I can get it free. If not I will wait to cook until it thaws out on it's own. Those nomex gaskets are way to expensive to just rip them.

Oh well at least it's not the water pipes frozen. That's worse as I have to climb in the crawl space and thaw them out with a hair dryer or they could bust. We actually leave the faucets dripping to prevent freezing in the winter. I really have to run electric for heat tape this year over the summer.

No idea if Australia gets this cold ever or not but PA always has a cold winter. There are worse places though.

 

[Rusty Kettle]

Now here is a weird update it lit off the left over charcoal and it's running 400 dome temp yet it's still frozen solid. Maybe the hinge is froze... I still can't open it this is absurd. Plus now I will have to wait for it to cool off to cook low and slow. Looks like we may eat late tonight. Lol this is some crazy chit right now.

 

[Titch]

HIGHEST RECORDED TEMPERATURE: Oodnadatta, South Australia 50.7 C (123.3 F) on the 2nd January, 1960. LOWEST RECORDED TEMPERATURE: Charlotte Pass, New South Wales -23.0 C (-9.4 F) on the 29th June, 1994.

I would be lucky to get -5c in winter which would be, about 20f I think.
We may get 45c, about 115f in summer, but not lots of it. a week here and there
That's here in Victoria.
Good luck with the cook, don't burn it.:becky:

 

[Rusty Kettle]

Ok it finally thawed out I did a quick stir and clean up and just loaded it with wood and charcoal and a heat diffuser lava stone and just shut it up and set it at lowest settings. Hopefully that settles down eventually. I probably get it on in an hour or so when it settles in hopefully. Never thought to light a kamado this way but hey I guess it works.

 

[Rusty Kettle]

HIGHEST RECORDED TEMPERATURE: Oodnadatta, South Australia 50.7 C (123.3 F) on the 2nd January, 1960. LOWEST RECORDED TEMPERATURE: Charlotte Pass, New South Wales -23.0 C (-9.4 F) on the 29th June, 1994.

I would be lucky to get -5c in winter which would be, about 20f I think.
We may get 45c, about 115f in summer, but not lots of it. a week here and there
That's here in Victoria.
Good luck with the cook, don't burn it.:becky:

I think that heat would kill me in the summer. I am definitly more insulated especially since I eat lots of bbq now. Lol. This place is making me fat.

I definitly won't burn it as I am going to just wait and tune it in and if it doesn't tune it I will just hold out for next weekend. I could use a WSM but that would eat fuel like crazy in winter. It's why I love the kamado as it is insulated so well and doesn't have issues with winter except apparently freezing shut lol.

 

[Doog]

Glad you got it thawed! Good luck with your smoke.

 

[kolky]

Good to hear you got it open. My Primo has done that before as well. I believe I took a heat gun and warmed it up to get it open.

It's 6 degrees in St. Louis right now and I am procrastinating going outside to fire up the Battle Box to get a brisket going as well.

 

[16Adams]

To late. I ripped mine in my Primo about a week ago. I've heard of folks just replacing the bottom gasket with a rope type gasket. I've never replaced the top but I've replaced the bottom guessing three times

 

[kolky]

I replaced both the top and bottom on mine with that braided kind last spring. Works great. Highly recommend it. Much better than the felt version.

 

[16Adams]

I replaced both the top and bottom on mine with that braided kind last spring. Works great. Highly recommend it. Much better than the felt version.

Self stick or extra adhesive?? Make-model or website?

 

[kolky]

Self stick or extra adhesive?? Make-model or website?

I used the Cotronics 397 gasket which you can get from a guy on the Primo forum here:

http://primogrillforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3299

And then applied it with Permatex Red High Temp Gasket maker.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-81160-High-Temp-Silicone-Gasket/dp/B0002UEN1A"]Amazon.com: Permatex 81160 High-Temp Red RTV Silicone Gasket, 3 oz.: Automotive@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515kPlGZopL.@@AMEPARAM@@515kPlGZopL[/ame]

I took a piece of cardboard and put it in between the top and bottom of the grill while it was drying just to make sure it did not seal together.

 

[cheez59]

When I had my Primo it froze shut several times. I just used my MAPP torch that I also used for lighting the lump to thaw it out. I just lit it and moved around the seam and did not stop for fear of cracking the ceramic. I did it several times with no ill effects. It only takes a couple minutes.

 

[Dweverett]

Glad you got it thawed. Having to screw around with that at 3:00 am and 7 degrees isn't a great way to start the day. Better than having to figure out how to fix the gasket at 4:00 am after you wreck it i guess

 

[LifeLongWNYer]

I'm from western NY, and we get some cold spells too. How about propping the lid open a bit with a stick? ...not a lot, just enough so the gasket halves don't touch each other.