Friday, 20 March 2020
I took my Kamado Joe apart for some cleaning. The one piece firebox came out in several pieces. Ooops.
Firebox puzzle pieces
How the pieces fit together
Not ready for use
Supposedly the firebox is waranteed for life, but the warranty has some weasal words that may leave me out. In any case the manufacturer customer support is shut down (Coronavirus) and the web site to submit a claim processes isn’t accepting my input. Instead I get an indication that it is “processing” my input… forever.
Not a problem. I can cement the existing pieces back together. I ordered some refractory cement and waited.
Tuesday, 14 Apr 2020
Repaired firebox
Refractory Cement
The refractory cement arrived quickly (thanks, Amazon) but the weather turned wet and cold. The cement calls for application with ambiant greater than 60°F. Eventually it got warm enough to cement my puzzle pieces together. I waited a day for the cement to cure then added a little bit more at the seams. One more day and it was time to see if the firebox hold fire. Yep… the BBQ chicken wings tasted great. But….
The lid gasket is shot.
Wednesday, 29 Apr 2020
Remove stock chimney cap
New chimney cap gasket
Chimney cap base installed
New chimney cap
I ordered some replacement gasket material. And a fancy chimney cap. The stock cap was made from cast iron (I think) and was painted. The paint was flaking off. The adjustable portion of the cap was sticking. The stock cap is open to the rain if using the Kamado when raining. This one is pretty stainless steel that can be easily removed and stuck in a dishwasher if need be.
Removing old gasket
Once the cap was installed I started scraping the old gasket material off of the base and lid. The felt part comes off easy. The glue base requires scraping and acetone. Of course I ran out of acetone. I tried denatured alcohol and mineral spirits. Acetone works best to loosen the glue.
Thursday, 30 Apr 2020
As clean as it is going to get
Bottom gasket
Botton and top
Ready for use
After a quick visit to a hardware store I finished cleaning the old gasket material and glue from the kamado. I found the last bits of adhesive mostly surrendered to acetone on steel wool. Once I was satisfied that it was clean enough I attached the replacement Nomex felt gasket.
The lid didn’t close flat with the new gasket material installed. A minor adjustment of where the lid clamps to the hinge fixed that. I’m ready to BBQ again. Maybe tomorrow.