Fun with Tiles

[Charles Brown]

I can't vouch for the current quality of RJ's kamados. Mine was an early model, born and bred in Sacramento. But from what I've seen, my problems are not uncommon. The service has been spotty... from sending repair materials for me to do myself, to most recently saying "I'll get back to you later, too busy."

Anyway, less than 2 years into the lifespan of my great green kamado, a huge portion of tiles fell off the dome. Another large percentage of tiles were loose... they were "mushy... lifted from the kamado body and apparently only held together by grout. These sloughed off soon after.




So I had to re-tile. Extra tile kindly supplied by manufacturer.




It was a long and tedious process.....



And of course I had to re-grout. I also took this time to paint all the metal parts with a black appliance enamel.



All shiny and new - looked pretty good:




Well, a couple years later this happened all over again.... this time it was the BASE that dropped most of it's tiles. They had been barely hanging on, like a soft matted blanket.



This wasn't caused by the move, as the tiles were all loose and "floaty" before the move, but the movers sure sped up the process. By the time I got all the loose stuff off and ready to re-tile, the base was 50% bare, and some on the dome as well. They sloughed off like a summer moult.

However, it's not the end of the world. With some tile adhesive, fresh grout and patience, you can get it looking pretty good again.

But when I went to use the beast (it had been in storage for 6 months), I found the damper top stuck solid. No amount of physical wrangling could get it to budge, so I finally tried liquid wrench, after reading about pb blaster on the mfg forum. Unfortunately I couldn't find pb blaster so I tried the liquid wrench. It did no good. And I don't need to tell you how disgusted I felt at using a chemical like that in my K.

Then I read through the liquid wrench directions and it suggested tapping the frozen joint with a hammer to cause vibrations to aid penetration. Ever so lightly I tap tap tapped.... until...

Ouch!



So that's that. The bolt is still frozen to the bracket and my kamado is out of commision. Pleas for help from the manufacturer have gotten two responses: a post on their forum about how to unfreeze a spin top.... and an email saying "let me get back to you later."

So here I sit.

Ah well.

--Good Grief

[Curly]

Hey man, you do pretty good tile work. I know 2 companies that may want to hire you.

Maybe you need to get someone else to do the unsticking-the-top part from now on because you seem to not be as good at that.

I've had mine stuck pretty good a few times and thought I was gonna end up ripping the neck off. And I recently had it in storage for a year and prayed all the time that it wouldn't be rusted shut. But luckily, the last time it got stuck I put some thick stuff on it like axel grease or something and it was probablynot humid in the storage place. What can I say, God answersprayers.

How much you want for it seriously? I may be interested.

[Charlie Brown]

Ha ha! As much grief as I've had... it still NOT FOR SALE.

That's my baby, and I still harbor dreams of nursing it back to health.


Chaz

P.S. You know what else was distressing? After months in storage, the entire interior was coated in 1/4" layer of mold. Blech! But that's the least of my problems at the moment. Heh heh.

[Curl]

Charlie Brown,

Drill a bunch of holes in it for screws (for reinforcement like rebar in concrete). Then get the portland cement (hey, that's what he used right) and start building it up to what it used to look like. Use it as dry as possible, it's stronger that way. You will need richard to send you the piece to put in there for screwing the top back on. Then you'll need to hack saw (or something) the top from the piece it's rusted to and maybe it'll be in good enough shape to screw into the new piece. It may never be as strong as it should....but be sure to keep it well lubed so it never gets stuck again and it may work.

Well, it sounds like it will work and it's worth a try to keep something that's been in the family. I had to get rid of anything, would rather fix something anyday that buy a new one.

Good luck, can't wait to see the pics after it's done.

[Charlie Brown]

That's it! Why didn't I think of that? This weekend I'll be giving my new tinfoil damper a thorough workout!

Thanks, Porkchop.

[Charlie Brown]

Curly,

I do hope to repair it. The bracket is totally destroyed (note that the nut is still frozen in place):






But the broken piece still fits nicely like a puzzle:



So if I get my hands on some kind of bracket I may be in business.



But it will be a few months before I decide to "manufacture" a bracket of my own. In the meantime... I do think foil will work nicely. Ha ha.

--Chaz

[Curly]

You may could gring the rusty nut down in a few places and get it off to salvage the top. That reminds me. I need to go home an squirts some extra virgin olive oil on mine

[Curly]

I really need to start proof reading huh? Problem is I look at the keys to type (not the proper way of course) and frequently hit send before I even look up.

[Porkchop]

the tinfoil actually works quite well; i've done overnights with it... always better to make due than do without.

gotta overcome! gotta adapt!

that being said, having a kk in the backyard with a damper bolt that'll never rust will give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside

[moosbrth]

New improved model, nothing to shatter or crumble

[Gerard1]

In the opening post, speaking about his tile woes:

[tcoliver1]

If you ever do decide to repair make sure you get Dennis to send you a bracket. His are SS and will never rust or stick and you don't have to turn them a thousand time to get it up and down. You'll never get Richard to send you new parts anyway.

[Gerard1]

[Charlie Brown]

Ah gee, thanks a whole heckuva lot, Gerard! Now you've REALLY gone and blown my cover!

Ha ha.

You know, I've been lurking around here for weeks dying to talk about these kick-ASS kOmOdos and the only thing holding me back was the faint hope RJ'd help me out. Ha! I met this guy almost a decade ago and it's STILL THE SAME FRIGGIN' STORY.

So here I is!

[Gerard1]

A CUSTOM TILED K???? Dennis doesn't even make anything resembling those. Wonder if the Kompany still makes any of those.

Remember how the much ballyhooed "kilns" that we were led to believe produced our "ceramic" cookers turned out to be just for the production of those f'king tiles???