primeats
Joined: 13 Jul 2007
Posts: 65
Location: Chicago's North Shore, Iowa transplant
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 Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 2:35 pm
Documentation of cracking |
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These look like geat evidence of the superior workmanship of the Kamado company.I would never have let MY wife see these!
See photos on www.kamado.com under the " cleaning the inside of a dirty k "subheading
Associate Member
Post Number: 23
Registered: 3-2006
Posted on Saturday, August 18, 2007 - 9:56 am:
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I did a "cleaning" of the inside of my coconut #7 (which I've had for 16 months now) last night. I did like I read and filled the LS full of lump, opened the bottom damper all the way, , and opened the top damper by giving it 12 full turns. I lit the coals and walked away. About 30 minutes into my "cleaning" I noticed the thermometer needle was buried and there were flames reaching the bottom part of the screw-damper. Why did I have flames that high? I (probably wrongly?) just let it continue burning, checking it every 10 minutes or so. After another 30 minutes, the flames died and the temp went to 650 degrees. I never looked at it again, so I don't know how hot it actually got on its own. So, I looked out my window this morning, and I noticed my thermometer was reading 160 degrees. I opened the K and looked into the dome and I noticed the thermometer had a thick layer of black, gray, dry gunk on it--which was not there before I started the cleaning. I pulled the thermometer clean and stuck it in some boiling water to see if the temp was still correct. Nope. After much wrangling, I finally (wrongly) put it into my vice that's screwed on top of a table downstairs in my work-room. I ended up cracking the glass on the thermometer (see picture below), but I have finally got it to read ~212 degrees in boiling water. Even though it's reading properly at 212, I'm going to get a new one. Oh well. Lesson learned: don't let flames touch your thermometer, so removing it before cleaning is probably a good idea.
I looked closer at my dome, and I noticed it's all pretty much covered in gray, flaky "stuff" (See the picture below). The brown stuff is where I've scraped away, and it's what I believe to be the original part of the dome. What is that flaky stuff, and do I need to do anything about it? I also noticed thin cracks on my dome when I scraped away the flakes. Are these "cracks" significant, and if they are, how do I repair them?
Here is a closeup of the flakes. They're pretty thin.
Why is one side of the flakes brown? Is this part of my Kamado that I've lost?
This whole thing has got me and my wife pretty nervous. Any help and advice is appreciated.
Pinkthunder
Associate Member
Post Number: 24
Registered: 3-2006
Posted on Satur |
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