My BGE Gasket Is Toast

Reading many many posts and threads here and on other forums, it seems the largest group favor the use of the Permatex Ultra Copper Silicone only... no Nomex, no Rutland, no Coltronics gaskets at all. Just the slightly soft Permatex.

Clearly the most difficult to apply but highest temp / survivability rated

Seems like the best approach so far is to put a thick bead of the Permatex Copper on the lip of the cleaned base, with voids at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. Place saran wrap over the bead, place some small wooden dowels ( 1/4") in the voids, close the lid, and wait 24 hours.

Then take more Permatex, fill in the voids where the dowels were, place saran wrap over them, close the lid, and wait another 24 hours.

A small cut(s) can be made in the seal for probe wires.

Use warm Permatex tubes. Plastic nozzle off.

Either remove the bottom band or tape the area off so cleanup is easier.

The whole process is easier of the entire unit is at room temp. I suppose it will flow better when warm before it starts to stiffen up.

Sounds like I'll need 4-5 tubes for a thicker gasket on my Large Egg. One fellow used 4 tubes on a medium Egg. Another guy used 2.5 tubes on his Large but I like the idea of a thicker gasket.

Many people feel great about having no gasket. That’s fine, but there is value in having the unit sealed. In my opinion. So I’m not interested in running bareback at this time.

Many people replaced their units with Nomex and are happy. Others fried Nomex also and quickly. So Nomex seems to be a better solution that stock gasket, but not the highest temp rated goal that I have.

Others still went with the Rutland or Cotronics gaskets. Glued down with a gasket maker product from Permatex. There were some concerns about the Rutland and the fiberglass. I have no information as to the real hazard that may or may not exist with the fiberglass particles.

Obviously any Permatex used to secure the Rutland will be exposed to the same air and heat and the Rutland will not shield your food from anything coming out of the Permatex.

Clearly any fiberous gasket material might cause some person some concern. I would have gone with a Rutland + Permatex solution, except there are a lot of people that created a gasket only out of the Permatex gasket maker. No fiberous gasket. Hmmm…

1- Permatex + Rutland works “OK"
2- but Rutland may have some fiber hazard
3- and omitting Rutland leaves just the Permatex
4- And a surprising number of people like just Permatex

Seems like a logical conclusion to simply eliminate the fiber portion of the solution and go all Permatex.

Then the question opens up about which Permatex. Go with the Red that is food service compliant, or the Copper that is 50 degrees F. higher rated. I looked at the MSDS sheet for both and they both look frightening. I’ll be calling their technical services department tomorrow. I want to know if any of the hazards extend beyond the curing period. I want to know if the Copper is not food compliant because of a particular included ingredient OR if Permatex simply didn’t want to pay UL Labs $50k for a fire test and chemical analysis of the Copper when they already had an approved Red.

My guess (speculation) is that the Copper is fine or at least equal to the Red. The hazards are during cure and a heating after cure to purge remaining unreacted components and solvents will render either the Red or Copper essentially (equally) inert. That’s my guess. We’ll see.

Just an update. My hunch was correct. I just spoke with Permatex technical support. Both the Red and the Copper are inert after cure. Neither will degrade and kill us. Specifically, there's no benefit to using the Red around our grilles. Go for the copper.

Hi Tod, I like to look before I leap.

I would likely remove the top dome to make this all easier/ I have read where leaving the top attached to the hinge makes it difficult to install the Permatex near the hinge.

If I didn't go for the Permatex, I was tempted to run the grill bareback and have no gasket at all.