First, my thanks to Ron Pratt for furnishing or providing good information on installing Rutland seals using Rutland cements. I introduced it here on the BGE forum after Mike Sutor, former Webmaster of the Kamado Co. website used it on his own personal Kamado cooker.

The experience I have had with this product has been both good and bad. First the good: The Rutland Graphoglas seal has withstood 4 years of cooking on a Large BGE with no apparent degradation. However, the cement used has not held its bond as well as it should have. The Rutland cement for bonding the gasket material to metal, not for bonding to glass or ceramic. Therefore, I began my search for a more suitable cement for bonding the Graphoglas seals to ceramic.

In the last few weeks, I found a "CERAMIC" adhesive that IMO is the candidate for testing. The company sent me a sample even though they state it is their policy not to do so. Once I received the sample tube of cement I completely cleaned and installed the Rutland GraphoGlas seal with this new cement. The process and pictures of this do-it-yourself project follow:

First, remove all residuals of the old gasket material, and using a stiff flat putty knife, scraped the edges of both the top and bottom seals areas. I used a product called Greased Lightning, found at K-Mart stores. This product seems to work well in removing any remaining residue. Tough and long lasting Scott Rags that pop up in a box were used to clean everything up. These Scott Rags are much better than the common kitchen paper towels for this kind of clean-up job. Spray and mop with the towels until you have very little dark residue showing on the towels.

Next, use a round 3M paint stripper that mounts in an electric drill to remove any remaining glue and gunk. The paint stripper is shown in front of the drill between the separated ceramic units in the picture below. I buffed the area all around both top and lower castings. The castings are removed from the bands and worked on separately. I placed the top dome upside down in a 5 gallon plastic bucket. The important thing here is a stable support for the inverted dome. The final and most important part of this phase of preparation is the use of a 3" sanding drum with 100 grit paper to expose a clean surface for the adhesive to adhere to. In lieu of a sanding drum, a sanding block with 100 grit paper and elbow grease can do the trick. The goal is to sand until you see the sanded ceramic rim become whitish in color indicating the old grease laden ceramic has been removed.

Working quickly on a small BGE, I placed a bead of cement ¼ inch thick around the dome casting. Quickly followed with the Rutland GraphoGlas Seal. Press it into the cement as it is, no stretching it, or bunching it up is required. Just lay it on the cement and press it in to the cement. You will see it ooze out the edges just a tad.. ignore that. As soon as your have gone full circle, cut off the excess seal material from what you have applied and tuck it together. Use a little bit of the ceramic cement and close it up neatly. Place a small piece of wax paper over this joint. Lay an adequately sized cover like a piece of plywood (I used a round patio coffee/tea stand top) or anything else you have that will cover the seal. Place some weight on top like bricks or whatever is handy. Ten pounds or so should do it.

Next, repeat this process on the other half of the cooker. A single layer application is fine, but I like dual seals. The reason I prefer dual seals is for a possible rotisserie project in the future. This double gasket will provide the sealing effect this project will require. Should you install double seals you will like them, they will fit nicely, and you will not have air leaks. You can always add the second seal later if you wish.

Allow the halves to rest for several hours, you don’t want the new gaskets and wet glue to slip and slide! After the rest, start a small fire in the fire chamber of the bottom half of the unassembled cooker. With vents open place the dome gently over the bottom portion carefully mating the top and bottom. Adjust the vents to run anywhere between 250ºF and 350ºF for the purpose of curing the gasket cement. Hold this temperature for an hour to one and a half hours. An alternative to this heat cure is to just let the halves rest for a full day or two.

Here is a look at the newly installed gasket.

Make sure you use care with the cut at the joint using a very sharp blade to help eliminate fraying. Trim any frayed areas when the cure is complete. Consider pre measuring the gasket material by carefully laying it out on the cooker edge and cutting it on a firm surface off the cooker. A carpet blade or single edge razor blade for cutting with a 45º cut would be ideal.

Next, reassemble your bands, tighten your nuts securely, and go cook something. You are done! I made pork tenderloins one hour after I put the bands back on.

I am going to see if I can have a short production run of this cement material packaged in 3 ounce containers that would be ideal for ceramic cooker owners to use for new gasket installation. If you have an interest in this product, please e-mail me for details. I hope this little project of mine has been of benefit to all of you!

Cheers.. Happy Q to all.

Char-Woody