Cleaning your gasket for a better seal

[BARDSLJR]

Folks, I was noticing that I had a possibility of air leakage around the seal between the lid and lower portion of my 32" KK when I tried to damp down the temp in my KK and saw a good deal of smoke leaking out between the lid and the lower portion of the KK. When I inspected gasket, I expected to see that it would be compressed and I would need to replace it- that was not the case. However,there was a good deal of accumulated grit from the last two year's worth of use, a lot of it building up in the center crease of the gasket. So here is what I did, and what I recommend you take a look at: take a large flat-head screw driver and run it around the crease in the center of the gasket and dislodge anything that might have built up there (you could use a knife, too, but not a sharp one- you wouldn't want to take a chance of cutting he gasket). I did this and then took a stiff bristle brush and swept the remaining grit out. The flexibility of the gasket was much improved and I achieved a much better seal.

Speaking of seal, it is worth knowing that you have some small adjustment ability in the upper lower latches, about 1/8th or so of an inch on both. You can loosen the bolts holding them down, readjust, and tighten. It helped me a lot as I had a small gap between the upper and lower halves leaking air.

[tony b]

3 hours ago, BARDSLJR said:

Speaking of seal, it is worth knowing that you have some small adjustment ability in the upper lower latches, about 1/8th or so of an inch on both. You can loosen the bolts holding them down, readjust, and tighten. It helped me a lot as I had a small gap between the upper and lower halves leaking air.

For those of us with older KKs, the upper latch is not adjustable (welded), even though it has bolts on it similar to the lower latch. So, you should confirm with Dennis whether your upper latch mechanism is adjustable before trying that one to avoid damaging it. Typically, adjusting the lower latch is sufficient to fix most problems. 

Nice suggestion on cleaning the gaskets periodically. I know that I'm bad about not doing it very often myself. 

[ckreef]

I clean my gaskets with a plastic bristle brush before every cook to keep the bits and pieces out of the crease. Just a light sweeping will do if done on a regular basis. I'll also wipe it down from time to time. 

Like @tony b said older KK's have the top latch plate welded so only the bottom is adjustable. The welds are micro welds along the two sides of the upper latch plate. You have to look pretty hard to see them.