It got hot!

[Saucier]

Last night after cooking some chickens, I wanted to do a little high heat to clean things off, as I have only done low heat stuff so far. So I loaded the upper grill on, opend the cap a few turns and opened one of the doors a bit.

I guess it got really hot! The knob on the lower adjusting daisy wheel got burnt where the screw went into it, the deflector stone got flaky, sith some of it coming off, and the inside of the cooker got flaky in spots too, with some of the inside material coming off..

Did I damage this thing? Or is it just cosmetic? I thought it was OK to take these to high heat..

[Sanny]

Wow... Komodo Inferno!

[DennisLinkletter]

Re: It got hot!

Did I damage this thing? Or is it just cosmetic? I thought it was OK to take these to high heat..

High heat is very relative..

The white material inside the cooker is for cosmetic purposes only not refractory. Now this is the first time I've ever heard of the screw burning a handle.. Any idea how hot it was? YOur TelTru must have been been wrapped.. My guess is you were over 1,200. Please remember that the hot air going out the top causes a vacuum thru the lower draft door and this acts like a blower..

I guess I need to make that handle with a sleeve in it..

If you can't McGyver it back on right, I'm happy to send you a new one.

[Firemonkey]

Machined sleeve anyway!

Dennis-

I think a machined sleeve in the handle would be an excellent improvement, even if this is the only one that ever got so hot. That way the handle could be tightened to the door securely, without possibility of splitting or reaming the wood.

It took some adjustment to get mine to the point where it would stay tight.

[Saucier]

I dunno

Dennis, I am not sure how hot it got, my tel true arrived with a bracket on the stem, I assume to attach it to the side of a pot.

It would not easily slide off. I set it down for a few days, as I was getting pissed, and didn't want to pull a "Mongo" and destroy it.

When I finally got it off, the stem just spins, regardless of tightening up the little nut, so it more or less doesn't work. I am sure it was my ham-handedness it taking the bracket off. I recalibrated with boiling H20 but being as the stem & pointer cannot be tightened, its not exactly a gold standard of temperature.

So its on the cooker, but I no longer have any idea how close it is to the truth.It is interesting to note that there was still a quantity of juice / grease in the drip pan from the to chickens that were sacrificed on it earlier, makes you wonder how hot it could have gotten and still had that in tact?

I will try to drill the knob out and fill it with something and re drill, or have U2 add a set of knobs to my pepper mill order!

Dennis, did you get my email regarding the burner?

Let me know.

Glad to know I didn't do serious damage to this thing!

[trish]

I think the 'bracket' on the stem of the thermometer is a sliding stop. If you squeeze the tab, it loosens and can be removed. Then place the thermometer through the dome hole and reset the bracket to hold the thermometer against the dome.

[Saucier]

Yes

Trish, I have had devices with similar stops on the before, but it just wouldn't release, sqeezed, squozed, or cussed at

[Amphoran]

The same thing happened when I got my Tel-Tru. In trying to slide the pot clip off the head of the thermometer slid off the stem, and I couldn't get it to go all the way back in.

I calibrated it in boiling water and marked the nut and back, then locked it in place with a dab of "goop" glue.

It seems to track correctly, but I did buy a new one from Tel-Tru, which I trust more. This time I gripped the shaft with a pair of vice grips before trying to remove the pot clip.

Mike

[DavidS]

My handle has had that problem for some time. I plug it with a piece of wood it last for a couple of cooks in the 450 range. Still trying to figure out how to fix for it to last. I have had mine up to about 650 cleaning it up. Not a big problem.