Keep in mind that it is the temperature at the GRATE that determines a good sear and most of that temperature is transmitted via radiant energy and flame, NOT surrounding cooker temperature. Infra-red grills prove this point.

When eggers heat their unit up to 500+ degrees, and read temps at the dome thermometer, they are heating the ceramic up far more than is needed to sear a steak for a few minutes. They risk frying a felt gasket that was never designed for such high temperatures.

Charcoal burns at a consistent temperature and has a maximum threshold of radiant energy it can put out. Heating the surrounding ceramic isn't going to increase the radiant energy from the coals much, if at all, but it WILL lead to fried gaskets and broken fireboxes.

If you want a good sear, keep the lump level low (to protect the gasket), leave the top open for maximum oxygen, and place the steaks as close to the fire as possible. Distance from the coals matters FAR MORE than dome temperature. Then close the lid to reduce flare up and wait the requisite 2-4 minutes. This will give you maximum radiant energy while keeping the ceramic as cool as possible.

Most of what you say I will agree on. Even add that Sear does not equate the juicier.

However, Typical wood fired pizza ovens are in excess of 500 degrees as this prevents the dough from sticking to the cooking surface.

The only wear and tear is to the worthless gasket, not to the priceless ceramic. The ceramic is designed to withstand temps well above 550-600 degrees.

Gaskets are cheap and highly overated. That said I need to take my trusty old large apart and put on that new gasket I bought two years ago :>

Well, all I can say is that I've cooked many a Trex and pizza following the stated guidelines, and I've never had a pizza stick to the stone, and I've never had to take a day away from cooking to replace a gasket.

Well that like the rest of the priceless ceramic pieces is under a lifetime warranty. As TNW said once it cracks the likely hood of more cracks have decreased dramatically.

To add my voice to TNWs other remark. High Heat is not always the culprit for a cracked firebox.

Many of us have the new warranty replacement part in storage and still use the cracked Firebox or Fire ring.

However, it is not correct to say that charcoal burns at a consistent temperature. It burns over a wide range of temperatures as evidenced by its color, from red to orange to straw to white as you give it more oxygen allowing it to burn hotter and hotter. Getting a roaring fire going will produce a much higher temperature at the grate level.

I also don't think that heating up the ceramic is the issue here. I ran a large Egg at 400 degrees dome temperature for 2.5 hours and the temperature of the ceramic by the gasket was only 180 degrees. Heating the Egg up to 750 degrees for the 10 minutes or so that it takes to sear a steak isn't going heat the ceramic up very much at all.

I think the issue is more with the burping of the Egg. This allows hot air to rush out over the surface of the gaskets and I think does far more damage than any heat from the ceramic. And if you have any sort of flashback when you burp the egg, this will indeed damage the gaskets. The carbon monoxide flame will easily exceed 1100 degrees. Rather than just burping the cooker, I would open top and bottom vents wide open for several seconds before doing any burping to minimize the rush of hot air out of the cooker and prevent any flashback.

I am the newbee on the block 4 cooks/4 days. I melted my gasket on day 2. I wanted to try a seared stake. Got the dome up to 650-675.

Being very concerned about the information TNW put up about flashback, I opened the lid 2-4 inches, then closed, did it again, then the third time the exiting heat was so hot I couldn’t continue to open the dome. At that point the gasket was fine. I opened it again to burp, two times then opened the dome all the way. At that point the gasket looked like it was melted, in actuality I don’t think it was, however the glue had released and the gasket was moved on the surface and somewhat when opening stuck to the top gasket.

The upper and lower gasket pulled apart when the dome opened. I turned the steak and closed. 1 ½ minutes I cut the dampers completely closed. When I tried to open the dome it was stuck. I finally got it opened took out the steak (which was great).

Then proceed to let the fire snuff out.

The gasket didn’t look to be burned but it appeared to have shrunk. I didn’t know enough to look more at the gasket so I can not say for sure if it did shrink, somewhat like heat shrink tubing but not that dramatic.

The heat was extreme to the feel when I tried opening the dome and that heat went over the gasket several times before I experienced the gasket problem.

I realize that I am the new kid on the block (well old fart actually) with no bge experience, just some thoughts…

After reading TNW’s comments about not having problems with the gasket after 2 years made me wonder.

1. Out here locally another new ex bge owner ruined his gasket on the first day. Has the company changed the adhesive on the gaskets as there are a lot of people having the gasket problems?!
2. Is it possible the way we are burping the bge causing the failure of the glue/gasket. In my case I am pretty confident it was a glue failure? Or my allowing too much heat for too long to escape over the rim.

I wonder if I would have burped once maybe twice then fully opened the dome if my gasket problem would not have happened.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

trex and i have discussed this many times ... a shorter sear at 700+ (say 90 seconds per side on a 1 1/2 inch thick steak) plus a shorter dwell at 400 degrees produces a much different texture than when searing at 5 - 600 degrees with a longer dwell. .. .the meat will be done the same, but the texture can be very different (and i'm talking about NY strip steaks. .. .

I agree with you on the duration of high temps being a major issue. However, I still want to emphasize that temps at the grill level have very little to do with the temp showing on the thermometer.

Steak closer to fire = much higher sear temp

I agree 100%. I do not have empirical data but I would be willing to bet that most melted gaskets result from a bad seal between the top and bottom sections. And of course, longer durations at high temps will eventually heat up the ceramic enough to potentially get it to a temperature at which the gasket glue starts to melt, but short durations - with all of that ceramic mass and that low thermal conductivity - aren't going to bother that gasket at all.

I think better advice than saying, "Make sure you cure your gasket with several low temp cooks before high temp searing" would be, "Make sure that you do not have any leaks around the entire circumference of your sealing surface before doing any high temp searing, and don't leave your Egg at high searing temps for more than 5 minutes."

For the record, I have never melted a gasket, and I did high temperature sealing from Day 1 on both my Mini and my newer Medium.

A note to CyberDawg: thanks for bringing up this issue - good discussion. Just to clarify, though - I don't use the dome temperature as the measurement of what temperature I'm searing at, I use it as an indication of heat flux due to coal radiation within the Egg. I always sear with the dome open, so I'm clearly only concerned about that coal radiation (and, of course, some good ole fashioned conduction from the cooking grid).

Cheers,

I opened grate and top all the way. Temp went up from 350 to 600+ I then placed the steak on the grid and closed.

Burped 3 times then tried to open It was too hot to completly open. About 45 seconds to 1 minute later, burped again then opened lid.

I saw the bottom flet had released from the egg. I turned the steak and closed.

Closed all vents, 2 minutes later I took the steak off.

Closed lid to kill fire and fix the problem.