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[b]The Naked Whiz wrote:[/b]
[quote][b]CyberDawg,[br]You are right that the temperature at the grate is the important temperature to consider when searing.  I have measured this temperature with a roaring fire going, and while the dome temperature may have been 750 degrees, the grate temperature was over 1200 degrees.[p]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.[p]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.[p]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.[p]TNW[/b][br][/quote]

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Topic History of: Searing temps and gaskets - urban myth?
Max. showing the last 6 posts - (Last post first)

Author	Message
kent	mad max beyond eggdome, 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. Thanks, Kent
CyberDawg	The Naked Whiz, Actually, a planar source is just a whole bunch of point sources. They're still going to lose energy as the inverse square of distance.
The Naked Whiz	CyberDawg, I don't mean to keep arguing, but the inverse square law applied to a point source. I think it's linear for a planar source. But clearly closer is hotter. Like I said earlier at 750 degree dome, I measured 1200+ degrees 3 inches from the coals. TNW
TRex	mad max beyond eggdome, 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, TRex
CyberDawg	mad max beyond eggdome, 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 This follows the inverse law of radiation. Move a steak half the distance from previous and you get four times the heat.
mad max beyond eggdome	kent, how long was your egg over 650 when you opened it the first time? .. .and did you have a good seal between dome and base? .. ..