Weber Kamado/Summit owners question

[Rod]

I've only done 3 cooks on my new E6. On the second cook I noticed a few grease drips from the lip of the lid at the hinge area of the lid. First cook was a rack of STL ribs low n' slow. Second cook was a shrimp boil in a covered half pan at 400 degrees. I figured the high temps of that second cook caused some of the rib grease build up to run.

Then today I finished a brisket at 250 and noticed a lot more grease drippings. The temp actually got up to 280 towards the end of the cook probably because of all the grease drippings on the diffuser plate. I had a half pan sitting on it, but that doesn't quite cover it all. The cooker sits just a few feet away from our bedroom window which was cracked. The Fireboard alert combined with all the sizzling woke me up.

It looks like it's dripping where the ends of the gasket meet which obviously isn't a complete seal where they meet. Is this normal? Is it just a matter of logging some more miles on it to build up some gunk so grease collection won't have such a smooth surface to run down and collect on the lip? I don't recall having this issue with my 22 or 26" kettles. Maybe 1 or 2 drips once. Nothing like this.

Side note: After I pulled the brisket, I took out the half pan which had about a 1/2" of grease in it. Then I opened up all vents and let her rip. Man, there was a lot of smoke while that all burned off. This cooker can run crazy hot for a long ass time.

[Andrrr]

Can't say I've had that same experience. Are you using a water pan?

[Rod]

Nope

[fzxdoc]

Mr. Fancypants shows no evidence of a grease drip--and I looked especially closely in the area where the gasket joins. I checked the deck floor as well. I just did a combined two chuck roast + sparerib cook on Saturday and haven't cleaned Mr. Fancypants up yet, so any evidence would be there. The inside of your lid is a lot cleaner than my WSCGC, but then mine has had a ton of cooks in it since I got it in 2016.

Suffice to say I've never had that problem. I don't use a water pan either, but have always had something under the grate to catch the drippings for every single cook.

Maybe your burning out all the grease did the trick. Hope so.

Kathryn

[CaptainMike]

I've never had that either.

[GoDuke]

I've had a little bit of dripping next to wherever my thermometer wires run out from under the gasket, but at most it's like a teaspoonful over the course of an entire cook. Nothing like what you're talking about. I don't see anything with your gasket that looks fundamentally flawed either. I'd try a few more cooks and if its still doing it, give weber a ring

[Andrrr]

That’s a good point about the temp probes. Even with those going under the gasket I still don’t get drippings.

[fzxdoc]

I don't get dripping where the probe wires cross the gasket either. And I often run all 6 probes through it.

Kathryn

[surfdog]

Hmmm, can’t say that I’ve ever seen that before. So obviously I’m no help.

[Old Glory]

I have never had that happen. Only thing I can think of is the steam from the shrimp boil liquefied on the lid and dripped out?

[Rod]

The shrimp boil was covered the entire cook

[Jessterr]

Never had that happen with mine either, but just a thought, really grabbing at straws here….is there any chance the patio is not quite level and the hinged side of the grill is on the downslope side? If so, maybe the juices and condensate flow down towards the back, just where the gasket gap happens to be. Could experiment by turning the grill around 180 degrees for the next cook and see what happens?

[Rod]

Good thought as the patio is pavers. Strange this has not this happen on my 22 and 26" kettles that also sit on the same patio.

[Jessterr]

Good point. Maybe with the tight fit of the WSCG, moisture is channeling around the inside of the gasket to the lowest point at the gap, then draining outside. If the hinge side were slightly higher than the front, it might drain to the inside,