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On my smoker around the bottom of the doors I have a gap that is letting some of the smoke and heat out. Do any of you use the hi temp silicon to help seal off the leak?
Ribwizzard posted some pictures of his technique but I can't find them. He uses kitchen stretch wrap on the door, puts on high temp silicone and closes the lid till it cures. It is a good method to assure you get the silicone to stick to only one side and conform to the opening. I don't remember what he did to "prime" the side with the silicone, the post was quite awhile ago.
think if I took some kind of degreaser to clean the silicon side that would be ok. do you think there any chance of the silicone smell getting in the meat while it is cooking?
RTV really takes a week to cure to full strength so plan on giving it time and you won't have any adverse affect. Yes, you want to degrease, then sand with some course grit paper to give the metal some tooth, and solvent clean it again and it should stick well.
Redneck cure, crumple up some foil and make a rope of it, put it along the crack and then gently force it down with the door , it will seal. Its not perament, its not pretty, but it will work till you can fix it right.
Poppa D, not sure which smoker you have, but you probably don't want to use gasketing on the hinge side, unless you have a big gap there as well. it will not allow the door to close fully. I used it on the sides of the door, and the bottom. sealed perfectly.
thanks, my smoker is one that built myself. 24" OD x 60" long made from a piece of steel pipe. It does a good job just trying to keep as much heat inside as possible. I have ordered the black nomex material already. again thanks again for all of your help.