Pit Boss 820 Gasket seal

[spudthegreater]

Was looking at several YouTube videos on gasket mods to keep the heat and smoke in, and I found one particular video that gave me the ideas for mine.
Many people use a self adhesive kevlar gasket that seems to deteriorate pretty quick, and doesn't seem to seal all that great. Others use the Red high temp silicon which seems to work, but I think looks like crap the way it ends up getting used.
I found a black high temp silicone, and i used it on the inside of the lid as opposed to the frame of the smoker. I used plastic wrap on the frame sufaces, and put a bead of black silicon high temp on the lid after figuring out where the mating surface would land. Once i had the plastic wrap taped on the OUTSIDE of the barrel and the bead laid out on the inside of the lid, i closed the lid and left it for two days. On the third day, remove the taped plastic wrap tape areas and carefully lift the lid. Trim off the excessive plastic wrap. Carefully pull off the plastic wrap from the pressed bead. It might still be tacky so leave it open for another day before closing the lid. Then when its all cured out, take a razor and trim the outside edge of the sealant. Now when its closed, you see nothing and it works great at sealing in the heat and smoke. I also installed a silicone temp probe on the side and need to seal up the factory hole on the left side since I dont use that one anyway. I see a lot of smoke coming out of that small probe hole. I also put some metal tape over half of the grease drip tube since so much smoke escapes that as well. ]

 

[bill1]

Thanks! Can you give details on the product? Brand and where purchase?

I agree the black is a lot less noticeable, and since this DIY sealing is nearly impossible to make smooth and uniform, that's a very good thing.

And let us know how it's holding up after a few cooks.

 

[spudthegreater]

Thanks! Can you give details on the product? Brand and where purchase?

I agree the black is a lot less noticeable, and since this DIY sealing is nearly impossible to make smooth and uniform, that's a very good thing.

And let us know how it's holding up after a few cooks.

I've done two cooks on it now, the last was a high temp pizza cook, with the stone heating up to over 500 for probably about 40 mins prior to placing the pizza on it. I was worried that the silicon seal on the inside of the lid might stick to the barrel edges when closed, but it didn't at all. Also I literally could not see ANY smoke escaping from the lid areas. it was pouring our the chimney stack, the grease tube bucket catch, and the factory temp port and searing slide rod hole. I can plug the factory temp port since i don't use the controller temp probes, haven't found them particularly useful on the left side. And the right side silicon temp port i installed isn't leaking at all either. So far this mod exceeded my expectations being that every seal job done with the adhesive gasket material made it better, but still had leaks, and or chunked off the barrel edges. Thats another reason i think the application on the lid is a better idea.

 

[spudthegreater]

Thanks! Can you give details on the product? Brand and where purchase?

I agree the black is a lot less noticeable, and since this DIY sealing is nearly impossible to make smooth and uniform, that's a very good thing.

And let us know how it's holding up after a few cooks.