Has anyone had problems with there door seal in the area of the V tray? ??? My door seal burnt on the hinge side level with the V tray, My V tray is always pushed all the way to the back wall. A different thought, Could this be a condition caused by adding a 2nd heating element? Thanks for any thoughts you may have. Richard
I have dual elements and haven't had the problem.
Are you sure you didn't get a grease fire in there from the bowl going dry or something along those lines?
I don't know about a grease fire since it was only on 1 side but my pan did go dry during the overnight cook. :-[ It wasn't dry very long because the pork butts were moist & delicious ::) Sorry no food porn this time.
When you are doing an overnight cook you should replace the bradley pan with as big of a tinpan that you can fit in so as to never go dry. When the water goes dry you now have the potenial for any grease to catch fire.
Can you provide any pictures of the damage. I have a second element, but I've haven't looked at the door seal in that area on mine. In between rain showers, I'll take a look at mine.
I do use a 13 x 9 cake pan as a water drip pan, Here's a picture of the damage. I have already ordered a new seal from Yard & Pool so I'll be ready for the next smoke.
(http://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy359/queball6/Doorseal001.jpg)
Wow, some nasty looking damage there. It must have been a fire.
Dang, that is nasty and sure looks like fire damage.
One other note, be sure when putting your drip tray in and out that you have the door swung all the way open. It's real easy to rub/cut/damage the door seal by putting it in when the door is only open half way and not all the way.
That looks worse than I had envisioned.
You didn't have "puck stack" did you?
That has happened to me where the pucks stack up like charred cheerleaders and don't get extinguished. I didn't have any damage, just surprise when I dumped the pucks.
Also check you vents on the V-tray.
No puck stack, All are in tray with 1 left on burner & pucks behind. The pictures does look worse than it is. There is no warpage like you would figure with a fire. :'( I was also running my PID set at 225
Just thinking out loud here...
I don't recall what you where smoking (lol) but if both elements were running full tilt,(for a while like recovering from a large mass of cold meat) is is possible that enough heat was generated to do that?
Looking at the damage on the seal, wall and door it looks like you has a fire inside the smoker that fortunately was contained under the "V" (drip) pan.
I was smoking 2 pork butts & 1 pork shoulder, :P A total of about 20 lbs. There is no damage to the smoker other than the door seal. It just looks really bad in the picture. Maybe I just got lucky if it was a grease fire?
The magnetic seal is made of silicon, that looks like damage from a fire not high heat from an element. Also the area on the door just to the right of the seal looks that it was expose to a flame. That area looks more like ash not normal smoke build up.
Were the vents of your "V" tray clogged? Often when I'm doing more then one butt the drippings can build up and clog the vents. I have a scrapper I use to clean some of that gunk off half way through the cooking time. If the vents get clogged heat will build up underneath the tray.
Just my two cents but I would also say you had a fire. My brother in law had a fridge smoker that caught fire and the damage to the door and seal on yours looks exactly the same.
That seems to be the conscientious, This was done over night & when I checked it in the morning the water tray was empty no burn marks. I can only go with the suggestions from the forum the V tray was not plugged but was heavily coated with drippings.
Just chalk it up to the learning curve. You are not the first one and like won't be the last. I came very close once and it was in the daytime when I was awake. No harm no foul. Well the seal was harmed but thats all. Smoke on buddy.
Like you said I'll chalk that up as a learning experience, Just won't get a good nights sleep next time either. This won't stop me, The new seals on the way already. :)
Most guys do a middle of the night check, but they usually don't sleep well. The smokin' monkey just stays up till total exhuasting puts him out then takes a brief nap.