Kamado Joe Dome alignment 101... TRY THIS FIX for all band, hinge, latch or smoke leak issues! — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00how do you fix your dome alignment on
2. 0:02your kamado joe today i show you how
3. 0:04thanks hellofresh for sponsoring today's
4. 0:07video hey i'm james from smoking dead
5. 0:09barbecue and i get this question perhaps
6. 0:12more than anything else which is how do
7. 0:15i fix dome alignment smoke leaks and
8. 0:18gasket problems like that so that is
9. 0:20what you're in for today now we've got a
10. 0:22scale here of a minute fix something
11. 0:25that's really easy to almost open heart
12. 0:28surgery where we're going to completely
13. 0:30realign your dome and i'm going to cover
14. 0:32the gamma everything from the quick
15. 0:34fixes where you want to start and figure
16. 0:36out if you actually have a dome
17. 0:38misalignment issue and if you don't i'll
18. 0:41show you how to fix it and if you do
19. 0:42have something that requires the open
20. 0:45heart surgery i'm going to do that today
21. 0:46i don't need to do it on mine they're
22. 0:48working quite fine
23. 0:49but since this is a question that comes
24. 0:51up all the time i want to take the
25. 0:52chance to show you how to do it and i
26. 0:54couldn't find a lot of video resources
27. 0:56that walk through this step by step so
28. 0:57that's what you're in for today now as
29. 1:00you notice i'm in a table type setup and
30. 1:03this is a little bit more difficult to
31. 1:05perform this type of surgery since
32. 1:06you're a little bit limited on space you
33. 1:08can do it how you doing but it's not
34. 1:11pretty
35. 1:12so i'm going to take them out of the
36. 1:14table get them in their carts and
37. 1:15there's another reason i have to do this
38. 1:17because i've shared on the channel
39. 1:19before the saga of 2021 carries into 22
40. 1:22with the granite cracking on my nature
41. 1:24cast tables has been an ongoing issue
42. 1:26they're still taking care of it but the
43. 1:27replacements are scheduled to come in in
44. 1:29the next week or so so i have to get
45. 1:31them out anyways plus it will make it
46. 1:34much easier for you to see what's going
47. 1:36on with those adjustments so without
48. 1:37further ado let's get into it so our
49. 1:40first test is all about figuring out if
50. 1:42we need the complex open heart surgery
51. 1:45version or if it's a quick and easy fix
52. 1:48and so to do that you just want to get
53. 1:50yourself a dollar bill or anything like
54. 1:52that and what we're going to do is test
55. 1:54to see if we're getting an area where
56. 1:56our dome is maybe got a high pressure
57. 1:58point and a low pressure point and
58. 1:59that's allowing some smoke to leak so
59. 2:01come nice and close i'll show you how
60. 2:02we're going to do that so what we're
61. 2:03going to do is we're going to check a
62. 2:05couple pressure points around the grill
63. 2:08to make sure that we're getting an even
64. 2:10latch so to do that we're just going to
65. 2:11put a bill about halfway in close our
66. 2:13dome and when we go to pull this bill
67. 2:16this is what we should get it'll it'll
68. 2:18be something that we can remove but
69. 2:20there's a pretty good amount of tug
70. 2:23force so this side's good let's check
71. 2:24the front
72. 2:25that's nice and tight there as well
73. 2:27check the other side
74. 2:30that's good
75. 2:31and we'll check the back on each side
76. 2:34nice and tight that side nice and tight
77. 2:36this side or that side let's check this
78. 2:37last side
79. 2:41okay so my big joe is good there are no
80. 2:45dome misalignment issues here let's go
81. 2:47check the classic real quick while we're
82. 2:48at it
83. 2:52so as you can see on both joes as i
84. 2:54mentioned i thankfully don't have this
85. 2:56issue of smoke leaking but that's not to
86. 2:58say many of you don't have that problem
87. 2:59so we're still going to perform the
88. 3:01surgery as if we had an issue and i'll
89. 3:03show you how to put it back together but
90. 3:05before we do that there is another
91. 3:08series of adjustments that you can
92. 3:10actually improve your dome alignment
93. 3:12especially if you're having an issue
94. 3:14with how the grille latches so before we
95. 3:17do the open heart surgery we're going to
96. 3:18see if we can actually eradicate our
97. 3:19problem without any complex adjustments
98. 3:23taking the bands off taking the dome out
99. 3:25and realigning that so let me bring you
100. 3:27nice and close again and show you the
101. 3:29types of adjustments that we can do
102. 3:31in under a minute or two's worth of time
103. 3:33okay so a number of people have some
104. 3:36issue or they're they're calling their
105. 3:37dome alignment an issue
106. 3:40which is really a latch alignment issue
107. 3:42and so if your dome is aligned and
108. 3:45you've got sort of your kind of red
109. 3:47bases or your bands aligned and you're
110. 3:49not getting a leak most likely you don't
111. 3:51actually have a dome alignment issue you
112. 3:53have a latch alignment which is where
113. 3:55you come down here and it's hitting
114. 3:57the latch and it won't close and it
115. 3:59takes a lot of force to push down or it
116. 4:01takes no force whatsoever and
117. 4:04it's not really staying closed and it's
118. 4:06maybe popping open and so
119. 4:08the design here on the kamado joe is
120. 4:10really nice since there's actually
121. 4:13four adjustment points that we can make
122. 4:15left to right so you'll see these bolts
123. 4:17here bolts here bolts there bolts there
124. 4:19and what that allows these two plates to
125. 4:21do is move left and right so if we
126. 4:24actually have an issue with the top part
127. 4:27aligning up with the bottom you've got a
128. 4:29left and right alignment
129. 4:32the other thing that you can maybe see
130. 4:33here if i tilt the camera down a little
131. 4:35bit more is we've got this allen
132. 4:38screw set screw built into the latch and
133. 4:41what that does is it moves the latch
134. 4:44vertically so we've got left right
135. 4:47as well as up down so those left right
136. 4:50and up down adjustment solve about 90
137. 4:52percent of dome alignment problems
138. 4:54people reach out and ask a question many
139. 4:56didn't even know there was that vertical
140. 4:57or left right adjustment and that will
141. 5:00solve like i mentioned about 90 of
142. 5:02questions but for the 10 of you where
143. 5:03you actually do have a dome alignment
144. 5:06issue now this can happen maybe you know
145. 5:08luck of the draw you got one came from
146. 5:10the factory a little bit misaligned or
147. 5:12shipping
148. 5:13assembly or just high heat cycles and
149. 5:15you didn't have your bands
150. 5:17tight and snug you did something like a
151. 5:19pizza and opening and closing and your
152. 5:20dome shifted so this is a cautionary
153. 5:23tale for two reasons one just make sure
154. 5:24your dome uh bands are always tight so
155. 5:27you don't get any of that shifting most
156. 5:28importantly for the risk that your dome
157. 5:30doesn't release from the bands itself
158. 5:32that's the real reason that you want to
159. 5:33check those spring and fall or no photo
160. 5:36your own you've done everything
161. 5:37absolutely perfect and you've just got
162. 5:39this issue so no worries we're going to
163. 5:41fix that up today so i'll rejoin you
164. 5:43after a little bit of work here and
165. 5:45calling some friends again to get these
166. 5:48out into their carts so we can start to
167. 5:50do
168. 5:51the open heart surgery and i'll take you
169. 5:52through the whole process from beginning
170. 5:54to end
171. 5:57i think we have in the business what
172. 5:58they call a continuity problem
173. 6:01wait till sunday they said only a small
174. 6:05chance of snow they said well as you can
175. 6:08tell that didn't pan out and the weather
176. 6:10has changed but that's not going to slow
177. 6:13us down the good news is from when i
178. 6:15last left you the replacement granite
179. 6:17has shown up so we've got the joe's out
180. 6:19and i'm now able to get them back in so
181. 6:21before i put them back in we're going to
182. 6:23finish this one off and i'll show you
183. 6:24all the adjustments you need to do to
184. 6:26fix any dome misalignment issues so i
185. 6:28just need to go grab a couple tools so
186. 6:30we can adjust our dome hinge and bands
187. 6:33but before i do that i'll rejoin you
188. 6:35after throwing it over to hellofresh for
189. 6:37sponsoring today's video
190. 6:40are you tired of setting unrealistic new
191. 6:42year's resolutions if you've been
192. 6:43following my channel for a while you
193. 6:45already know i changed my diet last year
194. 6:47and lost 50 pounds but one of the things
195. 6:49that i struggled with as the year wore
196. 6:51on is just keeping up with new ideas and
197. 6:54meal prep this year do things
198. 6:56differently and regain control over your
199. 6:58food choices with hellofresh with
200. 7:00calorie and carb smart meals you can
201. 7:03indulge in some of your favorite meals
202. 7:05without any of the worries hellofresh
203. 7:08helps our family stay on track with
204. 7:11simple recipes along with fresh
205. 7:13pre-portioned ingredients that cut out
206. 7:16those unnecessary trips to the grocery
207. 7:17store in addition to eating well another
208. 7:20new year's resolution our family made
209. 7:22this year is on our environmental impact
210. 7:25and that's why we're drawn to hellofresh
211. 7:27because all the packaging in the
212. 7:28materials that the food and meal kits
213. 7:30come out has already been recycled so
214. 7:32not only is that great for the
215. 7:33environment but the pre-portioned meals
216. 7:35also help make sure we save time on prep
217. 7:38and there's less chance of any food
218. 7:40waste go to
219. 7:42hellofresh.com and enter the code
220. 7:44sdbarbeque16 to receive up to 16 free
221. 7:48meals as well as three surprise gifts
222. 7:51thanks again hellofresh for sponsoring
223. 7:53today's video now back to the action
224. 7:56okay i have my 10 millimeter socket
225. 7:58which is what we're going to need to
226. 8:00tackle these bolts so depending what
227. 8:02you're doing you should have six on the
228. 8:04top six on the bottom three on each side
229. 8:07which is what is attaching our air lift
230. 8:09hinge to our dome assembly now depending
231. 8:14on the type of issue you have you may
232. 8:15not need to tackle the bottom and so one
233. 8:19of the things you want to look for is
234. 8:20how aligned are your bands all the way
235. 8:22around so if you look at mine here you
236. 8:25can see that they're a nice parallel and
237. 8:27aligned and again we weren't failing
238. 8:29that dollar bill test so they they
239. 8:31shouldn't be you know misaligned but if
240. 8:33you have some misaligned bands depending
241. 8:35if that's the top or bottom is really
242. 8:36going to determine if you need to loosen
243. 8:38just the top or just the bottom but
244. 8:40before we loosen anything this is the
245. 8:42time now where you're actually going to
246. 8:44make use of this funny little tool you
247. 8:46saw when you unpacked your joe and you
248. 8:48said what's that for that's exactly for
249. 8:50this because what we're going to do is
250. 8:51we're going to install this underneath
251. 8:54and lock our air lift hinge which is
252. 8:56going to help make centering our dome
253. 8:58and putting everything back together
254. 9:00properly to make sure we don't have any
255. 9:01issues so let me bring you nice and
256. 9:03close we're going to
257. 9:04install this and we'll get to work on
258. 9:07loosening our nuts so we can reposition
259. 9:09our dome
260. 9:10okay so hopefully you're able to see
261. 9:12this angle is not very great but what
262. 9:14we're going to do is take this long part
263. 9:15that we received with our joe slide that
264. 9:18up which is just going to expose a
265. 9:20little bit of threaded area here
266. 9:23whoops can't do that one-handed and then
267. 9:25what we'll do is we will take our washer
268. 9:28then our nut so let me take it fast
269. 9:30forward i can use both hands and we'll
270. 9:31just get this on
271. 9:36okay so now that we have that
272. 9:37latch lock on when i go open the dome
273. 9:40you see it doesn't want to open so that
274. 9:42is sealed into place so what we're going
275. 9:44to do is start by loosening not removing
276. 9:46the six screws across the back of the
277. 9:49top of our band here
278. 9:52so with just loosening those six bands
279. 9:55we'll be able to
280. 9:56move our dome
281. 9:58from left to right and front to back
282. 10:00here until we get it lined up so if
283. 10:02that's our only issue and we're not
284. 10:04trying to work on
285. 10:05solving uh
286. 10:07the band alignment to make sure it's
287. 10:09parallel we don't need to go any further
288. 10:11we can just get to work to sliding our
289. 10:13dome to where we can actually get that
290. 10:16to be lined up all the way around but
291. 10:18just to show you i'm going to go remove
292. 10:19that acorn nut as well okay to release
293. 10:22the dome from the band we just need an
294. 10:25allen key that we're going to slide in
295. 10:26here
296. 10:28as well as our socket to start loosening
297. 10:31the actual band assembly
298. 10:34and another reason that you may want to
299. 10:36do this other than the adjustment that
300. 10:38we're making right now is once our dome
301. 10:40is released from the band this is an
302. 10:42easier way to actually get it out and
303. 10:44replace a gasket so if we were trying to
304. 10:47replace the gasket we could do this take
305. 10:50it out set our dome upside down
306. 10:52on a towel somewhere safe where it's not
307. 10:54going to get damaged chipped or
308. 10:55scratched and it makes much easier work
309. 10:58of trying to replace the gasket in an
310. 11:01inverted upside down spider-man manner
311. 11:05so i think that's about all i need a
312. 11:07little bit more here
313. 11:10so now that we've released this
314. 11:11completely we'll be able to just lift in
315. 11:14and pull our dome right out
316. 11:16so now that we have our dome out we can
317. 11:18get to work to realigning it so if you
318. 11:20were having those issues where it wasn't
319. 11:22seated properly this is where we want to
320. 11:24drop it back in make sure it's aligned
321. 11:27and that there's even pressure all the
322. 11:29way around this is also the reason why
323. 11:32that tool that we put on our air lift
324. 11:34hinge is so important if we didn't have
325. 11:36that the pneumatic pressure of this
326. 11:38right now will be flying open because
327. 11:40again that's what makes the dome
328. 11:42weightless so if you forgot that step
329. 11:44you may get hit injured and or have that
330. 11:47go flying and have a really hard time
331. 11:49getting it back into place so now we're
332. 11:52going to begin the reassembly process
333. 11:54we're going to go exactly the opposite
334. 11:56of what we did so i'll get the dome
335. 11:58we'll position it back on here make sure
336. 12:00it's aligned nice and center then we'll
337. 12:02get to work on putting in our allen key
338. 12:06and set screw over here so our hex nut
339. 12:09is tight tighten the dome band back up
340. 12:11and then we need to reattach the bands
341. 12:15to the dome itself using those six
342. 12:17screws and we're gonna do this in a
343. 12:19pattern so we're gonna start in the same
344. 12:21so maybe the the leftmost position on
345. 12:23the outside
346. 12:24tighten that go to the right outside
347. 12:26then the middle the middle and then the
348. 12:28inside and the inside until we have
349. 12:29those all nice and snug and you're
350. 12:31looking for about 10 foot pounds of
351. 12:34torque here if you have a torque wrench
352. 12:35that can be that precise so take it fast
353. 12:38forward we'll get to work and getting
354. 12:39our dome back on make sure that we can
355. 12:41pass the dollar bill test once again
356. 12:44when this is all together okay i've
357. 12:46dropped my dome on pretty happy with the
358. 12:48rough alignment front to back left to
359. 12:50right now before we put this on and just
360. 12:52start tightening i don't want to tighten
361. 12:54it past
362. 12:55my air lift hinge lock so i'm just going
363. 12:58to take the opportunity real quick
364. 12:59remove that so we are cranking this
365. 13:01tight that it's not getting in the way
366. 13:03of our latch and then we'll put that
367. 13:05back on possibly the opportunity to show
368. 13:07you the left and right alignment as part
369. 13:08of getting everything back the way it
370. 13:10should be
371. 13:12okay perfect so now when we go to
372. 13:13tighten that we won't worry about
373. 13:15hitting the latch and then we'll realign
374. 13:17that once we've got everything back
375. 13:18together okay so now we're ready to
376. 13:20start mating our bands together so once
377. 13:23we have that finger tightened it's not
378. 13:24going to fly anywhere and we're going to
379. 13:26want to pay attention to this as we
380. 13:28start tightening to again make sure that
381. 13:30we keep our distance equal all the way
382. 13:33around our band okay so just using my
383. 13:36fingers i've pulled the band up all the
384. 13:38way around
385. 13:39to the point where it's nice and flush
386. 13:41and even as it was before so we'll check
387. 13:44this a few times as we begin to
388. 13:46tighten our bands back up
389. 13:48looks like it's tightening nicely so we
390. 13:49can continue
391. 13:51okay so now that our band is tight we're
392. 13:54going to get to work on
393. 13:56tightening these again rotate here
394. 13:59so we're going to again work our way
395. 14:02left outside right outside left middle
396. 14:05right middle
397. 14:06left inside right inside
398. 14:10i don't think i mentioned before but you
399. 14:12can actually use when you're looking to
400. 14:14line up your dome these screws remain as
401. 14:16a bit of a spacer since i know that i
402. 14:18was aligned centered at least before
403. 14:21between the top and the bottom when i
404. 14:23now see this sitting directly between
405. 14:25the middle of these two screws it helps
406. 14:27me know if i have my dome aligned or if
407. 14:29i've got it a little bit off and my
408. 14:31thermometer is going to be a skew but
409. 14:33that all looks good so we can start to
410. 14:35put this assembly back together
411. 14:38there we go
412. 14:39over the
413. 14:41latch clip there make sure we have it
414. 14:44aligned left and right that
415. 14:47looks centered to me so we can tighten
416. 14:50that up
417. 14:50okay looks good again we won't really be
418. 14:52able to release this until we remove the
419. 14:56bolt at the back let's do that now okay
420. 14:58so now we're going to remove the bolt
421. 15:01holding our
422. 15:02our
423. 15:04air lift hinge piece together
424. 15:07everything's out so we'll save our
425. 15:08washer bolt and not that i had go flying
426. 15:11here for a future day if we need them
427. 15:14okay moment of truth main voyage all we
428. 15:17have to do now is test our opening close
429. 15:19make sure we're happy with the fitment
430. 15:21and then we're going to go back to our
431. 15:22dollar bill test and check all the way
432. 15:24around first let's see how we did make
433. 15:27sure it doesn't go flying
434. 15:28now we know what we're doing never a
435. 15:30doubt so that looks good
436. 15:32alignment is good exactly lined up where
437. 15:34we want and looking all the way around
438. 15:37at the bands which you want to pay
439. 15:38attention to the bands not the gasket
440. 15:40because the bat the gasket can flatten
441. 15:42out and give you a false sense of left
442. 15:44right but everything here looks
443. 15:46perfectly aligned so come nice and close
444. 15:48we'll do our dollar bill test okay so
445. 15:50let's start with the left side here
446. 15:56nice and snug back corner
447. 16:01nice and snug front
448. 16:06that's good front here
449. 16:11looks good
450. 16:14right side i'll come around so i'm not
451. 16:16blocking the view
452. 16:19looks good and back
453. 16:26perfect
454. 16:28all right so lastly what we're looking
455. 16:29for that dollar bill test is nice equal
456. 16:32clamping force all the way around what
457. 16:33we don't want to have is one side where
458. 16:35we can't remove the bill and the other
459. 16:37side where it just slides out as if
460. 16:39there's no force that was nice even
461. 16:41tension but if you'd like an extra level
462. 16:43of security you can get a pellet tube
463. 16:44smoke or start a small fire let it build
464. 16:47up some heat and then turn everything
465. 16:48off and see if there's any smoke leaking
466. 16:50i don't think we're going to have that
467. 16:51problem since i was getting nice even
468. 16:54clamping force on that dollar bill all
469. 16:55the way around our joe so we are ready
470. 16:58to get back to grilling thanks so much
471. 17:00for asking to make this video if there's
472. 17:02anything else you'd like me to cook or
473. 17:05do maintenance wise let me know in the
474. 17:06comments down below it'll be my pleasure
475. 17:08to add it to a future video also while
476. 17:10you're down there check out the members
477. 17:12section i go live one on one and this is
478. 17:14one of the questions that came up in a
479. 17:16live session where i can answer your
480. 17:17questions a little bit more real time in
481. 17:19an intimate way versus these
482. 17:20pre-recorded videos so check the details
483. 17:22out in the description along with
484. 17:24everything else that might be of
485. 17:25interest to you that's it for today
486. 17:27though so until next time i'm james from
487. 17:29smoke and dab barbecue signing off and
488. 17:30remember don't be afraid to fire it up