Another question about the Oklahoma Joe's Highland firebox

[Markus2982]

So here is the deal. I know this has been asked and all the threads I read tend to give me a different answer so I wanted to though this out there.

I bought An OJ Highland lastnight online and am waiting for it to be delivered. 2 things I want to do during assembly is the seal the 2 halves on the firebox and the firebox/cooking chamber. Are there specific products you all use for this? I keep reading high temp red rtv for this application, but is the a certain brand that is best for this? Are there brands to stay away from? Is there something other than rtv that is better now-a-days?

The only smoking I have done was on my Weber kettle so I want to make sure I set this up right with materials safe to use in a smoker. Thanks for all of your help.

 

[JWFokker]

Any high temp rtv is fine. Red, copper, black. It's not going to hold up to the heat of the firebox for long anyway. Use it on gaps in the cook chamber and the exhaust. If you really want to seal up the firebox use fiberglass gasket material, but it should seal itself with creosote eventually. Rtv will just bake and crumble on the firebox.

 

[Fueling Around]

No direct experience with OK Joe. I eyed them when considering an upgrade, but changed my mind from an offset to making a fridge smoker.
I have a crappy Brinkmann offset that I originally bought as a cheap charcoal grill. I used it as an offset smoker many times. I fabricated a fuel basket for the offset and charcoal tray for the main chamber.
Never saw the need to seal the firebox halves nor the firebox to cook chamber. The cook chamber has too many leaks to attempt any fixes.

A good selection of cook chamber seals is from LavaLock.
I'm going to order from them to seal the cook chamber lid on my new pellet pooper.