The old gasket on my Expobar Office is really cooked. I've tried driving screws into it without success.
How can I remove it without doing any damage?

Thanks...it's out. Now for a good cleaning and replacing with a new gasket. Actually I was afraid of damaging the head itself with the screws as it really required some hard driving to get a grasp on the really cooked old gasket. The method, suggested by the tech folks at WLL, was to insert screws at 3 & 9 o'clock and then use pliers to remove gasket. Perhaps, in the future, I shall remove the gaskets before they reach this stage.

Dogshot wrote:Moral of the story - it pays to remove the screen and gasket every now and then just to make sure things are as clean as they should be.

i was so afraid to clean behind the screen that i decided to not do it until later.

later came one day when the wife was making a shot and the entire screen and gasket fell out into the PF. there was so much gunk in there it pushed the screen off. needless to say that was gross.

i now remove the screen and gasket every weekend directly after the cafiza backflush, also weekly.

this is very simple and it will make you want to clean it out once you see what is back there.

jon

If you by chance get a bit lazy with your home routine and don't remove the screen to clean it often enough (mea culpa) the gasket will be hardened and dry to the point where you definitely need a new one. It will also be very very difficult to pry out. In such instances I have found a tool known as a thread starter to be ideal. It looks like a screwdriver but has a thread point on the tip that looks like a fine wood screw rather than having a conventional screwdriver tip. Just screw it directly up into the rubber gasket until it penetrates nicely and then pull down. You might have to wiggle it a bit and the gasket is likely to break and come out in pieces but it's the easiest method I've tried for removing a problematic gasket.

The tutorial on EPNW site is good but it appears to overlook one important step in the installation / re-installation process: apply a thin film of a food safe gel lubricant to the top side of the gasket. It will make it much easier to remove later on. EPNW sells Petro Gel which I have also found at my local commercial restaurant supply house. About 2x the money but more stable living term under high heat is Dow 111 - a food safe silicone lubricant that is readily available through Grainger Supply among other sources.

I have a step-by-step lesson on this subject on my website which shows how to use a screwdriver and discusses the use of force in the correct directions:
It is the "How-To" #13