Anyone with the new KJ having issues with the top vent/rain cap? I've only had mine a few months, and I couldn't adjust the vent at all during my last cook. Took the whole thing apart to clean any gunk out, and realized that 90% of the "gunk" I thought had built up was actually the black finish bubbling up and flaking off.

We started carrying these (for BGE) -
https://smokeware.com/collections/chimney-caps/products/kj-chimney-cap
Looks like it would be a good replacement for you.

I have an older model KJ and have noticed the finish bubbling. I just took a little steel wool to the contact points and it solved it. You'll still have some "stickiness" at the start of each cook due to other stuff that gets on it from the previous cook, but it should go away within about 10 seconds once it gets some heat to it.

When mine get bad I just put them inside on the grate at 400 for a while. No more sticky black stuff.

+1 for baking it off. I hear the crisbee puck is fantastic for seasoning cast iron to prevent this

Do you store it with the cover on? Aka does it get rained on? Or is that moisture from smoking?

I always put the cover back on as soon as the outside is cool to the touch. KJ is only 2-3 months old, has always been stored with the cover on, and has only seen occasional light rain (1-2 times) during a cook.

So the goopy stuff is the coating bubbling and wearing off?

Yup. You can see it matches up with the bare metal in the other pics.

fyi - I was finally able to get hold of KJ (they were having issues with their customer service contact page) - they're sending a new top vent at no charge.

Thanks for the update, I'm having the same issues now. From reading some forums, it seems that the first run of powder coat on the new top vents was FUBAR and the issue is now corrected.