Hottest temperature attained with SJ Gold as base for Mini?


 

Barry McCorkle

TVWBB Super Fan
Currently, my mini WSM uses the SJ Silver as the base, but I've been thinking I would like to replace it with the SJ Gold.

Those of you that use the Gold for the base, how is temperature control and what's the hottest temperature you were able to maintain with it? Have any of you switched from one to the other? Which is better for temp control and responsiveness?
 
I achieved and maintained 300 for over 1.5 hours with a full charcoal basket . in my mini wsm , probably could have kept it longer if i hadnt closed vents..
 
I achieved and maintained 300 for over 1.5 hours with a full charcoal basket . in my mini wsm , probably could have kept it longer if i hadnt closed vents..

How is temperature control with the Gold? And also, how responsive is it to changes in the side vent positions?
 
The Gold responds better to slow cook than silver from what I have read. If you havent already done the charcoal basket mod and damper cover mod those both will significantly help get the tempertatures you want.
 
I have the SJ Silver and just completed my mini build (going to modify it to a mini-za soon). On its maiden cook (Friday) I almost reached 400F. Had over 300 for a solid 1.5 hours then I backed it down so my dinner wouldn't cook too fast. After that I couldn't get the temp to go back up over 300. Haven't checked the basket to see how much charcoal was left, I had a lot going on this weekend.

Edit: It rained all day Friday with moderate wind, and still had solid temps, little fluctuation.
 
With my Silver I can run 180° or more than 450° (450° is as high as my therm goes) all day long. Keep in mind that for lower temp smokes a solid diffuser helps, for hotter smokes just using the steamer insert or no diffuser at all works best. My set up includes (2) ball valve vents, ash deflector for lower vent, charcoal basket, bottom removed from the pot. Had the Mini-ZA oven above 750° (once again as high as that therm goes).

Longest smoke to date was 14 hours on one heavy load of Kingsford Blue running the smoker at 265°.
 
Thanks guys. After seeing your replies and reading through other threads, I am going to make the expanded metal basket to burn the fuel more efficiently for my current SJ Silver base Mini.

Still wondering how well the SJ Gold works as a base for the mini. Is it better or worse for temperature control and will it get to 325 - 350 for a few hours to do high heat chicken cooks?
 
Thanks guys. After seeing your replies and reading through other threads, I am going to make the expanded metal basket to burn the fuel more efficiently for my current SJ Silver base Mini.

Still wondering how well the SJ Gold works as a base for the mini. Is it better or worse for temperature control and will it get to 325 - 350 for a few hours to do high heat chicken cooks?

I have a friend that built his mini using the gold. He ended up putting a vent in the bottom for higher temp cooking. He bought the replacement vent that Weber sells for the silver.

The basket is easy to make out of expanded metal. If you can't weld, just wire tie or bend the expanded metal to for the basket. Use the charcoal grate for the bottom, but also put a piece of expanded on it.
 
I have the Gold. Just a week or two ago I had it at 300 degrees (plus or minus 20 degrees) for about 6-7 hours and it probably could have gone at least another 2 or 3 more hours. I probably could have gone up to 350 as the vents were only about 1/4 open. It was very easy to control the temp and the Mini was quick to respond. I have both the silver and gold and while I started with the silver, I now only use the gold when using my minim wsm.
 

 

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