Hi everyone!
I'm excited to be here. I just bought my first smoker: a 18.5 WSM. Ahead of this purchase, I've spent a lot of time on this site and on this forum. They have both been super-helpful.
I have a couple of quick questions about the unit having now put it together here in my living room (I'll have to wait a little bit to try it for real, snowy and rainy right now in the NE).
First of all, my lower grill grate seems to be out of round. I'm talking to customer service about this, and seems like they'll exchange either the grate or the grill straps. I need to do some measurements. So that's all good.
The other thing is that the middle unit is minimally out of round -- some 4 mm. I expect that to be within tolerance. But what really really annoys me is that the lid does not lay flat. Whether that is because of the middle section or the lid, I cannot say (my guess is a combination). I made a short video that demonstrates here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdU7XIEwHls]. It also tilts the other way (and the angle of the tilt remains more or less the same when I rotate the lid).
Is this normal? My OCD tendencies are kicking in hard-core about this... And obviously I can't speak to leakage yet since I haven't used the unit, and because my understanding is you need some time to build up some gunk anyway. But it seems not very air tight at all. Should I get the gasket kit?
I'm excited to be here. I just bought my first smoker: a 18.5 WSM. Ahead of this purchase, I've spent a lot of time on this site and on this forum. They have both been super-helpful.
I have a couple of quick questions about the unit having now put it together here in my living room (I'll have to wait a little bit to try it for real, snowy and rainy right now in the NE).
First of all, my lower grill grate seems to be out of round. I'm talking to customer service about this, and seems like they'll exchange either the grate or the grill straps. I need to do some measurements. So that's all good.
The other thing is that the middle unit is minimally out of round -- some 4 mm. I expect that to be within tolerance. But what really really annoys me is that the lid does not lay flat. Whether that is because of the middle section or the lid, I cannot say (my guess is a combination). I made a short video that demonstrates here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdU7XIEwHls]. It also tilts the other way (and the angle of the tilt remains more or less the same when I rotate the lid).
Is this normal? My OCD tendencies are kicking in hard-core about this... And obviously I can't speak to leakage yet since I haven't used the unit, and because my understanding is you need some time to build up some gunk anyway. But it seems not very air tight at all. Should I get the gasket kit?