high altitude on a 18" wsm


 
S

Scott Kephart

TVWBB Member
How much does altitude effect the cooker? I live at 7500' and i did my first cook 2 days ago and i just kicked the legs and the temp stayed up. It dropped from 225 to 205 3 hrs into the cook. I kicked the legs and it jumped to 235. It that common that early on in the cook? So i just kept bumping the legs and everything was fine. I used the minion method full charcoal ring with 50 lighted briquets, because it was 27 degrees in the morning and 30's in the afternoon.
 
See this thread.

Altitude does affect WSM performance, but it's easily overcome, stop using water is the first thing I'd suggest you try.
 
Im just above 6200. I cant say for sure but i think when im camping im at 7500ish. Anyway it appears from that link that I guess it depends... I've used water before... no probs. I've nowadays just used a foiled pan nothing at all in it (for certain things I use water). of course I use less lit etc. now also. I control temp. these days w/ just one vent. Maybe halfway through the cook i'll close that vent and use a different one, etc. But you pry don't have too. The water worked fine to though to be honest, (for a bit more stable temps), i just had vents open more. I use to fiddle w/ mine a lot more then I do now when I first got it. I bet you'll get used to it as time passes, you MAY (i could be wrong) just could still be getting used to it, like I was. I don't even hit the legs anymore unless im using "Best of the West" lump cause it has a bit more ash, although not much. And I don't even always do that. I've tapped the legs about once in 6 or so months.

*what I should have said to be shorter is I just didn't want you to get frustrated w/ temp. spikes like I used to, but if thats not a problem then yes, use no water at all is great advice per shawn, like always.
 
Originally posted by Scott Kephart:
How much does altitude effect the cooker? I live at 7500' and i did my first cook 2 days ago and i just kicked the legs and the temp stayed up. It dropped from 225 to 205 3 hrs into the cook. I kicked the legs and it jumped to 235. It that common that early on in the cook? So i just kept bumping the legs and everything was fine. I used the minion method full charcoal ring with 50 lighted briquets, because it was 27 degrees in the morning and 30's in the afternoon.
Click to expand...
Were you using briquetes or lump? My guess would be briqs. Briqs have a tendancy to hold on to the ash, while the ash from lump tends to fall away. This has been my experience over the years. YMMV.
 
I am using kingsford charcoal. Does the lump work well in the wsm? I use royal oak in my performer and it works well, but it burns out really fast. Does it burn slower in the wsm? and do you use the minion method as well?
 
yeah, lumps work well standard method or minion method ... because of the odd assortment of sizes in many lump bags it's worth the effort to take a couple extra minutes and try to pack what you use well in the ring (the idea being to avoid large gaps between pieces in the ring)

with many lumps you get longer burn time from a ring and much less ash ... naked whiz is still a good resource for comparing brands I think ... look for one without construction scraps and so

even with packing, because of different size pieces the temps may move around a bit more on you than with briquettes but that in itself really doesn't matter

I agree with Bryan's assessment, ash clogging explains tap-and-temp-raise.

You will likely want to run hotter than 225ºF at some point. Removing/reducing the heat sink should allow this for you. Since you can run hotter by removing the heat sink, this also means you won't need to run as big a fire to hit the same temp as with water so in the end you would save fuel as well.
 
I used the WSM at 6200 ft. for a number of summers. Water pan should be covered in foil, but no water. Charcoal briquets with lump coal added in. All air vents wide open to keep the fire heated up just >250 degrees if possible. Lack of air is generally the source of problems at higher elevation, and a 4-5 hour 'smoke' works the most consistent.
 
6500 feet and the same problem. All bottom vents open, 205, open door - up to 250, go to bed and wake up - down to 180. Bought a Guru, 16 hours using lump at 225, first a brisket, then on with some ribs, pefect!
 
It works great for me. I had trouble keeping temps up. They would look stable and I would lay down for a bit and the temp would slip to well below 200. With the DigiQII, I just set it, wait till it comes up to temp, and head off for a good night sleep. I wake up in the morning, it is till chugging along at 225! The last brisket was awesome (OK, I'm from Texas, a good brisket is a must).

My last pulled pork was a big hit with the in-laws also. After about the first hour of the cook, the electricity went out in our town, so I had to take off the silver bullet jacket (it was very cold outide), open all the vents and the door for a little while just to get the temp up over 200. About 2 hours later the electricity came back on and I jumped up and the temp was down to about 185. I hooked up the DigiQII and off she went, bringing me to pork nirvana!

I whole heartily recommend either the DigiQII or Stoker. The Q is great and I get a good night sleep!
 
Guru and stoker owners often don't use water because they have elctronic temp control (ETC).

You could use water in the pan and use your ETC to overcome the water heatsink, but what is the point of that? It's spending money on an ETC and charcoal in order to boil water.

It is also the reason why waterless Guru and Stoker users report their fuel lasts longer, not because controlling air on the coals somehow extends their burn time. Once the ring is loaded the same amount of fuel energy is present whether or not ETC is used.

Heck, I may yet buy a stoker just because they are cool, but I solved my low temps simply by ditching water.

Stoker can be found here, basic systems start at $200.

Guru can be found here, the link is to their low end product, the pit minder starting at $166, they have more expensive models with more bells and whistles
 
Scott,

I have the Stoker and run StokerLog with it. It ran about $300 and with the help of people on this forum, over on the Automatic Temperature Control Systems threads, anyone can hook them up. StokerLog software is free. I run mine wireless on my laptop. And no, it doesn’t take the fun out of it. Too me, its more fun as I watch the graph and know exactly what is happening. On an overnighter in the wind and rain, I watch it on my computer and if any adjustments are needed, I do it from my easy chair and laptop. No need to peek or tweak. I run mine with a clay saucer filled with sand in the dry water bowl and maintain +/- 2 degrees of target temp for 14 hours. If you have the 22 WSM, get the 10 cfm fan rather than the 5cfm
 
I tried the waterless cook last weekend and it got out of control. It went good for 5 hours and i left it for an hour and i came back and it was up to 325 degrees and i closed all the vents and the temp never came down. Would the water have that great of an effect on this? I think i did better with the pan full of water than the dry bowl.
 
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