Frank Tutzauer
New member
Hi,
I've used my new 22" WSM twice now and am very pleased with its performance. One puzzling item, though, is that the day after a cook I find lots of moisture on the inside walls of the cooker, and yesterday there was at least a pint of water, more in fact, in the very bottom of the smoker. Is this normal? I had shut all the dampers to snuff the fire, and put on the protective cover when the smoker was cool to the touch. It did not rain overnight and it was not even very humid.
The only other water smokers I have used were made by Brinkman's. There were no vents, though these smokers had lots of air entry. I couldn't snuff the fire, so I would just let it burn out overnight. Next day, no moisture, no water. My hypothesis is that unlike the Brinkman's, the WSM is nearly air tight after shutting the dampers, so excess moisture from the humid environment created by the water pan has no way to escape the cooker, and thus condenses and runs down the sides, ending up in the bottom bowl. I can imagine this being worse during cool weather (like the last few nights). Still, I was pretty amazed to get a pint of water in the bottom of the smoker. (And, no, the water pan did not have a leak in it!)
Just wondering.
--frank
I've used my new 22" WSM twice now and am very pleased with its performance. One puzzling item, though, is that the day after a cook I find lots of moisture on the inside walls of the cooker, and yesterday there was at least a pint of water, more in fact, in the very bottom of the smoker. Is this normal? I had shut all the dampers to snuff the fire, and put on the protective cover when the smoker was cool to the touch. It did not rain overnight and it was not even very humid.
The only other water smokers I have used were made by Brinkman's. There were no vents, though these smokers had lots of air entry. I couldn't snuff the fire, so I would just let it burn out overnight. Next day, no moisture, no water. My hypothesis is that unlike the Brinkman's, the WSM is nearly air tight after shutting the dampers, so excess moisture from the humid environment created by the water pan has no way to escape the cooker, and thus condenses and runs down the sides, ending up in the bottom bowl. I can imagine this being worse during cool weather (like the last few nights). Still, I was pretty amazed to get a pint of water in the bottom of the smoker. (And, no, the water pan did not have a leak in it!)
Just wondering.
--frank
