Recent content by Steve Kirks

Hey everyone- I’ve had to put it up for sale on Facebook marketplace. I finally replaced my WSM and there’s not enough room for both. If you’re in Southwest Missouri, find it on Marketplace and pick it up

ETA: found Chris’ assembly instructions on the main site and I’ll review them first including how to fix minor issues. —- Hey there VWB family! I joined up years ago when I got my first 18” WSM and sold it last year when it was fully worn out. I ended up getting a cheap Platypus kettle to...

I truly believe this is the best version of a 22.5” kettle to have. I’m not sure if the current Performer layout would be better than this.

I have a pile of redwood siding from our house that I might use for replacement tables. There are some spots that are iffy: rust around a bowl mounting point, spot rust on some of the shelf rungs on the bottom.

Here’s a shot from the first cook at about 3pm local time. I had about 8 hours of 250-300F cook time on about 75 briquettes. For low volume smoking sessions, this is just as good as my WSM but much easier for me to deal with during the cook. I do 2-4 pounds of chicken, pork and turkey every...

I snagged a 2010 (AD vent code) Platypus from FB yesterday in decent to nice condition. I cleaned it up enough to cook with it and it’s heating up now. This is the first kettle I’ve used in years. I bought a WSM back in 2006 and used gas after that. I’m curious to see how it performs. Next to it...

I just picked up one of these for $50 too! I hadn’t heard of them before but couldn’t resist. Vortex unit?!

Hey everyone - checking back in here to update the thread. I bought replacement parts to get me by for the next few months. I’ll do a full take apart/fix-em-up over the winter. Thanks again for everyone’s help.

Thanks for the link here. I'll snag one of those. I still like the water option for now... I'm pretty sure I can can clean up the knob assembly and get it working OK. I mean, it's fine now, but it needs help to stay latched tight. All three of the rivets are pretty rusty. One had to get...

I haven't run this cooker in awhile, but the lower grate has always run about 25F lower than my probe at the vent on the lid. YMMV

Using the lower cooking grate was something I've done out of habit, distributing food around as needed. When I use it, I tend to try to fill it but maybe I should experiment with smaller fires and smaller batches of food

Thanks for the notes here. I have some salvaged redwood from our house siding replacements over the years. I can use that for the handle and maybe a cook table. The rest makes a lot of sense and easy to replace a little at a time.

Hello everyone! I've sadly been a non-contributing reader since 2006, relying on the site to help me get the most out of the WSM while impressing friends and family for years. I bought my 18.5" WSM in July of 2006 and used it often until about 2011 when I got my first gas grill, a deeply...

Anyone been able to tell if the new Q300 burner setup can go in an older Q220? You'd obviously have to do some case mods to allow the second burner to pass, but I figure it might be worth it.