WSM - Cold Weather


 
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Mike Rockwood

TVWBB Fan
Seeing as how I live in Massachusetts, I'm curious about exeriences with overnighters in cold weather. I understand fully about the wind robbing heat from the WSM, and I will be able to prevent that. But the cold itself is a different issue. I'm reading where hot-water tank insulation, fiberglass or foil covered plastic bubbles, can be wrapped around the WSM. Has anyone ever done this? Are there isues of meltage that need to be understood? Would hate to wake up in the morning to a "shrink-wrapped" WSM. ~grin
 
Hi Mike!

You need not fear the cold! As you mentioned, the wind is what will hurt you.

I used to smoke on an el cheapo electric unit and I used hot water insulation to keep my temps up. I never had an issue of melting insulation as the temps were never above 230?. If you fear melting, you can reverse the insulation and have the paper side against the cooker.

Once I made the switch to the WSM, I have never needed any insulation. This includes cooking in a blizzard where I lost my Polder probes because of the ice build-up(They dried out and worked the next weekend!!).

I live in Ft. Wayne, IN now but have also lived in Northern Michigan where I cooked in plenty of cold weather....never needed anything other than a wind break.
 
Thanks! With or without the WSM arriving in time(I ordered one this past week)I'm hoping to smoke up a number of butts this coming weekend and there's more snow in the forecast. Sounds like I should be ok.
 
Mike...

A couple of things I did learn from cold weather smoking........

If using the Minion Method to fire up, you better use LOTS more lit briqs than the dozen that is called for. You will also want to use more when you have a large load in the cooker. Not unusual to use a whole chimney full. My chimney is a small cheap one, NOT the large Weber type.

Heat your water up first. I will actually boil it...great time to check your thermo's as well.

Finally, depending how cold it is(usually under 20?), I will let the WSM come up to 200? before adding any meat. Normally, I add my meat immediately upon adding the lit briqs.

These are the only things I do different in cold weather.
 
Wow, I guess I don't have to worry about the temps getting down to a finger numbing 55 degrees here in California. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif I was considering not doing a brisket this weekend because of the cold...

- Dave -
 
Dave - "finger numbing 55 degrees" Cold????
Hmmm.... I bet you turn up the thermostat when it's 70* as well. ~grin~

Stogie - thanks for that. I also like to pre-heat my water before it goes in the cooker. Makes sense to me that if it's going to be heated anyways, might as well pre-heat/boil it first.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kevin Taylor:
[qb]My chimney is a small cheap one, NOT the large Weber type.[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Kevin, now might be a good time to upgrade to the Weber chimney - Amazon has them for $10.99, $10.00 off their regular price. /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
 
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