high heat?

have always used minion method. temps rock solid at 225 for hours with vents wide open. Problem is when i want to do a higher heat cook i never could get temps up without cracking lid or door open.. So i was thinking instead of doing minion method i could do the oppisite. Put lit chimney on charcoal grate and put unlit on top. This should hopefully get me into the 350 range right? what do ya think

Corey, add a 2nd top vent opposite of the one that it already has. I hate cracking my lid open

Yea that will work. Thats basically the Standard Method.
http://www.virtualweberbullet....ireup1.html#standard

Tim

What Noe said....or crack the door, or remove the pan like he does. The wsm was designed as a smoker, not a grill.

Using the wsm conventionally (no water, even with LOTS of hot charcoal...even mesquite lump), if you can maintain 350* long enough to cook anything besides hot dogs, I bet it's new and/or leaking like a sieve. It takes a lot of AIR to keep a hot fire going.

Using the wsm conventionally (no water, even with LOTS of hot charcoal...even mesquite lump), if you can maintain 350* long enough to cook anything besides hot dogs, I bet it's new and/or leaking like a sieve. It takes a lot of AIR to keep a hot fire going.[/QUOTE

Hmm. not really, I know every ones WSM's acts a little differently, but I've had no problem holding those type of temps for 4-5 hrs. And that's using just regular RO lump with an empty foiled pan. Mines an 08 and it does have a good amount of BBQ "caulk" to seal the sections.
I always do my temps @ the top vent with a turkey fryer thermo.
Just sayin.

Tim

Originally posted by timothy:
Using the wsm conventionally (no water, even with LOTS of hot charcoal...even mesquite lump), if you can maintain 350* long enough to cook anything besides hot dogs, I bet it's new and/or leaking like a sieve. It takes a lot of AIR to keep a hot fire going.[/QUOTE

Hmm. not really, I know every ones WSM's acts a little differently, but I've had no problem holding those type of temps for 4-5 hrs. And that's using just regular RO lump with an empty foiled pan. Mines an 08 and it does have a good amount of BBQ "caulk" to seal the sections.
I always do my temps @ the top vent with a turkey fryer thermo.
Just sayin.

Tim

Click to expand...

Hmmmm. Well if everyone's wsm "acts differently", why do you think that is?

Unless I'm missing something here, other than fit of the components and level of seasoning, the only thing I can think of that would make the '09 and newer models cook slower is the deeper water pan....and I'm sure that makes a difference, but I'm not sure how much. All I know is that if I put the lid on my cooker and shut the door with any significant amount of meat in it, I've gotta use a BUNCH of hot lump to just maintain 300* for any length of time.

I have no idea why they run differently Dave.
Reading this forum for the last 3+ yrs seems even the older ones run hotter or cooler than the newer ones.
All I can add is that my fit is good enough to my eye and I can always shut it down to reuse coals for the next cook.
Seasoning? I don't use H2O, so I have no idea what the inside of a WSM looks like with that.
Now mine looks like a well seasoned CI skillet, I would definitely say its more of shiny surface compared to a dull one.
The deeper water bowl might have something to do with that, and I'm sure yo know the built in lid therm can read 50° lower than grate or lid vent temps.
That's really strange that you cant at least maintain that type of temps to cook a hot dog with a boatload of coals.
If I leave my vents wide open on a standard start I can hit temps of 400-425°
Weird.

Tim

Ditto.

Tim (and Mike), I suspect it's a combo of factors: amounts of meat cooked and starting meat IT, the old shallow pan vs. the new deep one, and who knows what else....other than the obvious different levels of ventilation and ambient weather conditions.

Even just generally speaking though, it seems there's a lot of variance in the way folks cookers get up to temp. For instance, Gary Wiviott ("Low and Slow") suggests starting a two butt wsm low-n-slow cook (w/ water in his SHALLOW pre-09 pan) with a WHOLE LIT chimney of LUMP, and before I started using the torch again, I'd start a big cook with a lit chimney full of Stubbs. Otherwise, it seems like it takes FOREVER for my cooker to get up to temp.

Anyway, back to the topic, since so many folks mention needing to crack the door to get high heat, and that mod is so popular, I guess my cooker isn't much slower than most. I hear that the big 22.5" maintains HH easier.

think the key is lots of lit charcoal porbably 2 chimneys worth and forgetting about the minion method

Sure Corey, if you want a short High heat cook, that makes sense. No disagreement there. The queastion is how do we KEEP those coals hot, and the fact is that some cookers CAN maintain 350*, but some CAN'T...unless you add draft by unseating the lid or cracking the door.

I've got a couple of kettles, and too many hang-on accessories, right?

Well, the thing I've noticed is that I although my "poor man's performer" side table sits very flush, using the Slide-Aside bracket as well in conjunction with the little hang-on tool hanger is a huge "no-no". I don't notice a gap or anything, and there's not much smoke leakage, but tell you what. There evidently IS a gap, an a lot added air to the fire.

I can keep a bed of coals STOKING HOT...MUCH hotter with the lid on than if I just have the table on the side. Take the table off, and I guarantee that temps will go down even a little more with the lid on. We're talking all kinds of temps, with the bottom vent settings exactly the same....but in any case, put the lid on, and the temps will plummet, relative to the degree of air still available. (If I'm gonna grill chicken and I only want med. heat, I prefer just using the side table, and like to remove even the Slide-Aside bracket.)