Out of round / Measure your WSM!

I got lucky on my first WSM, which was years ago. I never had any issues with it that I didn’t cause myself.

When I got my 22” this year, I did not realize it was out of round. On my 18”, you have to push the lid down to get it to shut, due to the buildup on both the lid and middle section. Being used to that, I never though anything about have to do it on the 22”, even though it was clean.

Also, I added longer grill straps and the top grate wanted to fall. I thought it was because of the tabs on the grill straps not being as large. So I used a few washers in between the strap and the side of the middle section.

I have read on here several times about people having the out of round issue, but just never really thought about it. After someone on here had a bad out of round issue, I thought I should check mine. The bottom of the section wasn’t bad, 1/8” difference. The top, over ¾”! So with the bottom being close, I could not get the top bent back where I wanted it. Called Weber and as usual, they took care of me. That was about 6 weeks ago.

So I finally got around to redesigning my longer grill straps to better support the weight of the water/clay/grease pan so that I could install them on the clean middle section. Did my first cook this weekend with essentially an unseasoned cooker. The temps were extremely easy to control, but were not that bad to start off with. Also, you could pretty much just drop the lid onto the middle section and it slid right on and was sealed nicely. Loving it so far.

The biggest difference came in shutting it down. I cooked a few racks of spares on Saturday and pulled them off and took them next door to eat dinner. Normally I take the lid off my performer and shut the 22” down that way. However, I was in a hurry and just shut all of the vents. I came back a couple hours later to clean up to find the smoker at 100°. I thought, oh, well it ran out of coals. Nope, still had some leftover, they were just out. I could not believe it. The first time I used my 22” it was at 200 6 hours after I shut the vents. Again, I just thought it needed to season.

Sorry for the long post about not much, but you should really measure your middle section when you first get it. Try bending, bear hugging or whatever to get it back to round. It makes a big difference in these cookers. If you can’t, call Weber.

I'm sure everyone is in a hurry to start cooking on that new WSM, but you're right. Take a few extra minutes to check for out-of-round. Also, lay your cooking grates on a flat surface and see if they need to be tweaked (mine did)in order to sit flat on their supports. Those few minutes will pay dividends over the next 20-30 years of cooking.

My 18" was delivered over a year ago without the pre-drilled holes in the mid section. I called the distributor and they dropped off a new section the same afternoon. I was lucky to have a round unit but I never checked it to be sure until tonight. Pretty much perfect after 25+ smokes. Recently bought a Stoker and I have no air leak issues. Temps hold within 5F of setting. I did have early leakage from the temp gauge and door until they got gunked closed.