wsm charcoal ring fabrication


 
TEisenhauer

TEisenhauer

New member
Hello all,

I would like to make a smaller charcoal ring for my 22.5 wsm. I know several people have done this in the past. My question is does it make a difference if I use 1/2" or 3/4" expanded metal? Thanks.
 
Have a question regarding using a smaller ring for the 22.5 WSM. If doing two identical cooks, using the same meat (size, type, etc) at the same temperature, with identical weather conditions, how will the cook using smaller ring use less coals than the cook using the original ring ?
 
Wwell if I was doing identical cooks with identical conditions the number of coals wouldn't change but if I were only doing one rack of ribs compared to 4-5 pork butts then the number of coals would definitely be different. I was thinking that for smaller cooks I could use a smaller charcoal ring. In my head it makes sense but that ain't saying much.
 
Howdy. You're thinking does make sense.

Closing all vents and having all coals successfully extinguish in a short time is key, no matter what ring size.
The smaller ring very well could be useful when one cooks infrequently or lives in areas where weather conditions are not
conducive to storage of coals inside the WSM.
 
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Very true, I have only cooked on the 22.5 twice now, and both times I filled the ring with an entire 20lb bag of KB. Both times I just let the pit go to see how long a full ring would last. Both times gave me 15+ hours. Next time I will try and close it up tight at the end of the cook and see how much charcoal is left the next day. If it doesn't all burn down then I guess I have my answer.
 
I made a smaller ring for this exact same reason. The more I used my WSM, the faster my shut downs would get. Now, it goes from 225-250 to cool to the touch in 30 minutes or so upon shutting all the vents off. Now I just top off my original ring after a few shakes and the smaller ring collects dust. YMMV, but I'd suggest just using your WSM more and getting your base/mid/lid sections good and smoke dirty to seal that bad boy up.
 
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I very rarely use all the charcoal in my basket. I shut down the vents and within an hour I am able to cover the WSM. Next time I use it, I shake my fire basket out, rake the old towards the sides, top off with new, and light. The one time I did 15+ hours of cooking, I let it burn out to empty.
 
I close my smokers down as soon as I am finished. I use the used charcoal in my grills. I always like to use new charcoal for long cooks so my baseline doesn't change. I just shake out the charcoal ring (the ring is wired to my grate) and save anything that doesn't shake out. I waste very little and it doesn't adversely affect my grilling at all.

Just a thought...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
I think making a smaller basket makes sense. I too fill my ring (I have an 18) and reuse the charcoal. However, I do notice that the "old" charcoal, especially briquettes, has a tendency to lose it's ability to hold together and becomes soft/crumbly. I think If I had a 22 and mostly used it for shorter cooks, I would get a ring from a wsm 18 and use that in order to keep the old/reuse charcoal to a minimum. While it's true that you can, and I do, reuse the unburnt charcoal, I don't think it's as good as fresh and using a smaller ring would seem to be a good answer.
 
I don't understand why you can't just use less charcoal in the bigger ring. Either more shallow fill or maybe put a brick or two in the ring to divide it in two and use one half.
 
Just make one for the Halibut.
We all like to tinker, and what works for some might not work for others.:wsm:

Tim
 
I use smaller baskets in my 22" WSM's and Cajun Bandit in competitions. Size depends on what we're cooking.

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