Cooker Size and Cook Dynamics Any Difference

When I went from my 18.5 WSM to the 22.5 WSM my cook time increased at 225°. Definitely enough to notice. I only have 10 cooks on the big guy but it's something I noticed. It may have been that particular pork butt but I don't know. The guy who builds the Pit Barrel Cooker says he experimented with different size barrels before arriving at his preferred size. The scale of the cooker affected the cook dynamics. The discussion on Aaron Franklin and his big cookers vs our WSMs got me to think more about this.

I know that the bigger the WSM the more fuel and 225° in one cooker is the same 225° in another cooker. Those are givens. My question is - do the different size WSMs cook a little different at a given temperature?

I think so Lew. My 9 yr old 18.5" WSM took me about a year to learn on how it behaves, naturally with no mods. After that I can pretty much dial in any temp with the amount of lit vs unlit, regardless of outdoor temps.
The 22.5 WSM is still a work in progress. This is my third year and it doesn't get the love like it's smaller cousin for everyday or weekends cooks, ( I use it primarily for ribs or really big cooks) So it's still a learning process.
You would think that proportionally one full ring of unlit with the same amount of unlit would be the same on both to get to the same temp in the same time, but IME it does not.

Tim

I have a 14.5" and a 18.5" WSM. My 14.5 ( as well as the Mini I gifted my youngest son), works best by letting it come fully up to temperature before reducing the vents to hold temperature. On the other hand, the 18.5" requires me to start closing the vents at about 200 degrees (for a target temperature of 275 degrees). If I don't do that with the 18.5, the temps get way too high and are difficult to bring down.

Neither is a problem, just different. It's really just a matter of learning the "personality" of each smoker and working with it.

As a possible matter of interest, I use the "tin can Minion Method" in both. The 14.5" gets 8 briqs to start and the 18.5" gets 12.

Keep on smokin',
Dale53