Another Smoker Runs Too Hot Thread.....


 

A Vuolo

New member
I've had a WSM 22.5 for few years now and it really likes to run hot. Seems to be getting worse instead of better too, which strikes me as kind of odd. Body fit is pretty good (never any visible smoke leaking), door fit is so so. Outside conditions don't seem to make any differnce here.

Always bring it up slow, 1 to 1.5 hours, lump charcoal and always have water in the pan at the start. I use a propane torch to light just a couple coals to start. It'll run 225 to 240 for a couple hours and then start climbing even with all the bottoms vents shut completely down.

It really starts to run wild if I have to open it up mid cook to throw on some additional food, pull off a brisket to wrap, etc. At that point the temp will shoot up to 300ish and stay there till the fuel starts to burn out at which point the temp dives quickly.

I've learned to deal and adjust cook times and whatnot but I'd really like to have more control of my cooker. Just looking for some suggestions from the much more experienced community here. Thanks.

- Anthony
 
“With all the bottom vents shut” Maybe check it out some night with a flashlite in it. Getting air from somewhere——
 
One red flag i see is "lump charcoal". I myself only use lump in the winter because it burns hotter. Try it with plain old Kingsford and see what happens.
 
I'd look for daylight like Tom said. I think my middle section is slightly out of round and mine will run hot too if I'm not careful. I try to take the lid off as little as possible and after I open I might tweak the top vent to 75% open to get it to settle down. After it settles down I'll put it back to 100%.
 
I've never had much success getting lump charcoal to stay in the 225-250 range in my WSM. I've always had better luck with briqs. I've also found that "less is more" helps, too. Meaning, experiment with less fuel in your cooker than you have been using. I was filling up my charcoal ring completely full then fighting temps all the way through. When I started using a lot less it was much easier to maintain the 225-250 range.
 

 

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