Chasing temps in the WSM


 

Lew

TVWBB All-Star
Cooking a brisket today so I set the WSM up for 275 the way I have countless times. An hour and a half later, I checked it and it was 241. Opened the left bottom vent a little, and 30 minutes later, it was still 241. Looked at my top vent and it was 3/4 closed (it was dark when I started)! Opened it all the way and adjusted the center and left bottom vents back where they were supposed to be. An hour later, it was 310! Played with the front vent and the top vent for another hour but kept chasing temps. Maybe it's the Hunsaker plate, I thought. Then, I looked at the right vent, and it was 100% open; it was supposed to be closed. Closed it and all was right with the world.

The vents on my old WSM spin freely and leak a little. Never bothered me, but today, just putting it together caused the top vent to partially close and the right vent to spin open. Admittedly I partied late into the night and got up early, so assembling the WSM may have been a little more jarring to the vents than normal, and I didn't double check the vents after the meat was on. Going to buy some new vents from Weber so this doesn't happen again. It's that or stop partying. Brisket turned out great btw.
 
Well, things happen. Sounds like it all worked out fine, an “Oops” moment comes along once in a while.
“Life gets tejus, don’t it?” One of my favorite Doc Watson tunes!
 
I'm from a Naval Aviation. The saying "If you hoot with the Owls you can't soar with the Eagles". :wsm: Maybe that applies to Q also. Glad the cook worked out.
 
I can't count the times that I made one small mistake during the setup and then compounded it with another series of mistakes while trying to undo the first. The WSM has few faults, but one of the glaring ones is it's sensitivity to incoming air. If you get it perfect, you'll be rewarded with a 12-hour cook with almost no temp shift. Miss by a fraction and you'll be chasing the thermometer for days. The only advice I can give is to make one small change and wait a good half hour to see what happens before making another change.

Jeff
 
I've cooked so many times on my WSM that I know my setups; I just got careless this time. I'm not buying the damper kit, I'm just replacing the grommets with ss bolts.
 
Sounds like the right step to me! A slight hiccup now and then (especially after a night of over indulgence) is nothing to worry about. Replacing the grommets is really more a maintenance procedure which has now become a necessity. I will have to do my own soon enough.
It will be fine.
 

 

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