22.5 Lid fit


 
D

Dustin_P

New member
Hello everyone. I am the proud new owner of a WSM 22.5! Which I received as a Fathers Day present from my wife and five kids! She did all the research, I had never even heard of the WSM until it showed up! I have to say this is the best Fathers Day present ever. She obviously knew what she was ordering! I'm a total noob when it comes to smoking and I have made some of the best ribs and chicken! Thank you Weber!

The only problem... The lid fit was really tight due to both the lid and mid section being 1/4" out of round, 90 degrees offset. (I may have inadvertently gave her a bear hug when I first saw her! :eek:) In all seriousness I was able to make both the mid section and the lid nearly concentric allowing for easy removal. Now the problem is the lid rocks back and forth 3/16 of an inch. It seems either the lid or mid section are not flat. If I had a large surface plate I could tell which was the culprit but without one I don't know who's to blame.

This allows a fare amount of smoke to leak out. I would say equal amounts exit the top vent as the leaky lid.

A). Is this normal?
B). Is this something I should try to fix?

Thanks!
Dustin
 
Awwww don't worry about it. It's a big waste of cooking energy. :) There is a lot of leaking going on in any WSM. As long as you don't have a problem maintaining temperatures, don't give it a second thought.
 
Welcome to the Forum Dustin. You're gonna love that 22.5

Can you take the lid and lay it down on a garage floor or something, then take the body off and flip it over and do the same?

That should tell you which part is off. If you cant figure out how to straighten it, it may be a warranty thing. Weber's customer service is great.

But like VRocco said, as long as you can maintain temps, it doesn't matter. If its not bad, it will probably gunk up and seal better anyway
 
Thanks for the replies guys! My last two cooks I had a hard time keeping the temp below 285. The only way I could keep it in check was to close all bottom three vents and shut the top one 50%. This would get me close to 255... After opening the lid 2 hours in, the temp skyrocketed above 300 for almost half an hour!

Should it be expected to extinguish the coals by closing all the vents? When I was done with my first cook almost half of the coals were left un-burnt and I tried shutting all the vents. By the next morning the cooker was still 150 and almost everything was burnt up...

I don't have any plans to run an ATC so I think the gaskets would be overkill. I would just like to get the traditional WSM steady temps.
 
You will get better temperature control once you have some gunk built up on it. This helps it seal better and thus helps you regulate temps easier and shut it down when you are done to save charcoal.

I don't have a 22.5, but saw one yesterday new in the store and I can see why the Cajun bandit door is a big help. The door on the 22.5 didn't look like it fit well at all as compared to an 18.5. If I had the 22.5 I would definitely get the CB door.

? Are you using water in the pan, a heat sink, or a dry pan. These will make the difference in temp control as well.
 
Rick Body said:
You will get better temperature control once you have some gunk built up on it. This helps it seal better and thus helps you regulate temps easier and shut it down when you are done to save charcoal.

I don't have a 22.5, but saw one yesterday new in the store and I can see why the Cajun bandit door is a big help. The door on the 22.5 didn't look like it fit well at all as compared to an 18.5. If I had the 22.5 I would definitely get the CB door.

? Are you using water in the pan, a heat sink, or a dry pan. These will make the difference in temp control as well.
Click to expand...

I spent a fare amount of time re-forming the front door. In fact I never saw any smoke coming from the door. I had so much smoke coming out of the lid that the whole half was completely brown with smoke residue.

I used the water pan both times filled 3/4 full of room temp water. I used the minion method starting 15 briquettes the first time and only 10 the second. Both cooks the ambient air temp was high 90's almost 100...
 
Hi Dustin,
Welcome to the World of Weber...
I had a similar situation when my wife got me an 18.5" WSM for my b-day last November. The lid was out of round. Even though it was purchased in November 2013, I emailed Weber a couple weeks ago asking for suggestions on how to make the lid 'round' again since it was leaking too much. They asked for my address and are shipping me a free replacement lid. The downside is that it will take 3 weeks to get here, should show up next week since it has been almost 2 weeks already.

What I did to tell which part was 'out of round', using the bottom section, I placed my lid on it. The bottom section was round and didn't have any issues. Looking at the lid sitting on the bottom, I could see where the 'flat' part was. I did the same with the middle section, I turned it upside down and just sat it on the bottom, it was round. Using this method, it may help you determine which is 'out of round'. Once you find out which needs to be fixed, send an email to Weber about it.

Dave
 
Since it is new, I'd take a picture of all of the smoke coming out and then contact Weber after you figure out what piece is not flat. Their customer service is usually very good and should send you a replacement lid or center section once you figure out which one is the problem. They will ask for pics so if you take one with the smoke billowing out and maybe take a pic showing the gap on a flat surface, then that should provide your justification.

Kg
 
I think I was lucky when I contacted Weber, they didn't ask for a picture of the smoke nor even to verify the serial number. In my email, I told them that I could provide the serial number but was currently at work. Within a couple hours, I had the response saying they were shipping a replacement lid.

As Kg suggested, after figuring out which is the culprit, get some pictures in case they ask for them.

Dave
 
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