Added additional Top Vent


 
Bob Hunter

Bob Hunter

TVWBB Pro
One of the things I prepare most often on my WSM is butterflied chicken. I probably cook 8 or so whole chicken a month. I have found that temps in the neighborhood of 350°f work best for me. After spending uncountable hours making sure my baby doesn't have any air leaks. I have found that I was having trouble getting my temps over 300°, even with the Stoker. What I have had to do is use a wedge to prop the lid open during these higher temp cooks.

So I decided to add another vent to the top of my baby. I called Weber last week and ordered three of replacement dampers as I needed to replace one of my bottom dampers. After replacing the one on the bottom I decided it was time to mod the lid. So here are some pics of my mod.. The dampers come with bolts instead of rivets to attach them, what I did instead was use an extra eyelet that I had from my Stoker installation. Now my temp probe fits in there perfectly.

Oh yeah, it was a bit painful to drill into my baby like this, but the end results I think will be worth it
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I just figured out how to add image links to my photo Gallery so I am going back to some older posts and adding them in.

 
Bob,

I would like to post a few of your photos of this mod on the Website, as well as a few photos of that sweet rolling cabinet you built for your WSM. Is that OK? Let me know.

Regards,
Chris
 
Bob,
Let us know what kind of temps you can reach with the afterburners wide open. Looks like a good job you did there.
 
Will do, I am going to be doing Meat loaf this weekend, and chickens the following. So I'll give an update then.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Looks like a good job you did there. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thanks, It is about a 1/4" off kilter from the other one. Other than that it didn't come out too bad.
 
Hey looks good!! You beat me to it, I've been thinking on doing that for a while since I have trouble maintaining higher temps in mine as well.

Do you have some pre-mod metrics to compare alongside your post mod ones?
 
I think I will be able to compare the mod performance vs. previous cooks by using my saved Stokerlog graphs. I don't know how effective this would be given I could not get to the high temps without propping the lid open with a wedge.

Even if it takes a bit longer to get into the 350° f range than it does with a wedged lid, it will be fine. My main goal with this is to not have to prop the lid anymore and still cook in the 350° - 400° range.
 
Nice work Bob! I plan to do something similar to my kettle lid. Want to add a few more vents for help in controlling temps there when using the the rotie with the cover on. Already have the extra vents.
 
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