Ron Van Iwaarden
New member
New Heatermeter user here and I am attaching my HM to an 18” WSM. I have browsed all the posts on attaching to a WSM and found them all lacking to me in some way.
I know I am almost certainly overthinking things here but I built what is a bit of a combination of the airburner along with the universal weber attachment and thought I would pass on the parts list along with some limited directions in case it proves useful to someone.
Parts:
Now, I used all copper for this because I have lots left over from various home improvement projects but you can probably get by with metal conduit or other types of pipe.
Cut three pieces of pipe 8 1/4” long, two pieces 3 1/2” long, and two pieces 1 3/4” long. At this point, it is a good idea to dry fit everything, placing it in the grill, ensuring that the pipe inlet matches up with the top of one of the vents.
If the dry fit shows everything is in good alignment, it is time to start assembling. There are plenty of youtube videos on how to sweat copper pipes together so I won’t address that here. You may be able to get by with just dry fitting the entire assembly but I like the additional stiffness that sweating the pipes gives me. First assembly is the three longer pieces of pipe with the two 90 degree connectors. Ensure that things are flat when you are putting these pieces together.
Next, drill a 1/8” hole in the middle of the outside bend of one of the remaining 90 degree elbows and then router out the hole a bit so that the toggle bolt will pass through the hole and out the middle of one of the ends. Now assemble all the remaining pieces, fluxing the joints and then setting it in place in the bottom of your WSM with the toggle bolt holding the final elbow through the top hole of one of the bottom vents. Now sweat all the remaining joints together without removing the parts.
Once things have cooled, remove the airburner assembly from the WSM and drill 15 3/16” holes on the inside of the assembly. I chose the inside because I don’t want ash to fall and plug the holes and I am really just trying to distribute the air evenly. I also drilled 15 holes because 16 gives exactly the same cross sectional area as a 3/4” pipe. 15 holes should then give a slight amount of back pressure so that air will come out of all of them roughly evenly (at least that is my theory).
Cut about 3/16” off of the ends of the toggle bolt using your favorite tool (a dremel worked very well for me). This will let the toggle bolt set a bit more solidly on the shoulders of the 1” to 3/4” reducer to tighten the internal to external parts. This is the one part of the build with which I am least satisfied. It seems to hold alright but I would like something a bit more solid and less restrictive to hold the pipes together. If anyone has any better solutions, I would appreciate hearing them!
Here are a couple of pictures of the completed build
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zuqiit1b2cs05lj/2016-06-09 18.02.28.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qeks19y6l46n313/2016-06-09 18.03.57.jpg?dl=0
Now it is completely up to you how you connect that external 1” reducer to your blower. For me, I added a short piece of 1” pipe, a 90 degree elbow and then another short piece of pipe with a 1” coupler on the end which fits my offset rotary damper nice and smooth.
And here is a pic of the blower attached.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x7fpjk3tatujcw5/2016-06-09 18.17.41.jpg?dl=0
You will also need to block the remaining two holes in the vent. I just grabbed a couple of fender washers and some 1/4” bolts to close things up.
Using the stock PID settings of 4, 0.02, 5 and a max fan of 50%, this maintained 225 fairly well once it either made it to temp or got back from overshoot.
- There is the standard dog/cat dish connection but my concern is that the vent is above the coals and only on one side so you don’t get a nice distribution of air to all the coals.
- There is the universal weber attachment from bbq guru but $20 seemed a bit much for what it is and it still does not distribute the air evenly.
- Finally, there is the ‘airburner’ which distributes the air very nicely but every one I have seen requires that I drill a hole in the WSM.
I know I am almost certainly overthinking things here but I built what is a bit of a combination of the airburner along with the universal weber attachment and thought I would pass on the parts list along with some limited directions in case it proves useful to someone.
Parts:
- 1 1/8x3” toggle bolt
- ~3 feet of 3/4” copper pipe
- 5 3/4”x3/4” 90 degree elbows
- 1 3/4”x3/4” 45 degree elbow
- 1 3/4"x3/4"x3/4" tee
- 1 1”x3/4” reducer
- Lead free solder
Now, I used all copper for this because I have lots left over from various home improvement projects but you can probably get by with metal conduit or other types of pipe.
Cut three pieces of pipe 8 1/4” long, two pieces 3 1/2” long, and two pieces 1 3/4” long. At this point, it is a good idea to dry fit everything, placing it in the grill, ensuring that the pipe inlet matches up with the top of one of the vents.
If the dry fit shows everything is in good alignment, it is time to start assembling. There are plenty of youtube videos on how to sweat copper pipes together so I won’t address that here. You may be able to get by with just dry fitting the entire assembly but I like the additional stiffness that sweating the pipes gives me. First assembly is the three longer pieces of pipe with the two 90 degree connectors. Ensure that things are flat when you are putting these pieces together.
Next, drill a 1/8” hole in the middle of the outside bend of one of the remaining 90 degree elbows and then router out the hole a bit so that the toggle bolt will pass through the hole and out the middle of one of the ends. Now assemble all the remaining pieces, fluxing the joints and then setting it in place in the bottom of your WSM with the toggle bolt holding the final elbow through the top hole of one of the bottom vents. Now sweat all the remaining joints together without removing the parts.
Once things have cooled, remove the airburner assembly from the WSM and drill 15 3/16” holes on the inside of the assembly. I chose the inside because I don’t want ash to fall and plug the holes and I am really just trying to distribute the air evenly. I also drilled 15 holes because 16 gives exactly the same cross sectional area as a 3/4” pipe. 15 holes should then give a slight amount of back pressure so that air will come out of all of them roughly evenly (at least that is my theory).
Cut about 3/16” off of the ends of the toggle bolt using your favorite tool (a dremel worked very well for me). This will let the toggle bolt set a bit more solidly on the shoulders of the 1” to 3/4” reducer to tighten the internal to external parts. This is the one part of the build with which I am least satisfied. It seems to hold alright but I would like something a bit more solid and less restrictive to hold the pipes together. If anyone has any better solutions, I would appreciate hearing them!
Here are a couple of pictures of the completed build
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zuqiit1b2cs05lj/2016-06-09 18.02.28.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qeks19y6l46n313/2016-06-09 18.03.57.jpg?dl=0
Now it is completely up to you how you connect that external 1” reducer to your blower. For me, I added a short piece of 1” pipe, a 90 degree elbow and then another short piece of pipe with a 1” coupler on the end which fits my offset rotary damper nice and smooth.
And here is a pic of the blower attached.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x7fpjk3tatujcw5/2016-06-09 18.17.41.jpg?dl=0
You will also need to block the remaining two holes in the vent. I just grabbed a couple of fender washers and some 1/4” bolts to close things up.
Using the stock PID settings of 4, 0.02, 5 and a max fan of 50%, this maintained 225 fairly well once it either made it to temp or got back from overshoot.
Last edited:
and it's far enough away from the heat as well.