BBQ Disasters


 
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lewjeff

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I was smoking as usual, when it was time to refill the water pan. To my anguish, as soon it was full, it slid off the pegs and emptied about half its contents into the firebox.

I immediately removed the meat, as steamy ash was going everywhere. I took apart the top, refueled with chips on the 'hot spots' and put the whole thing back together. At the same time my Polder when postal and the alarm kept going off despite the alarm switch not being turned on....what else could go wrong?!?!?!

For the next hour or so, some nasty looking smoke was coming out, with all of the vents wide open. I just couldn't get the temp over 195.

Since the ribs were already on for 3+ hours, I moved them to the WEBER gas grill for another 2+ hours along with some sausage that was in the WSM for 1/2 hour.

Thankfully, everything came out great!

I'm using the Brinkmann water pan.
This is what I learned today:
- When I initially put the WSM together after getting the fire going, I noticed two things:
a) The waterpan hangs down lower into the
firebox, so don't pile chunks too high.
I think during the initial placement of
the waterpan it must have been slightly
off-center.
b) I haven't measured, but I swear the
Brinkman waterpan is slightly smaller
in diameter making placement critical.

- My Polder only lasted about 10 WSM sessions.

So, anyone else have a horror story they want to share?
 
Lewjeff,

This is the first problem I have seen with my Brinkmann water pan modification. I wonder if you are using the correct larger water pan? Could the center section of your cooker be way out of round? The correct pan is a little wider than the standard pan by about 3/8 of an inch. If you have the correct Brinkmann water pan that is listed on this website and it falls out of your cooker, you can just forget using the standard Weber pan as it is smaller across the width. Using the correct replacement Brinkmann water pan, you should have room enough to place a 3" diameter log on top of a level firering of charcoal. Are you using tree stumps for smoke wood? Just kidding. There is ample room to place the wood chunks of your choice on top of a full firering of charcoal if the chunks are not too huge. In most cooking, if you start with a full pan of water, I don't think you will find that you need to add another full pan of water later in the cook. I usually add about 2-3 inches of water on this second filling as this is all I need to get me to the end of the cook. I don't feel it is very practicle to heat up another full load of water with only about 40% of my charcoal left in the cooker. In my cooking, I find that I have just a few hours left when I add water and 2-3 inches is enough to finish my cooks.

<several paragraphs snipped by the Moderator...>

I am really sorry that that you have had a problem with this modification as I know that many folks have not experienced any problems with this larger pan.

Dave

[This message has been edited by Chris Allingham (edited 08-06-2001).]
 
Hi,

In my capacity as the Moderator of the discussion here, I snipped a portion of Dave's post that I felt was inappropriate.

Let me point out that the Water Pan Modification topic lists the exact model number of Brinkman pan to use and lists its measurements. You can compare your pan against this info; my guess is that you've got the wrong Brinkman pan.

Concerning the headroom (or lack thereof) between the bottom of the pan and the fuel, it is reduced and that info is also listed in the topic referenced above. When I recently did a brisket and used the Brinkman pan with a full load of charcoal in the ring and a whole bunch of pecan chunks, I did notice that it was more difficult to place the chunks through the access door when the cooker was assembled. So this is something to take into account when using this pan and a full ring of fuel.

My horror story is not cooker related but was still quite stressful. I was supposed to cook 8 slabs of ribs at a friend's house for a retirement party. I needed to be there by 8:00am and start cooking by 9:30 to be ready for a 2:00pm lunch.

The night before, I went to prep the ribs and when I opened the Cryovac I encounter the most putrid, rotten smell! All of them were that way. Panic! I rinsed the ribs and patted them dry and they still smelled terrible.

I packed them up and figured I would still cook them. As I approached my friend's house the next morning, I got cold feet and fortunately found a grocery store open that had replacements. My friend never knew what happened, and I was able to get a refund from the store that sold me the putrid ribs. But what if I'd cooked those smelly ribs and served them? I don't want to think about it!
frown.gif


Regards,
Chris

[This message has been edited by Chris Allingham (edited 08-09-2001).]
 
Thanks for the editing Chris...I saw Dave's original reply and I wasn't quite sure how to respond ;-)

The intent of my original post was to start a thread for the newbies among us to show some of the potential pitfalls/problems that
people might experience.

Here's another one of mine....

My very first WSM session, I made the mistake of after I dumped the coals from the chimney into the ring, I took my sweet-time putting the water pan in....EMPTY!

When I filled the water pan a plume of steam smacked me square in the face!

Lesson: Fill the waterpan before assembling the unit.

Any other stories out there?
 
I was looking back through some old posts and saw your original message talking about how you steam-cleaned your face! As I mentioned back then, my approach is to put the water pan and lower cooking grate in place in the cooking section first, then place the cooking section into the charcoal bowl and fill the water pan immediately from a container I have standing by. No deep-pore steam facial.

Another gotcha is dumping the hot coals onto the charcoal grate without the charcoal chamber in place! It's a bummer trying to corral those hot coals into the ring.

Another one is to make sure you've got the access door latched firmly. I've heard from people who walked away from the cooker only to have the door fall off, and when they return the cooker is running 350*F!

Also, regardless of the water pan being used, make sure it's properly seated on the flanges. Even a Weber water pan has been known to fall off into the hot coals. (Remember the STUPID BOYS support group?)

Regards,
Chris
 
There's one in the STUPID BOYS support group?
thread that I've done......place the lid on the ground. Once again, it was my first WSM session and I learned quickly that grass sticks/burns on a hot lid!!!!
 
Lewjeff,
Look at my "Almost Had a Complete Disaster..." post of 6/11/01. It's located on page 3. I still get a little nervous when I think about the whole episode.

Peace. Out.

Alan
 
I had the WSM water pan fall while I was filling it, lucky for me it didn't tip, it landed flat on the coals. I was able to recover and continue my cook without too much trouble. The stupidist thing I ever did came while I had my ECB. With the ECB I was always trying to keep the temp up, so I had a 6 inch long, 2 inch wide metal poker that I used to stir up the coals. One time LATE in the cook, after many adult beverages, I was poking and stirring those coals trying to get a few more degrees in the smoker. I laid the poker in the grass and then promptly stepped on it, barefoot. I had about a 2 inch long brand on my heel. Talk about hurt, I had to keep ice on it for a hour, even with all the pre administred pain killer.

Doug W.
 
'Morning Doug and all:
Boy, you guys from Big T carry this branding thing a little too far sometimes and worse, now your wife will have little trouble identifying you so be careful!! In sympathy, sober and barefooted, however, I had just dumped the chimney contents into the WSM and turning to lift the center section while moving the hot chimney to another spot so no one would get burnt, I too forgot and placed my foot squarely on the concrete step where the chimney had been??.OOUUCCHH! Adult beverages never were more kind to me than they were that afternoon! Live and learn!
?.John
 
My disaster involved my Brinkmann (not ECB but its bigger brother the Gourmet). It was cooking away outside, and I was inside watching tv when I realized it was beginning to rain HARD. I ran outside, picked up the upper half of the smoker and carried it underneath the deck, out of the rain. Then I ran back to pick up the charcoal pan. They say you should keep the load close to your body when lifting, but when it's full of burning charcoal, that's not so easy to do. As a result, when I bent down to set the pan on the ground, I strained my back and almost didn't make it back inside the house. I hobbled around for about 2 weeks, and took a lot of kidding since I'm a safety consultant for an insurance company (i.e., I get paid to tell people not to do stupid things like this).
 
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