Did my first smoke, now I have some questions


 
Brett Grant

Brett Grant

TVWBB Fan
So I received my wsm on Wednesday. Its been sitting on my back porch until today. I decided to do some chicken on it, so the goal was to come home from work, assemble it, and smoke some chickens.

I had hoped to be smoking by 5, but I didn't get home until 4:15. I had it assembled by 4:45 and coals going by 4:50.

First question, the charcoal chamber seems a little small. By that I mean it is like an inch smaller in diameter than the charcoal grate. I thought that the size would match up a little better. Here is a poor picture of it.

I foiled the water pan and put the complete smoker together. It didn't take long to come up to temp when it was already 104 out.
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I noticed that the top of the door is "wavey". Here is a picture of that. Its hard to see, but if you look hard you can see the gaps between the corners, which are tight against the body, and the latch. Is this typical?

The chicken turned out well. Nice flavor, nice and moist. It just took a little longer than I thought it would - about 90 minutes.

My final question, I closed all of the vents, but 3 hours later, the smoker is still at 150 degrees. On my kettle, once I close the vents, the coals go out in about half an hour. I noticed that the vents have little tabs in them so that they don't quite close all of the way. I didn't notice that anyone has mentioned those at all in the forums or write ups. Did I just miss those?

Thanks,
Brett
 
brett, your questions are all legit, butt don't worry, you have no problems.
First of all, the chamber is the correct size for your smoker, no reason to be AS large as the coal grate itself.
And I believe the outside temp does little to advance/slow the internal temp of your WSM... no problem there either.
Now your access door looks pretty good to me, the "wavey"ness comes from the latch and the door made of aluminum.
Remember, the WSM is NOT air tight. Unless you see enormous amounts of smoke bellowing from the door opening, you're good.
and finally, the unit will smother your unused charcoal in time. See, the more you USE the WSM, the more gunk will build up inside, coating the small openings and crevices that now look like wide-open manholes.
Everything i've typed, does it make sense?
some folks wonder if my lost's been brained...
anyway, good luck with your future cooks and remember, beautiful photos of beautiful food are beautiful!
 
Hey Brett, congrats on the new toy. After a couple of cooks you smoker will have a much better seal, exactly as Jim mentioned in his post there is nothing wrong with your smoker, enjoy.
 
Congrats on the new toy. The door on your unit doesn't look any worse than mine,I just run my therm probe wires through the little gaps. If you're still comcerned you can try to flatten it a little but you already know how flimsy it is so be very careful or seal it with a little foil but the gap as Jim said isn't going to be and issue and if you want the bottom vents to close a little better you can always straighten out or remove a couple of the tabs on them.
 
Thanks guys. Mostly looking for confirmation. The only thing that was of real concern/surprise was the vents. I wish they were like those on the kettle that I could close all the way.

Tomorrow I'm going to do some beef ribs.

Thanks,
Brett
 
hey brett, like don said, break the tabs off the vents and they'll close "like those on the kettle"
 
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