Does your WSM have a favorite temperature zone?


 
Tye R.

Tye R.

TVWBB Fan
Doing a pork shoulder today and as I sit waiting I’ve had a bit of time to ponder. Curious if anyone else has noticed their WSM having a temp zone it does better at?

My WSM 18 can hold a 270-280 degree temp for hours and hours. If I’m cooking around 225 it’s a lot more work - having to adjust vents and making sure air movement is just right a lot more frequently than the higher temps. I suspect it’s because at the lower temps vents are close to shut and air movement is much more restricted and varied. This happens in the heat of summer, and on a 32 degree day like today. Regardless of outside temperature the 270 zone just holds steady while the 225 is more fickle. Anyone else experience something similar?
 
I’ve had my 18 for a number of years and it seems to like 250, though getting to run lower or higher is not a problem. I always shot for 225 because every source said that was the magic number to cook butts.
I bought a 22 several months ago and have only used it a couple of times. I may have been using too much charcoal or too many briquettes in the minion method because it liked 300 to 325. That’s probably the best thing that happened to me while smoking butts. The butts turned out perfectly in half the time.
 
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My WSM 14 has been between 248 and 251 without touching it for the last 3 hours. Smoked Carnitas here we come!
I can get it into the 235 to 245 range with a little more work (and it will stay there), but it really liked to cruise at 250.
 
my 14 likes to cook around 275 with a dry pan and 225 with water in the pan - very little fiddling.

if I run the vents wide open it settles in around 275 with a pan of water... but I don't really just leave all vents open unless I am cooking without a pan - like hot and fast chicken - and then I don't bother with probes
 
250-275 with pretty much hands off operation , vents wide open - empty foiled water pan. Any gaps that existed between sections have self sealed over the years, when the unit was new I had to back off the vents about 50% to maintain temp ....even if I build a hot fire the temp comes back down to that range on it's own after an hour or so
 
My WSM 22 is weird, I have to fiddle with vents for the first 3 hours to maintain temps, but after the 3 hour mark, the temp hardly moves, usually likes to settle around 270-280 and wont move from there. This is with an empty foil wrapped water pan.
 
I was in Harry Soo's class last month and he runs his 18s with one lower vent wide open and the top vent wide open and said it should run 250-275 that way. He uses Jealous Devil brickettes. He has aftermarket heavy gauge stainless doors on all his WSMs. Cajun Bandit, I believe. The Weber door is thin and may not seal as well, if it gets tweeked. That might be the problem for some folks.

Although I don't have a WSM, I've seen my komados drop temperature when I put a large amount of cold meat on. Eventually, the temperature will come up. But if controlling manually, I expect the drop and just let it run. An electronic draft controller takes all the fiddling out of it, of course.
 
Very interesting thread.... I generally run my WSM between 225 and 250, but have struggled at times to run hotter. I've been reading Chris's notes on operating the WSM and I'll probably build my fire a lot differently and figure out to "Open Up" the lid a bit next time I want to cook at higher temps.
 
John K BBQ said:
Very interesting thread.... I generally run my WSM between 225 and 250, but have struggled at times to run hotter. I've been reading Chris's notes on operating the WSM and I'll probably build my fire a lot differently and figure out to "Open Up" the lid a bit next time I want to cook at higher temps.
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What size WSM are you cooking with?
 
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