Dumb Question of the Day: Ever leave out the charcoal ring on long cooks?


 
JeffB

JeffB

TVWBB Pro
The thought being that if you leave out the charcoal ring entirely, then you have that much more room for extra fuel to ensure you don't run out?

I have only had to add extra fuel mid cook a time or two, but it's a real PITA to add more lit fuel to a 22" WSM after 15 hours of cooking. It just struck me that if you left out the ring, you could really load the bottom of that sucker full of fuel.

Downside? I suppose the sides of WSM would get damn hot and maybe it is not the safest approach. :george:

I dunno. Just curious...

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. I'm hoping to smoke a brisket for my girls on Sunday.

Smoke on!! :wsm:
 
I usually add unlit coals. I'm guessing that leaving the ring out might affect air circulation. That's probably why it has holes in it.
 
The ring helps to keep the coals together and away from the vents, so ash doesn't build up and block air intake.
 
It also keeps the fuel centered under the water pan or diffuser. Without it, you'd probably have more heat coming up around the sides and it may be harder to control temps.
 
Fortunately the couple of times I've left out the ring I noticed before dumping in the lit coals.But I don't think it would have been a big problem if I had not, and it certainly wouldn't have been worth trying to fit the ring in place around a burning fire. ;)
 
I would have to agree with the others to where I could see leaving the ring out would probably mess with the airflow, but that much charcoal and you could probably get 20+ hours out of it
 
No, never left it out, but I think part of the purpose of the ring is to keep your fuel tight/ condensed forcing a slower burn, if the ring wasn't there the coals would spread out allowing more surface exposure to air causing your fuel to burn faster and hotter, sounds good to me anyway but then again I drink ... :D
 
If you want to add more charcoal you could always fabricate a ring out of expanded metal. Make this circumference the same but just make it taller. That way you keep your charcoal tight and centered under the water pan.
 
JeffB said:
The thought being that if you leave out the charcoal ring entirely, then you have that much more room for extra fuel to ensure you don't run out?

I have only had to add extra fuel mid cook a time or two, but it's a real PITA to add more lit fuel to a 22" WSM after 15 hours of cooking. It just struck me that if you left out the ring, you could really load the bottom of that sucker full of fuel.

Downside? I suppose the sides of WSM would get damn hot and maybe it is not the safest approach. :george:

I dunno. Just curious...

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. I'm hoping to smoke a brisket for my girls on Sunday.

Smoke on!! :wsm:
Click to expand...

JeffB

On my 22.5 I can fit 20 lbs of Kingsford briquettes in the charcoal ring. They're a little coned and stacked up, but I can fit them all. I did some huge briskets one cook, ea came in at 17 plus pounds. It took me 30 hours to bring them up to 200, without foil and I still had a little fuel left. I did not have to refuel once, cooked them at 225F, no water in the pan and used a Digi DXII blower system. I never want to cook that long again, so I can't imagine taking the charcoal ring out to add more coals.

Note: The briskets turned out great, moist, tastey and tender.

CraigW
 
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