ChuckD
TVWBB Fan
Cooked 2 4Lb Pork Shoulders and 2 Full Baby Back ribs Racks
So today i cooked on my 18.5 for the first time. First time ive ever used a smoker..Other than the Downpour about 1.5 hours into it, it went very good. Ive been on the forum here for awhile gathering all kinds of info and picking up some Mods for 18.5 along the way. I added the Arbor FAb Charcoal Grate and minion basket, Unknown BBq hinge mod, The FireDial™ Heat Diffuser Plate and i picked up the Thermoworks Smoke Remote Thermometer. I also already Had the Meater Bluetooth Temp Probe , which i used also.
One mod i could do without is the hinge Mod. Doesn't work all that great (at least for me) Its a pain to get it to sit in its locked upright position.. I even had the middle section come loose and fall to the side when trying to close the lid.. Plus its awkward trying to lift the lid with the handle on the top,, Ill make it work by adding more handles or just not use it at all.
The Arborfab Basket works awesome.. Its does what they say it does and works beautiful. I used a little over a half a bag of charcoal and i still have a nice amount left in the smoker
Onto the Firedial and Thermoworks Smoke Thermometer. While i never have used the water bowl method, Everything seemed to dial in just perfectly. I was making very small adjustments to the bottom vents which would show up in no time at all on the Temp probes,, I could dial this thing in to any temp i wanted to.. It was really that easy. I see no reason to go to the water bowl but i may just try it anyway.
What was nice was i had another brand temp probe, My Meater, which i could compare against the Thermoworks.. The internal temps on both probes were Nearly identical. The one weird thing was, The ambient temp between the 2 was quite different sometimes.. Im not sure if it was placement or maybe some moisture from the rain on 1 of the probes but it was a bit different.. I will be doing more tests later but the meater Temp probe was pretty much matching what the Thermometer in the WSM lid was reading.. I know people think the lid thermometers are no good but this one was almost dead on with my temp probe..
The meater probe is nice and works great but you have to be basically right next to the smoker to get your readings,. Thats the only down side to it, period..It is an excellent meat probe otherwise. No wires to deal with at all. I may sell the thermoworks. I only bought it because i got it cheap. The wires are a PITA.
I did get the stall at around 164 for the Pork shoulder and i just finished it in the oven. Evertyhing turned out very good and now i can fine tune a few more things with sauces and rubs and ill be happy. THe WSM is a very nice smoker to use and it worked beautifully.
So today i cooked on my 18.5 for the first time. First time ive ever used a smoker..Other than the Downpour about 1.5 hours into it, it went very good. Ive been on the forum here for awhile gathering all kinds of info and picking up some Mods for 18.5 along the way. I added the Arbor FAb Charcoal Grate and minion basket, Unknown BBq hinge mod, The FireDial™ Heat Diffuser Plate and i picked up the Thermoworks Smoke Remote Thermometer. I also already Had the Meater Bluetooth Temp Probe , which i used also.
One mod i could do without is the hinge Mod. Doesn't work all that great (at least for me) Its a pain to get it to sit in its locked upright position.. I even had the middle section come loose and fall to the side when trying to close the lid.. Plus its awkward trying to lift the lid with the handle on the top,, Ill make it work by adding more handles or just not use it at all.
The Arborfab Basket works awesome.. Its does what they say it does and works beautiful. I used a little over a half a bag of charcoal and i still have a nice amount left in the smoker
Onto the Firedial and Thermoworks Smoke Thermometer. While i never have used the water bowl method, Everything seemed to dial in just perfectly. I was making very small adjustments to the bottom vents which would show up in no time at all on the Temp probes,, I could dial this thing in to any temp i wanted to.. It was really that easy. I see no reason to go to the water bowl but i may just try it anyway.
What was nice was i had another brand temp probe, My Meater, which i could compare against the Thermoworks.. The internal temps on both probes were Nearly identical. The one weird thing was, The ambient temp between the 2 was quite different sometimes.. Im not sure if it was placement or maybe some moisture from the rain on 1 of the probes but it was a bit different.. I will be doing more tests later but the meater Temp probe was pretty much matching what the Thermometer in the WSM lid was reading.. I know people think the lid thermometers are no good but this one was almost dead on with my temp probe..
The meater probe is nice and works great but you have to be basically right next to the smoker to get your readings,. Thats the only down side to it, period..It is an excellent meat probe otherwise. No wires to deal with at all. I may sell the thermoworks. I only bought it because i got it cheap. The wires are a PITA.
I did get the stall at around 164 for the Pork shoulder and i just finished it in the oven. Evertyhing turned out very good and now i can fine tune a few more things with sauces and rubs and ill be happy. THe WSM is a very nice smoker to use and it worked beautifully.