First-timer WSM 18.5", First Smoke, temperature control problems


 
R

Ron A

TVWBB Fan
After telling myself for the last 10 years that I wanted to learn how to smoke meats, I FINALLY caved and bought a smoker. I spent (probably) way too much time researching and concluded that the WSM 18.5" is the right choice for me. I bought it from a big box store for $299 and had a $50 gift card from a credit card reward program, so my actual cost was $249.

I have tons of experience with a gas grill (Weber Genesis), but it's been 20 years since I did anything with charcoal. But I did remember (from experience) that using off-brand charcoal was a waste of time and money. I also came from the "lighter fluid" school, of charcoal starting (yes, I know better now). So... in addition to the WSM smoker, I also bought some Kingsford charcoal, some wood chunks (mesquite) and a chimney starter. My total investment was about $300.

So.. the only decision left was ... what to smoke? Answer: Ribs (duh!). I picked up a double-rack of back ribs from Costco. I only smoked one rack (just in case my first attempt was a train wreck). The other is vacuumed-sealed in the freezer for another day.

Meat Prep: I made a standard BBQ rub with equal amounts of paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, ground pepper, celery salt and Kosher salt. Rubbed both sides, wrapped it in plastic and and let it sit in the fridge while I attended to the smoker.

Smoker: Used the Minion method. Filled the ring about 2/3 full of Kingsford and added 5 chunks of hickory wood. I then added about 20 hot coals from the chimney starter. I set up the rest of the WSM, filled the water bin , put the lid on, opened all the vents (3 bottom, 1 top), put the ribs on the upper rack (had to cut the rack in half to fit). I then watched the temperature and waited. It's at this point I encountered problems.

I could never get the temp to get above about 180 degrees. The weather was 45 degrees, cloudy and a bit breezy (5-10mph wind) and the WSM was sitting on a concrete patio (no wind breaks, no cover). It took the WSM about 45 minutes to heat up, but it peaked at about 180 degrees. I tried opening the side access door for more oxygen. I tried adding some more charcoal (hot and cold) and even played with the vents. Despite these efforts, it just never could get above 180, but there was plenty of smoke.

Now wanting to call it a disaster, I just continued to monitor the temperature and smoke the ribs, even if it was at 180 degrees. I figured as long as there was smoke and some heat, I was fine. I monitored the smoker every 20 minutes or so and it seemed to be maintaining the 180 degrees so I figured all was good (sort of). However, I stopped monitoring after about 2 hours and decided to just let it "smoke". I went back out after a total of 4 hours and found the temperature had dropped to about 130 degrees. At this point, I called it quits and closed all the vents. What was left in the charcoal ring was about 15 unburned and 50 half-burned briquettes and several of the mesquite chunks, also half-burned. But.... to my pleasure and surprise, I took the top lid off and the ribs looked WONDERFUL (albeit a bit undercooked). I basted them with some Sweet Baby Rays (my BBQ sauce of choice), wrapped them in foil and cooked the in the oven for another 60 minutes at 325 degrees.

My son (home for Spring Break) and I ate them during the NCAA basketball games. They tasted WONDERFUL.

So, can somebody help me with the temperature issue? Did I do something wrong? Do I need to account for cool, breezy weather? Did I use too much (or not enough) coals? Not enough hot coals for starter? Any help would be appreciated.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. Maybe next time.....
 
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Hot or cold water in the pan? A fair amount of heat is needed to heat the water, a lot of us leave the pan dry. A new WSM will have air leaks that should seal after a few uses and then it will work better. It sounds like you had plenty of charcoal and the weather should not have been much of a factor, although wind will have an effect. I had mine going yesterday with 20mph winds and maintained 250°.
Hopefully some more experienced users will chime in for you.
 
Greg, thank for the reply. I just filled the pan with hot tap water from kitchen sink. Should I have used hotter water? I have read where others go waterless using sand or a clay pot base or just foil-wrap the pan. How does this affect the end-product? Is it less moist?
 
Ron, a couple different thoughts:

First, sorry your first smoke didn't go according to specs. It is so exciting to get the smoker going the first time, but then the worry when the temps aren't producing as expected. Great recovery on your part! On another thread about brisket, I was talking to a few other folks about how much margin for error there is when cooking low and slow.

Second, I think Greg might be on to something. It sounds as if you did not get your smoker up to temp before adding the meat etc. The water acts as a big heat sink as does the cold meat. Now I don't think those two things would hold your heat down that long, but if you add some air-flow problems on top of it, those added up could be the cause of the lower heat. I read you had the vents open - so I'm puzzled why the briqs weren't lighting more readily (Kingsford is very reliable) or getting hotter. A puzzlement for sure.

My suggestion, before you plan another smoke is to get a little intimate with your smoker. I would take an evening and just burn some charcoal in your unit. Start with 30 briqs, all lit then set up your WSM and monitor the temps just to get a feel for what it will do. Add 30 more (lit) and see what kind of a bump in temp you get or not. Unless your briqs have been soaking in water, you should have some good results.

Here is another method for ribs (baby backs or spares) which I have used with success. My biggest issue is getting the temp down to my cooking before I put the ribs on - requires throttling down the air and not starting with too many briqs. Last - I started with the WSM much like you. Weber Genesis for years (now going on its 20th year) and then my wife gave me the WSM. Next thing you know I have a 22.5" and 26" kettle and hardly ever use the gas grill. I've definitely had temp problems on occasion (either can't get the temp down (below 350 F) or up high enough (above 250 F for a high heat brisket), but even though it didn't go as planned, it always worked out in the end.

Best of luck and keep posting. No matter what you run into, someone on this bullet-in board will have dealt with it as well.
 
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Eric, I see you're from Anchorage. I lived there from 1971 to 1982. Graduated from Bartlett High 1975 and lived out near the corner of Northern Lights and Boniface on the east side. Our family drove the Alcan Hiway in June 1971 from Oregon when it was a 1+ lane dirt/gravel road from Prince George, BC to the Alaska border near Tok. We also got to experience the "Pipeline Boom" from start to finish. The last of my family left Anchorage in 1995. I've been back a few times, but it's just not the same old Anchorage I knew.

Back to smoking.... So I should add the water AFTER the heat is up to my desired temp (225)? I've seen other posts about not using any water and using sand or clay pots instead. How does that work? I thought the water also added moisture to the meat, not just controlled temperature. I'm also wondering if my bag of Kingsford had been sitting around all winter absorbing moisture in some damp warehouse. It's a little too early for BBQ season in Seattle but the Lowes had a HUGE stack of Kingsford Blue on sale. Maybe it was leftover from last year and they were trying to get rid of old inventory.

Anyway, I'll take your advice and spend some more time getting to know my WSM, just like I got to know my Weber Genesis a few years back.
 
I live two blocks from the corner of N Lights and Boniface. My neighbor told me that back in the late 60's when our neighbor was built, you only had to drive another mile or so down toward Muldoon street to go moose hunting. Still lots of moose - pesky tree eaters.

No - you need to have the water pan in when you assemble the WSM after you have lit the fire. But sometimes your WSM will take a little time to get "settled in" before you add the meat.

I have my water pan in the middle section when I assemble the cooker after the coals are lit. Leaning over the middle section and trying to put the water pan in place is little brutal with the heat and smoke blast from the fire. I switched to a foiled clay flower pot base and have never looked back. I did not notice any difference in the quality or moistness of the cooked meat. I had also noticed that on my low and slow cooks, I lost very little water. My conclusion is that if the water is not evaporating much and creating a steamy environment, how much can they really help with the meat. Lastly, cleaning the water pan after its full of grease and drippings is not fun. Where to dump the water: yard attracts animals, sink clogs the drain and best of luck not spilling along the way. I used my water pan for at least 10-12 cooks before I switched. I guess I have a little Missouri in me or something.

Try the cooking method described in the link I included. There it describes waiting an hour or so before you even put your meat on.

Hope some of what I've offered helps. Don't be afraid to ask more questions - great group of people visit here.
 
I would take off the temp gauge and test it in boiling water (212), to see if it is running correctly. 4 hours in the 130 to 180 range and then an hours in the oven at 325 sounds like it might have cooked higher in the wsm than that 180 temp...............d
 
David said:
I would take off the temp gauge and test it in boiling water (212), to see if it is running correctly. 4 hours in the 130 to 180 range and then an hours in the oven at 325 sounds like it might have cooked higher in the wsm than that 180 temp...............d
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If they were like the Costco ribs 'round here, David could very well be right. But the only other possibility I can see was that there was an issue with the charcoal. There should have been no problem at all cooking only one slab of ribs as the OP described, and it makes me wonder how many guys ditch the water pan after a particular difficult cook, when the real issue was either a bad bag of charcoal or a bag that had gotten exposed to high humidity....or yes, a bad therm.

I might cook just about everything else without water in the pan, but for ribs, the only reason there'd be no water in the pan would be if I was foiling them during the cook. Steam evens out cooking, transfers heat better, and slows bark development, but different strokes for different folks. I'm just saying that if you want to stop using water in the pan for any or all cooks, make sure it's for the right reasons.
 
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Dave, I gave the bag of Kingsford I used to my neighbor to try with his Weber Kettle. He's always grilling something, so if there was a problem with the coals, he would know. He tried to fire them up last night, but had problems with an even burn and keeping them them lit. I'm beginning to think the problem was with the coals and not my cooking (whew!!). My bet is the bag I bought was a left-over from last year, had been stored in a damp place or simply got wet sitting outside somewhere, causing the charcoal to absorb too much moisture. I'll buy another bag from a different store and give it another shot.

Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions. This message board is amazing!
 
I'm not surprised at all, Ron. What I would be surprised at, would be if your Weber gauge isn't within 5* if you loosen the wingnut and check in boiling water. If it's not accurate, call Weber and they'll send you another one.

However, do realize that the gauge will read lower for most of a cook than the actual grate temp, and the difference is more, the more meat you have on the grate. It's simply the effect of relatively cool meat under the gauge, which is outside the "stream of circulation". This is why so many of us like to use probes and measure the actual grate temp or hang in the top vent if the grate is so full that you can't place the probe in a spot away from the hot perimeter. Anyhow, what I'm saying is that if you're going to use the gauge, just allow for it. For instance, say you're doing a long butt cook where you're targeting 225-250. Most of the time, my gauges will only read about 200* at the start, and then settle in at about 12 o'clock, (at least if I was going to cook long overnight.) For ribs, I'll target 250*, but the gauge will only read about 225* at the start. So I guess you could say that basically, my gauge are usually around 25* lower than grate temp at the start of a cook. Again, sometimes more or less, depending on the meat load and weather conditions.
 
Got to be the charcoal. Never heard of a new wsm having problems getting the temp up, generally just the opposite. You can test the dome thermometer in boiling water and get close, but I have been told by several companies that make remotes, I won't mention Mavericks name, to test in ice water. Supposedly, many factors affect the temp at which water boils, altitude, etc. I think boiling will get within a few degrees of accurate.

My guess would be bad charcoal and not letting the smoker get close to target temp before putting meat on, especially since you used hot water.. One slab of ribs isn't enough to kill the temp. I like to try to catch the temp on the way up rather than trying to get it back down.
 
Ron A said:
I gave the bag of Kingsford I used to my neighbor to try with his Weber Kettle. He's always grilling something, so if there was a problem with the coals, he would know. He tried to fire them up last night, but had problems with an even burn and keeping them them lit.
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Yep, J. Ron already found out what the issue was. Even good old Kingsford can give folks problems.
 
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