Fuel consumption

[Ed Cardoza]

Well after my maiden voyage with the new WSM 22.5" unit, using the DIGIQII from Guru, I found that for me the fuel usage was better than advertised. I cooked a couple of pork roasts the other night for about 5 hours. I had used some Ranchers charcoal and leveled the charcoal bowl and used the MM. I started the coals with 9 lit coals and was up to temperature in about 30 minutes. Would have been sooner if I had a bigger fan (using the 4 CFM fan)or had I opened the bottom vents. Once she reached 225*, she held right at that temp for the entire cook. Once I removed the roasts from the cooker, in 30 minutes the cooker had cooled off. The following morning I removed the center section to see how much fuel had been used, and to my surprise, very little. If I were to guess, I would guess it only used about 10-12% of the total fuel that was in the charcoal bowl. Larry R was here yesterday to take a look at it and he was just as surprised as I was with the amount of charcoal that remained in the bowl. I used heat tape to seal the door, and have to believe that really helped seal this unit, along with removing the tabs from the bottom vents.
I have read lots of negative feed back on this unit, but I can honestly say, I must be one of the lucky ones, as I have zero complaints on this unit.

 

[LarryR]

Based on what I've read how little fuel you used really blew my mind. Barely made a dent in what you loaded. I wonder how much using the DigiQ had to do with the fuel economy.

I've also got to say what an impressive looking smoker, talk about capacity, DAMN!!!

 

[Gerd H]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ed Cardoza:
Well after my maiden voyage with the new WSM 22.5" unit, using the DIGIQII from Guru, I found that for me the fuel usage was better than advertised. I cooked a couple of pork roasts the other night for about 5 hours. I had used some Ranchers charcoal and leveled the charcoal bowl and used the MM. I started the coals with 9 lit coals and was up to temperature in about 30 minutes. Would have been sooner if I had a bigger fan (using the 4 CFM fan)or had I opened the bottom vents. Once she reached 225*, she held right at that temp for the entire cook. Once I removed the roasts from the cooker, in 30 minutes the cooker had cooled off. The following morning I removed the center section to see how much fuel had been used, and to my surprise, very little. If I were to guess, I would guess it only used about 10-12% of the total fuel that was in the charcoal bowl. Larry R was here yesterday to take a look at it and he was just as surprised as I was with the amount of charcoal that remained in the bowl. I used heat tape to seal the door, and have to believe that really helped seal this unit, along with removing the tabs from the bottom vents.
I have read lots of negative feed back on this unit, but I can honestly say, I must be one of the lucky ones, as I have zero complaints on this unit. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Curious on a few things:

1) Where were you measuring 225? (I presume using the guru probe at top grate?)

2) You used heat tape tp seal the door. Did you seal all 4 sides of the door? How 'permanent' is this seal, in your opinion?

On my maiden WSM 22 voyage, I had some minor leaking at the bottom corner of the door. I used 2 bungees around the unit to hold the door tight and in shape, which worked well.

 

[Ed Cardoza]

Gerd, I did use the probe from the Guru to measure my temp, and that was grate temp, and I did tape all four sides of the door, and I can remove it if I feel the need.
How did your bungees hold up with the heat?