Help! Can't get WSM to turn off after 1st cook!


 
J

Jared W.

New member
Hello everyone,

I did my first WSM cook (butterflied Chicken) and it didn't go as I planned. I don't have any place to dump out water, so I picked up a 14" clay saucer from HD this morning.

I started with the minion method, but if I was supposed to pack the unlit coals, I missed that. I used Kingsford Comp for this cook. After starting 20 and placing them in the unlit ring, I kept the vents open till I hit 200, and then closed them all down to 1/3. It kept climbing till it hit 250. I shut all of them down and it went a little above 275. I placed an oven thermometer AND a candy thermo on the top grate and they agreed with the lid temp. I let it sit with all vents closed, hoping the temp would drop. After 2.5hrs into the cook (Still at 275) I thought the door was my issue, so I took it off, tried to bend it a little better and placed some foil to work as a gasket on the door. This didn't change the temp at all.

So, I pulled off the chicken at around 5:30pm and closed the top vent (all the other vents were already closed) I just went out to put on the cover and clean it at 10pm, and the WSM is still at 275! The thermometers were still inside and they agreed again. Using some welding gloves, I pulled off the center section to find around 2 inches of hot, ashed over coals. They were all lit.

I am really confused on how this is happening, and would appreciate some suggestions. I listed the causes I could think of below.

1. Out of round - measured the top of the middle section and it is good. Since the coals are still hot, I haven't checked the bottom section. There is some resistance when sliding into the bottom section.

2. Access door leak - It look like it fits tight after my bending and I tried the foil gasket at the top with no avail. Any other suggestions?

3. Top section on sitting properly - If the lid is off to one side, can that let air in to the fire?

4. Did I let too many coals get lit during start up, that now I can't shut it down? I am pretty experienced smoking with the kettle, and even with the one touch system, it always shut down in around an hour or two.

5. I just poured the lose charcoal into the bottom section. Should I have packed it in?


Sorry for the long post. In all, the chicken turned out great, but I am just frustrated that I have no control over the temp and cannot get the grill to cool down. I looked around the site, but tried everthing I could.

Thanks for all your help.

JW
 
Well the wsm is known to leak abit the first smokes u do and there fore dont kill coals asfast as it will do in the future(when all that smoke/grease makes it more air tight)

I still have abit of cool down time on my 22" and this is 10+ cooks on it.

Not like my 22"premium that kills coal and cools of under an hour.

Hope it make sense.

Bless//Me
 
Don't think your coal packing is the culprit. You've got a air leak from some place. Check out of round on mid & bottom connection (when it's cool), and the lid needs to sit down completely. One more to consider, how loose are the bottom air vents? Might they be the leak? If memory serves, others have experienced loose vents recently.

On my WSM, I've got the opposite problem, it doesn't want to get too hot - can't get over 275F, unless I tilt the lid a bit. Kinda hard to achieve HH cooks at 275F. ;-)

Good luck
 
Thanks Wolgast and Paul,

I will check for the bent vents. After posting this up, I found something that Chris wrote up and will methodically go through each possibility. It also just might need some grease to build up on the walls.

Paul, at this point it is hard for me to imagine NOT getting above 275!


Thanks for your help guys.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">first WSM cook </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
There's your culprit, Jared. It's gonna need some gunk built up on the inside to seal properly.

Give it time, it's gonna work perfectly.
 
Thanks guys,

I checked the grill this morning and it was at 150 degrees. I took off the middle section and measured the charcoal bowl. Sure enough, there was more than a 1/2" variance between the wide and narrow sections. That explains why it was such a tight fit when I put on the middle section and also while the middle could move a little side to side in only one direction.

I already had to get a replacement middle section because of damage, and now I will try to get a new charcoal bowl. I should have measured it, but I just though it had a really tight fit. I am glad to find a possible answer, but slightly disappointed with all these issues after waiting 3 years for a WSM!

Thanks again.

-JW
 
A couple more thoughts: Try an aluminum foil gasket between middle & bottom section. I would also try Chris's gentle roll technique to fix the bottom out-of-round. Good luck.
 
Jared,

I had a similar problem with the mid-section being about 5/8" out of round. I got a new one that was darn near perfect. I would try as Paul suggests; try gently (VERY GENTLY) rolling the mid-section. I got mine to under 1/8" out of round doing this and without damaging the paint. Now I can double stack if I want. With 22.5 WSM double stacked....that's a lot of cooking space.
icon_wink.gif


Smoke 'em if you got 'em!
- Keith
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Keith Pietranczyk:
Jared,

I had a similar problem with the mid-section being about 5/8" out of round. I got a new one that was darn near perfect. I would try as Paul suggests; try gently (VERY GENTLY) rolling the mid-section. I got mine to under 1/8" out of round doing this and without damaging the paint. Now I can double stack if I want. With 22.5 WSM double stacked....that's a lot of cooking space.
icon_wink.gif


Smoke 'em if you got 'em!
- Keith </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Dag, I wouldn't be tall enough to double stack even if I did have two middle sections!

Seriously, though, the legs will support that much weight?
 
Curt - In all honesty, it would be difficult to do a double stack! It could be done, as I know others here have done it. With respect to the weight; If I were to try this, I would most definitely re-enforce the legs. But think about it, that's a helluva lot of ribs (my favorite)!
 
Thanks for your help everyone.

Weber is going to send me out a new charcoal bowl. I think I will try the rolling technique anyway, just to try it out. Unfortuantly, I didn't find that on the website untill after I had contacted Weber.

Hopefully when I get the new bowl in a week I can post a successful, CONTROLLED cook!
 
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