HELP!! cool temps & high wind!!!


 
J

Jay P.

New member
Need some help. started my Q around 5am this morning, doing a butt that i expected to be done between 2-4pm (4lb butt). WSM usually runs nicely at 225-250 no prob. well around 10:30 i added water (cold, my mistake) and i noticed the temps were dropping to barely 200 so i normally open all the vents to raise the temp back up. however, the air temp is around 50 and winds are a stiff 10+mph. now the temps aren't moving up adn i even stirred the coals (Royal Oak) to get it going again. How do i react to the wind? i'm nervous that the open vents will blow out the fire, but the closed vents will put the fire out too. any suggestions???
 
The open vents will never blow out the fire, they'll only feed it more oxygen. Always keep the top vent open and open the bottom ones wide too until your temps come up. If you have to, crack the door open a bit or offset the lid to get more air in there (try to face whatever opening you make away from the wind). You could even take the body of the smoker off the base and for a short time to really get those coals going, just don't take the lid off. Try to block some of that wind if you can too. Since you're cooking butt, don't worry about overshooting the temp either. They are very forgiving.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jay P.:
Need some help. started my Q around 5am this morning, doing a butt that i expected to be done between 2-4pm (4lb butt). WSM usually runs nicely at 225-250 no prob. well around 10:30 i added water (cold, my mistake) and i noticed the temps were dropping to barely 200 so i normally open all the vents to raise the temp back up. however, the air temp is around 50 and winds are a stiff 10+mph. now the temps aren't moving up adn i even stirred the coals (Royal Oak) to get it going again. How do i react to the wind? i'm nervous that the open vents will blow out the fire, but the closed vents will put the fire out too. any suggestions??? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

What I did for this same problem is went to home depot, and bought an 4x8 sheet of plywood, and cut it into three 32" wide pieces, and bought a couple of inexpensive hinges that have removable pins, and built a crude wind deflector of sorts. It doesn't totally incase the smoker, but the heavy winds stay off of it, and I'm sure it's warmer between the wind barrier and the SWM than the air is outside the wind deflector.

Michael
 
I done pretty much the same thing as Michael. Mine is cut closer to 24 inches though and I just took a 2X2 and screwed into the corner. The 2 side pieces are cut to a taper roughly 4 inches back from the opening to the back. Then the back is cut 4 inches shorter all together. I orginally just cut mine this way so I could put on a temporary top if it is raining. I have since decided to make it permanent. I have some shingles in the barn I am going to put on it. Anyhow when the wsm is not in use I set it up against the wall of my house and put the plywood around it. It actually looks pretty nice
 
We built the shelter for my WSM using plywood like the others then I added a lid all with hinges that have removable pins then I stapled duct insulation on the inside I have no problems with high winds or low temps now.

If you search high wind here on the site you can see other wind shelters that people hve made as well. That is where I got the idea from.

Here is a pic of the inside before and after duct

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v636/dbcanadian/BBQ/DSCF0796.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v636/dbcanadian/BBQ/BBQ_1052.jpg
 
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