Help please-new WSM owner


 
D

Dan Crafton

TVWBB Member
Got my new WSM 18in a few days ago and did two cooks over the weekend. The first was wonderful....the second was pretty bad and I would appreciate any opinions on what went wrong.

My first cook was three racks of ribs. I used the Minion method and used water in the water pan. It was easy to maintain the temp at 200-235dg for five hours. I was impressed at how the WSM rose to temp and just stayed put after I closed the lower vents some. It was a great experience and the ribs turned out great.

Yesterday I tried Basic BBQ Chicken and followed the directions from TVWB exactly. First let me say it was a very windy day and due to the angles of my house/patio the wind whips from all directions. I did not use any water in the water pan per directions. After I dumped the full chimney of coals in the charcoal basket I immediately assembled the cooker and put my four chicken halves on. All vents were wide open per directions. I noticed the temp gage on the lid was barely rising. After about 40min the temp gage hit 200dg and I new something was wrong. I left the lid in place for a full hour and the temp never got above that 200dg???

I fired up my Weber gas grill and finished the chicken up on it. At first I blamed it entirely on the wind, however, I noticed that after I transferred the chicken to my gas grill when I put the lid back on the WSM the temp gage shot up like a rocket and pegged out at max temp and stayed there???

Should I have let the WSM warm up before putting the cold chicken on it? I don't understand what happened? Any ideas?

Thanks for any help,
Dan
 
I'm thinking two things; the meat load held back the temps and with the wind maybe longer than what you expected, then when you removed the meat you also gave the coals more air so the burn increased and of course with no heat sink the temps came right up.
Wind can have a huge effect on the wsm so does the amount of meat as it becomes the heat sink in the beginning. Maybe next time either shelter the smoker and or lift the lid a bit by placing something across a part of it like a large spike. You can also open your fuel door at the bottom. There are various ways this can be done as well.

I don't let my smoker come up to temp first. Weather will have an influence for sure on what you are doing with a WSM and sometimes you just have to wait it out or look for alternative ways. The more meat the slower it will come up to temp even under ideal conditions.
 
Last edited:
Hi Dan and welcome aboard.

I always let my WSM come up to temperature before putting on the meat.

Bob
 
Were any of your vents blocked by ash from the first cook? Your top vent was fully open? If your going to be using your WSM in a windy area all the time I would make a wind block. There is info on the main website for this.
 
Thanks guys. This is my first experience ever with using charcoal so sounds like I need to learn some temp control. All my previous grilling has been done on Weber gas grills. I will definately be researching wind blocks. Bob, all my vents were clear and all vents wide open including the top vent. I had no idea wind would play such a role. Just weird to me that when I transferred the meat to my gas grill and put the lid back on my WSM the temp shot up to max in a matter of seconds. Definately a learning curve on my part.

Thanks again and thanks to Chris for this forum and for TVWB which I use frequently.

Dan
 
Dan,

The WSM does have a learning curve that cannot be skipped, and wind does play havoc on temps. My experience was that all the factors that affect temp (amount of meat, temp of meat going on, heat sink, ambient temp, wind, weather, amount and packing of charcoal, lighting method, time, and any others I forgot) all take time to learn.

I suggest you accept that the curve will not be linear (no pun intended), keep pressing on and trying new things while repeating and improving old things, and soon enough you'll be the master you want to be. And great improvision on the grill; that shows that everything is reparable with a grill or stove. Good luck.
 
Dan, I second what has been said above. No 2 cooks will ever follow the exact same pattern. Alot of people on this site log info from each cook to help when something unusual arises. In the case of your 2nd smoke, (as Gary suggested) try placing something between the lid and the mid section to allow more air in. A second option is to invert your side door and leave the bottom (the handle to the side door) open. I feel certain in no time you will see the temps begin to rise in your WSM.
Good luck,
Tim
 
How long did you have your lid off when you were transferring the chicken to the gas grill? If it was a long time (several minutes) I could see the extra oxygen as being the main reason. It doesn't make sense to me that simply removing the 4 chicken halves would cause the spike you saw on the gauge unless the lid was off for several minutes. IMHO no way 4 chicken halves were absorbing 200+ degrees of heat.I agree windy will have a huge effect but unless the wind stopped after removing the chicken I cannot see that it was the only culprit. I may be nuts and keep in mind I am still a rookie but it almost sounds like the gauge was stuck and by you banging it around when you removed the lid to take the chicken off it got unstuck. Pull the gauge and do some test on it. You might have a bad gauge and Weber will replace it. If you figure it out I would love to know what it was.
 
Marty W said:
How long did you have your lid off when you were transferring the chicken to the gas grill? If it was a long time (several minutes) I could see the extra oxygen as being the main reason. It doesn't make sense to me that simply removing the 4 chicken halves would cause the spike you saw on the gauge unless the lid was off for several minutes. IMHO no way 4 chicken halves were absorbing 200+ degrees of heat.I agree windy will have a huge effect but unless the wind stopped after removing the chicken I cannot see that it was the only culprit. I may be nuts and keep in mind I am still a rookie but it almost sounds like the gauge was stuck and by you banging it around when you removed the lid to take the chicken off it got unstuck. Pull the gauge and do some test on it. You might have a bad gauge and Weber will replace it. If you figure it out I would love to know what it was.
Click to expand...

Lid was probabely off 2-3min. I don't think the temp gage was stuck because the chicken had hardly cooked at all even though it was on the WSM a full hour (should have been done by then).

Thanks,
Dan
 
Dan Crafton said:
After I dumped the full chimney of coals in the charcoal basket I immediately assembled the cooker and put my four chicken halves on. Dan
Click to expand...

Dan,

Assuming you did put unlit charcoal in the ring before adding the lit :), how much unlit did you put in? Maybe not quite enough? I cook a lot in my carport which most always is windy, especially from the north and south and I've never had a problem with the unlit lighting off and the WSM coming up to temp, even if I put the meat on quickly. I never put less than 1/2 ring of charcoal in no matter what I'm smoking and always have unburned charcoal left after the cook. My WSM is a 22.5 so you might need to add a little more in the 18.5. Just food for thought.

And welcome to the forum.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top