Help with Smoke Duration


 
N

NickG

New member
I reading where some of you are getting 18 or more hours on your smokes. I have the large WSM WITH the cajun bandid door and am struggling to get more than 12 quality hours of smoke on a full load. I load the ring full then use the minion method. Start half a chimney of charcoal (kingsford) then once red hot spread on top. I usually give at a couple minutes before I assemble smoker to let it get going. I noticed with the new door it really restricts air more than the factory door. I usually smoke at 250-275. Food always kills but I would love to get more time on the smoker without a reload. Any thoughts?
 
Nick.
Not being an expert by any stretch of the imagination I'll have a go.
Reduce the amount of lit briqs on the unlit to increase smoke times?
Also maybe reduce your smoke temps a wee bit.
:)
 
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There are a lot of variables with length of smoke. Type of charcoal, wind conditions, pack in the ring, cooking temp, water in the pan, etc. Wind is the key enemy of the WSM.

Those long cooks could come on still summer nights. If you are cooking in windy, snowing conditions your mileage may vary.
 
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The length of time you get out of a load of coal is a result of all the variables mentioned above, plus the "load" you're trying to move. With a fully fired WSM that's up to temp, putting on a couple of 15# packer briskets or a half-dozen butts that are at 35 degrees is going to suck up a lot of the pit's heat (energy) for the first 2-3 hours. All that energy demand burns a lot of coal - compared to, say, a half-dozen racks of ribs.
 
When you say full load - do you mean a full load of charcoal, or a full load of food in the WSM?
 
Nick, The first thing I would suggest is try cooking without any water in the water pan.
 
I've owned my 22.5" WSM for over 2 years and have never gotten more than 12 hours at 225-250. I smoke large amounts of meat (2 full packers, 4-6 butts) and yes, YMMV and I concur with all variables are at play; I usually get 8-9 hours without coaxing. I am a weekend smoker so I will pan/wrap the meat and finish in a 300-350 oven. This gives me time to rest, cool, pack into food saver bags and then clean up. With the leftover charcoal, I will add a chunk of wood to smoke some wings at high temps or finish off on my gasser.
 
I went for up to 18 hours @250F. It was september night with full load of weber briqs ( almost 17 lb) a little water in a dispisable pan over the pizza stone and the BBQ Guru. Mine is the 22 WSM. ALSO W/o BBQ GURU I got same durations but its much moooooorrrrrreeeee easier!
 
I think a lot of it is the outside ambient temperature. This summer around July I did an all night smoke and got 24 hours out of a full ring of charcoal on my 22.5 without water in the pan. I cooked a brisket, then made some burnt ends and then at some point decided to see how long it would go. I was cooking 225 to 250. I wasn't exactly packing the smoker full of meat.

I did another cook back in late October when it got to freezing temps overnight and I got nowhere near that. I wound up having to add a chimney of unlit. Luckily I had wrapped the brisket in butcher paper and the ash didn't get all over everything.
 
Thanks for the help guys. Full load meaning charcoal. I never use water in the water pan. Foil it and a 16" clay plate. Way easier to clean. Before I put them in the smoker I put them both in an oven at 350 to warm up in winter to save fuel and let meat sit out as well. I understand the move to the oven and 90% of the time I foil and finish in the oven but my heart and brain want me to finish in the smoker. It sounds like I am getting similar times as everyone else so best stop worrying grab a beer and throw on a brisket. Oh and save my cash for a BBQ GURU.
 
If you have the current water pan, it is much deeper than the old one and does not allow piling the coal in the ring as high. Hopefully you are using briquettes. You can get longer burn time than with lump. Pack it as tightly as possible.

A heat blanket made of fiberglass insulation would help, especially at this time of year.
 
The big boy WSM does require more top off fuel than the 18" for the long haul, but 12 hrs @ 250-275 of quality smoke should get most things done in that time-frame.
I would ditch the clay saucer and just go with an empty foiled pan with an air-space.

Tim
 
Ok. I did a 19 packer this weekend for the OSU vs Meatchicken game and it took a bit. Never cooked one that big before. Turned out great but took a bit.
 
Cooking a packer from Babe the Blue OX makes a hell of a heat sync also. Turned out great is always the best way for a cook to end. ;)
 
I use a ATC (Automatic Temperature Controller) and foil over and never fill the water pan - its the HeaterMeter that is discussed in another forum on this site. With the HeaterMeter, air to the fire is efficiently controlled keeping the pit temperature withing 1-2F of the setpoint. On my 18.5" WSM (that is over 20 years old with a lot of gunk sealing the joints) with the CB door, cooking my briskets, I can get close to 30 hours at 225F with the Minion Method using a full ring of unlit and 15-20 lit briquets. Obviously I pull the brisket before way before 30 hours, but have let the WSM run to see how long it would last. I can also run my WSM down to 150F and use it as a holding oven.

I would expect that if you installed a gasket kit on your WSM and used an ATC, your mileage would increase dramatically.
 
On further thought I feel that using an ATC over manually adjusting the dampers to maintain a temperature is similar to the gas mileage you get maintaining a specific speed in your car either on cruise control or by manually adjusting your foot on the accelerator pedal. Its obvious that you will get better mileage on cruise control because you avoid the wide speed swings of manually driving the car. It is for this same reason that all commercial airline companies require their pilots to place their planes on autopilot rather than manually flying them. Aviation fuel is just too expensive to waste flying a commercial jet manually.
 
Yeah, I have the 22 and have gotten somewhere around 13 hours before I shut it down. Next day I looked and I might have got another hour or two. I have the CB door and also added the gaskets. I feel it runs more efficiently, and it also shuts down faster when I close the vents.
 
I find that the (aka) minion method by just loading the ring up and dumping the lit on top does not work as well as using a coffee can. I put the can in the middle,pour charcoal arround the can and move the ring back and fourth to settle the charcoal then a little better than half a chimney lit into the middle of can then pull the can out, it seems to have better air flow and the unlit catches more even and burns from the center out. And yes its darn cold out, i seem to have 15 or better hours all night in dead of winter. I agree with Nick get a party Q or the like and your troubles will be much less of an issue.
 
Other than attaching the fire ring to the grate I have not modded the WSM.
I surround a 3# coffee can with briquettes and start the fire with 2/3 chimney of lit coals poured into the can (just short of 20 lbs total of Kingsford blue).
I start with my vents in the expected final position (exhaust full open, two intakes full closed, one intake open a crack) and typically this gives me 220 - 240 degrees on the top grate.
I don't peek during the cook and I get 18 hours burn time.
Ambient temperature no lower than 40 degrees and calm wind conditions.
 
Outside temperature and wind plays a HUGE role as the WSM is not insulated. Even here in warm, sunny Florida I get a lot longer burn on my 22.5 WSM on a 90 degree day than I get on a 60 degree one. In order to maintain 275 at the lower ambient temperature I have to cook with more open vents = more air = faster burn for the same grate temperature. I've tested this with no charcoal in the WSM, just letting it sit out in the Sun. On a 90 degree summer day the temp inside the smoker gets over 130 degrees with NO charcoal in the smoker and all vents open. Never going to happen on a 50~60 degree day.
 
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