How long for a 22 to 'come down'

[Josh O'Donn]

Just curious how long it takes temps for others with a 22.5" WSM to come down after closing down all the vents? Mine usually drops about 100 degrees the first hour after closing down and then it takes another few hours to get down to ambient temp. Does this sound about right? Still not sure if I have as good of a seal as I should.

 

[Enrico Brandizzi]

No! Its really too much. Mine goes at ambient T in less than 1 h starting from 250f. But I use gasket all around the door and the lid.

 

[Derrick Llewellyn]

Josh that is where mine is around. At comps by the time we do clean up and awards it is cool enough to move which is approx 3 hrs.

 

[Dave Russell]

No gaskets in mine, but it's pretty tight. I'm thinking it cools down in about an hour and a half.

 

[Bruce Bissonnette]

At a competition I close all the vents on my WSM right after rib turn ins, so by 12:45pm all the vents are closed and we start breaking down about a half hour after last turn in, so that's about 2pm, so by 2:30ish it's cooled down enough to touch and move.

 

[Josh O'Donn]

hmmm. Sounds like I might still have some opportunities for improvement. My cooker is still rather new, only have about 5 cooks on it, hopefully after I build up some more grease and gunk in it it will seal better... if not I'll go the gasket route. I've made sure everything is round, I measured, squeezed, etc and everythign is within 1/16 of an inch (the hobbyist carpenter in me came out there). I also have the Cajun Bandit door, but I do still have a slight amount of leakage there, may need to to tweak it a bit.

 

[Chad Bman]

^^^ Keep cooking on it, it'll get better. As long as the coals DO snuff out completely, you're doing pretty good at only 5 cooks in.

 

[THoey]

My 22 is only a couple months old, but probably has 10+ cooks. Mine was leaking a lot the first time I used it, so I ordered the gaskets and the SS door right away. When I installed the gaskets, I noticed how out of round it was. I gentle hug or three and it was much better. Between the cooking, the hugging, the gaskets, the SS door, and the compression latch I installed because the original just seemed like it would go at anytime due to the gaskets, I can close my vents and be ambient temperature within an hour. Saves a lot on charcoal...