New (& old) WSM owner

[ParB]

I bought my 18" WSM in 2012. I think i am going to get a new 22" WSM...

Started to smoke a bone in pork butt last night that was too big for the smoker. After a solid 2 hours of not getting a good seal at the top lid due to the pork pushing on both sides of the lid i gave up and took out the axe to chop off a bit of the bone. I should probably have used my sawzall but i didn't think about it at the time.
So in the darkness i chop off 4 inches of bone and because i didn't want to take the meat off the smoker i am trying to gingerly get the bone off the grill.
That failed miserably and i think i have made the smoker a bit oval in the process.

I got the bone off, got the smoker sealed up enough that i have run the smoker all night with good success. The water pan won't sit well on the lowest level but i sat it on the lower grill grate for now. Works well.

Once this is finished i think i am going to go and get myself a 22" WSM. The thing is that i really like the 18", it served me well during the last 12 years. Sure i find it a bit tight for smoking a duck and smoking a big pork butt, and sometimes even a bit tight for a brisket. But for everything else it has been glorious.

I built the harbor freight cart about 7 years ago for it, and i got the hinged lid. I used thermoworks signals with the billows attachment which is absolutely great.

I never put on the gasket seal on mine but i think i will do that on the new one for both the top ring and for the door.
I will definately buy the hinge, game changer imho.

if i get the 22" then i think i'll have to put rollers on it. I don't think the 22" fits in the harbor freight rolling table. If it would fit then i would probably do that again.

I have to admit that i am torn between the 18" and the 22". The 18" has been really good to me. Its only these larger pieces of meat that has made me wish for a touch more space. I have both in my cart, going to decide once the cook is over.

My journey into becoming a new old owner

 

[timothy]

Welcome ParB.
That musta been some Buttzilla, how big?
You sure it wasn't the whole shoulder, butt and picnic?
I have both sizes and the 22 does come in handy for big briskets and laying racks of ribs flat.

 

[RLittle]

Maybe buy a used 22” to see how you like it. May be able to save some bucks.
Or go big and get the WSK

 

[Chris Allingham]

27 years of cooking on the 18” WSM and I’ve never seen a single pork butt so large that it won’t fit on the top grate. As others have suggested, perhaps a pork shoulder (unseparated butt+picnic)?

 

[Tony Coloma]

Pics!
That butt must have been monumental!
The 22 has some advantages. But the 18 should be able to cook several butts at a time.

 

[Mark Foreman]

I am in the north bay and have a 22 I’d like to part with. A bit big for 2 of us.

 

[TonyUK]

 

[Jonas-Switzerland]

IMO depends on how you like to cook, and what other tools you have at your disposal.

How important is fuel usage to you? The 22 will be more. It can take more food, and it will eat more coals. And it will eat more coals pretty much regardless of how much food it has. So smaller cooks take a bunch of coals. Also, what other tools do you have at your disposal? Would you move small cooks away from the 22?

I have the 22 and I wanna use it for bigger cooks. If I have smaller cooks, I can use my gas grill or my kettle. Or you could simply put more food on the 22 every time you cook. That's what I am doing for the 2.5 people household. I combine multiple cooks and the rest gets vac-sealed and frozen.

You can argue that an experienced WSM 18 MacGyver can put more on his cooker than whatever I usually cook on the 22. True. But I can fit everything on one rack, which is nice.