New WSM


 
G

Greg C.

TVWBB Member
Hi everyone,

Ordered my WSM 22 from Home Depot on Monday and to my surprise it showed up today. I decided to give it a seasoning and see how it worked. I went ahead and used water in the pan since I have read they tend to run hot when new. Everything went well but there is ALOT of smoke that comes out where the lid sits on the main body, is this normal? The lid rocks some no matter where it is sitting. I tried rotating the lid all the way around and never found a place it didn't rock.
Greg
 
Although the WSM is not meant to be totally air-tight, it sounds like you have a condition outside the acceptable norm. Call Weber, and they will help you determine which piece-- the lid or the middle section-- needs attention. Once that is determined, they should send you whichever part needs fixing.
 
Hey Greg. My 22.5 WSM leaks smoke around the lid...even around the thermometer on the lid. However, it fits snugly and wont rock like it seems yours is doing. Expect some smoke leaks especially at startup. The test of too much air leaking is if you close all vents totally, will the coals extinguish in a reasonable time..perhaps within an hour or less? If not, then you will have problems controlling your temps when you cook. Weber is very CS oriented (IMHO) and usually makes things right w/o any hassle at all. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the replies.
I didn't close the dampers until I went to bed last night so I have no idea how long it stayed hot. I was thinking I will check this afternoon to see if all the charcoal is completely burned up. If it did then I'm assuming that it has too much air leakage.
It just seemed odd to me that with the top damper wide open there was at least as much smoke coming out around the lid as there was out the damper. It reminded me of my old Brinkman and my initial thought was I could probably completely close the top damper and it would be alright, I'm not too sure now though.
 
Greg, welcome. So besides the smoke leaking, how did the meat turn out. You did put meat on , right? I have the smaller WSM and there was very minimal smoke leakage the first couple times. I made a small adjustment to the door and now after 3 smokes everything is really tight. In fact when I attempt to take the lid off I really have to pull. I have called Weber Customer Service a couple times and they are great. I am sure if you find a part out of round they will send you a new one. I had one bolt break and they sent a whole bag. They also promptly sent a new hood thermometer when I asked. Good luck and happy smokin'.

Mark
 
Mark,

No, I didn't have any meat on it. Didn't have enough time to cook anything but couldn't resist the temptation to fire it up. I figured it wouldn't hurt to "season" it a little anyway. Also, I wanted to see if I could get a handle on temperature control before I put some meat on. Everything worked well, no real problems with temperature or anything. I'm confident enough or more probably stupid enough to try an overnight smoke starting tonight. I've never smoked overnight before but find I get real impatient close to the end of a smoke after I've been watching it all day. I may change my mind, but right now that is the plan.

Greg
 
I decided against the overniter. I fired it up and put some ribs and chicken on this afternoon planning on finishing it before bedtime. Got it fired up and meat on by 4. Figured I would cook it around 280 to 300, wherever it settled at after I adjusted it. When it got up to 250 I cut the dampers back to half, it still kept going up. I cut them back a little more and it settled about 280. I went in around 5:30, watched a little TV and fell asleep. Woke up at 7:00 and went out to check the smoker, egads 340. Everything was already done, the chicken had an internal temp of 209, it'll probably be a little dry but I was going to make smoked chicken salad out of it anyway. I lucked out this time and found out I better watch it a little closer next time.
The lid was still leaking a lot of smoke. I shut all the dampers off at 7:00, temp 341, at 10:00 the temp was 124, is this typical?
 
No, I had a 16" Terra Cotta saucer wrapped in aluminum foil sitting in the water bowl. I was using lump charcoal with just a few sticks of pecan wood. I'm going to smoke a butt tomorrow, think I'm going with the water.

I was actually a little disappointed in the taste of the ribs, not much smoke or charcoal flavor. The ribs were very tender though. Going low n'slow with the butt and gonna add a little more wood.
 
Water is fine, just remember: lump and plenty of air= boom (lots a heat)

If you minion and catch lump on the way up at 200 you can keep at 250ish for a long time.

Usually around 10-20% on the bottom vents and 50-100% on the top.
 
Thanks for the help Glenn.
I fired it up yesterday after I put it together without any meat in it. I put water in the pan, used the minion method and cut it back to just about what you said and it settled out just like you said, around 250.
I had read about putting the saucer in there and it made some sense so I went to Home Depot and got one. Came home, took the water pan out and poured the water out and put the saucer in. The temp went up since I had the lid off it and I had to close the dampers a little. The temp came down and leveled out and worked fine, I'm thinking now that I may have been running low on lump is why the temp didn't go up.
I've been smoking with an old offset, the damper on the firebox doesn't seem to be as touchy on it as the 3 on the WSM, but then the damper on the offset can move about 6 inches. I think part of it is I'm only use to fiddling with one damper instead of 3.
 
Just remember the clay doesn't affect the temps low's and high's, just how fast it reaches one or the other.

It acts like the shock on a spring..... slows down the bouncing effect. IMHO it keeps the temp more stable when the lid is off for tending to the q!

I use foil only when I want temps above 300 for poulty etc.........

Rule of thumb on lump, 10% lit and 90% unlit for low and slow (250 and less) 20% lit and 80% unlit for medium q (250-275) and so forth and so on.
 
Kinda both, I make a gradual depression in the center. Pour most in there and spread over the entire cc ring area.

I really work the lump in tight so there is no big air gaps. Twist and shake the ring to pack it down tight.

Some say it's too much work to do but I say it's fun to make your own fire bed perfect!
 
Gregg C. I did my 3rd smoke today on the WSM. 1st one where I could keep the temps at or below 225 consistently. I used lump 3/4 basket cold and very few hot. Maybe 1/4 or less small chimney. I also only put my hot on the very edge of the ring not all over the top of the cold. Worked great.
 
Mark,
I fired it up and put some ribs and chicken breasts on yesterday. I tried it with the clay saucer in the water pan. Everything seemed under control and I went in to watch a little TV, fell asleep and when I woke up my temp was up to 341, the ribs and chicken were done and a little on the dry side. The upside of this is I can tell everyone how to smoke chicken breasts and get crispy skin.
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I made smoked chicken salad out of the chicken breasts, it was really good and I'd highly recommend trying it if you like chicken salad, the smoke really adds to it.

This morning, after tweaking the mid section and lid, I fired it up again. The lid still leaks a lot of smoke but seemed better. I used a full load of lump and a full water pan. I don't have a clue as to the brand of my chimney but it appears to be smaller than a weber. I filled it almost to the top and waited til all of it was hot and applied it like Glenn W said he does. I followed Glenn's instructions on cutting the dampers back and the temp went on up to 250, which is what I was shooting for and stayed there all day. I never had a minutes trouble and hope it wasn't just beginners luck. I have quite a bit of experience using an old offset but it only has one damper and it moves about 6 inches, so it's not as picky as the 3 small dampers on the WSM.
Today's smoke was a butt and a hunk of chuck, both turned out great and I owe it to this forum the chuck turned out at all. I checked the forum to see what internal temp I should cook the chuck too and found out most people foil the chuck around 165 and finish it off by feel, not necessarily temp. I was already at 185, so I foiled it and finally about 210 it felt right to me. Even though I've been smoking meat for years I only recently bought a thermometer. Little did I realize how handy that thing is for me to tell how tender meat is when I stick it in there.
I really enjoyed using my new smoker today. I watched it pretty closely but found I didn't have to watch it at all today, it held the temp solid as a rock.
 
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