I'm still pretty new to the WSM (18"), only used it a handful of times now, but I'm not new to smoking. Yesterday I put half a rack of ribs on at 12:30 in the afternoon, and it held pretty rock steady temp around 230-240 (only one bottom vent open ~1/8", top vent open about the same), I didn't have to mess with it except closing the lower vent just a bit as the temps tried to rise along with the ambient outside temp. I took 'em off at 6:30ish. Closed the vents all the way, ate dinner, watched some TV, went to bed.
This morning around 8am I was going to go put the cover on the smoker and found it was still warm, the dome temp was reading 150*F. Temps outside were in the 70's. Obviously the fire never went out and was still getting a little air. The vents were all closed, and the door was closed. Couldn't see any smoke exiting the cooker anywhere.
The door is far from being perfectly sealed, but shutting the vents and leaving it alone has always put the fire out, though it does always take longer to cool off than I'd expect. For example my Kettle shuts down and cools off much faster, even when cooking at much higher temps. I can shut down a 400* cook and an two hours later it's cool enough to put the cover back on. I've been kicking around the idea of putting a gasket on the door to seal it up better.
Looking around the seam between the middle section and bottom I noticed the middle section wasn't sitting *exactly* perfect, but it was off such a small amount I didn't notice anything until taking that close look, the cooking grates were still level enough that I didn't notice anything was off yesterday. I never saw smoke coming out of that seam, yesterday or this morning.
I adjusted the middle section a bit so it sat perfectly, and an hour later the dome temp was down to 120ish.
So, my question for you more experienced WSM owners, does having the middle section not sitting EXACTLY perfectly give you similar results when trying to shut the thing down? Will installing a gasket on the door make it less reliant on being *exactly* perfect, and put the fire out and let it cool down faster?
FYI the ribs were good. So was the chicken we cooked on the rotisserie on the kettle.
This morning around 8am I was going to go put the cover on the smoker and found it was still warm, the dome temp was reading 150*F. Temps outside were in the 70's. Obviously the fire never went out and was still getting a little air. The vents were all closed, and the door was closed. Couldn't see any smoke exiting the cooker anywhere.
The door is far from being perfectly sealed, but shutting the vents and leaving it alone has always put the fire out, though it does always take longer to cool off than I'd expect. For example my Kettle shuts down and cools off much faster, even when cooking at much higher temps. I can shut down a 400* cook and an two hours later it's cool enough to put the cover back on. I've been kicking around the idea of putting a gasket on the door to seal it up better.
Looking around the seam between the middle section and bottom I noticed the middle section wasn't sitting *exactly* perfect, but it was off such a small amount I didn't notice anything until taking that close look, the cooking grates were still level enough that I didn't notice anything was off yesterday. I never saw smoke coming out of that seam, yesterday or this morning.
I adjusted the middle section a bit so it sat perfectly, and an hour later the dome temp was down to 120ish.
So, my question for you more experienced WSM owners, does having the middle section not sitting EXACTLY perfectly give you similar results when trying to shut the thing down? Will installing a gasket on the door make it less reliant on being *exactly* perfect, and put the fire out and let it cool down faster?
FYI the ribs were good. So was the chicken we cooked on the rotisserie on the kettle.


