Second time on our new to us WSM at a loss as to why the temp problem


 
I find it frustrating to try to get high(er) heat with minion starts. If you want a hot fire, build one with a whole chimney full of lit coals. That'll do the trick. Especially if you let the unlit coals catch on the lit coals with the lid off for a while before you close up the WSM.
 
I never seem to have issues with minion. You just have to make sure you have the coals lit fully before dumping them in the smoker. Also are you using a portable thermometer ? You aren't going by the one on the lid are you? My lid thermometer was way off, like 60 degrees.

I mean even if you had 1 coal lit and vents wide open eventually your coals are going to catch and start to heat up. I have seen this when i have accidentally almost put my fire out to lower temp. Then open the vents fully and the coals will start to catch and heat up again.

How long are you heating your coals up in the chimney starter?
 
Mike_L (Big Mike) said:
I never seem to have issues with minion. You just have to make sure you have the coals lit fully before dumping them in the smoker. Also are you using a portable thermometer ? You aren't going by the one on the lid are you? My lid thermometer was way off, like 60 degrees.

I mean even if you had 1 coal lit and vents wide open eventually your coals are going to catch and start to heat up. I have seen this when i have accidentally almost put my fire out to lower temp. Then open the vents fully and the coals will start to catch and heat up again.

How long are you heating your coals up in the chimney starter?
Click to expand...

I dump the chimney when the coals are all lit.
I have a maverick which I reference to the lid thermometer I know that the lid thermometer is 10 degrees lower then what the Maverick reads at the grate and that's what it was showing so I know the mav was working okay.

It appears for what ever reason only the top one or two coals burned everything underneath was not burned.
 
Rich - You are doing everything correctly in that consistency matters so much. The number of coals, how you light them, when to dump the chimney are all key steps. I remember that my first few cooks had temp swings that are no longer happening because I became rigidly consistent. I suggest you cook a nice pork butt next for a long time to season up your WSM. After it's nice and dirty inside from a few fatty cooks, it's actually more consistent. The other thing to keep in mind is waiting a bit after you dump the coals. The temp will stabilize by itself and then you put the food on. The food changes the temperature too, so stick to room temperature meat if you can.

Be patient, and after about the 4th or 5th cook, it all starts to come together.
 
I would suspect the humidity. That causes us more problems during a competition except high winds and my covers take care of that problem.

I start the WSMs with 12-13 lit coals spread out on top of the unlit and never have any temp problems. With what you said about the coals not lit underneath, I would wonder if you charcoal hasn't absorbed moisture.
 
Scientificly speaking, if everything about the cook was the "same", then the results would also be the "same". Something was different.
 
Al Silverman said:
Scientificly speaking, if everything about the cook was the "same", then the results would also be the "same". Something was different.
Click to expand...

Of course something was different, the question is what. And that my friend, is the answer that will never be known.
I'm sticken with bad karma!
 
Hi Rich,

A follow up. Yesterday I ran into a similar problem as yours but this happened with my Performer. I set it up indirect for chicken wings and the temperature never got past 326 degrees with the vents wide open, and after an hour went down from there! I know my Performer well, and I I have to close the bottom vents by 75% to get it to stay at around 300~350 so something went wrong. When I opened the lid to flip the wings I noticed the charcoal seemed to be burning normally so that was puzzling. I added a more charcoal at that point, and nothing. All I could get at that point was 314 degrees.

I thought, "well, it could be the charcoal", I used Kingsford Comp because the store was out of Stubbs which is my go to Performer charcoal. But that couldn't be right because I used it a couple of times in my SJS and it was nice and hot, and for quite a while. Or maybe it was because I thoroughly cleaned the grill that morning, but that wasn't it either because I do that every month and never had a problem.

Then it downed on me. I keep my gloves in the charcoal bin and when I pulled them out yesterday afternoon before the cook they felt really damp, so much so I set them out in the Sun to dry. Just an aside, I keep my grill under cover in the terrace and with the grill cover on as well. Story short, Saturday we had over two inches of rain here - nonstop for about three hours.

I now know that the humidity was so high that it not only made my gloves wet, it did it to the charcoal as well. The charcoal seemed to burn normally but it just didn't burn hot. I also noticed something else. When I light coals in the Performer I normally shut down the assist in a minute or two. That's all it takes and there is smoke all over the place. Yesterday after four minutes there was no smoke to speak of and the coals were just getting lit.

In my case it was the humidity that caused the problem. Just a heads up :).

Best,

Jose
 
Last edited:
Another follow up. This morning I went out to cover the grill and checked the charcoal bin again on the Performer. The gloves were damp again! And they were dry yesterday after laying them in the sun. So the charcoal is still very moist. I can fix that :).

i-d7ntVFJ-XL.jpg
 
Jose Suro said:
Another follow up. This morning I went out to cover the grill and checked the charcoal bin again on the Performer. The gloves were damp again! And they were dry yesterday after laying them in the sun. So the charcoal is still very moist. I can fix that :).

i-d7ntVFJ-XL.jpg
Click to expand...

We had a boat load of rain the two days before the cook that went bad and I keep my charcoal in a Kingsford caddy which sits under the shelf of my Genesis 1000 which is covered and on a covered patio. I'm going to bet that's what happened the humidity got to it my charcoal, I'm sure it was very humid under that grill cover.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top