Should I get a 26" Kettle or a 22" WSM?


 
C

ChangL

TVWBB Fan
Hi y'all,

My wife gave me the OK to get another grill. (I know, lucky am I, right?) I am debating between getting the large 26" Kettle and a 22" WSM. My main purpose is to be able to smoke a whole packer brisket without having to reload charcoal during my overnight cooks. Also, I want to continue smoking a full 20lb turkey at Thanksgiving. :)

I have gotten by with using my 22" grills. With a bit of careful trimming, I can use the indirect method and smoke a brisket for up to 10-13 hours. The only problem is that I have to remove the brisket and reload the grill with a full load of charcoal in the middle of the night. I usually do it when it's time to remove the brisket anyway to wrap it in butcher paper, but it's still a bit of an inconvenience. And to make a large Costco turkey fit, I have remove the top grate and lower my roasting pan onto a couple of bricks. But again, I do need to reload charcoal midway through the cook since some of the charcoal space is taken up by the bricks. So that's why a larger smoker would be useful.

I know that a 26" Kettle would comfortably hold up a brisket or a turkey with all that extra real estate. But at the same time, a 22" WSM would do the same and then some. The only thing is I've never used such a large WSM, and I don't know if I would enjoy dealing with clean up. I see that the water pan is quite large, and that I'm the type that would probably be wrapping that thing in foil for every cook. I'd much rather just use a cheap disposable aluminum pan as I currently do with my 22" cooks...

Advice much appreciated!

Chang
 
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Get a brochure for Kalamazoo grills, and tell the missus you are thinking of one of those. When she sees that the price of those is roughly the same as a new car, you can agree with her that $25,000 really IS too much for a grill. Then you say, I guess I'll just get a couple of Webers for a few hundred a piece. Then get both.
 
I love the advice! Right now I either need to reduce my collection of grill projects or figure out how I am going to sleep in one of them:eek:!
 
ChangL said:
I am debating between getting the large 26" Kettle and a 22" WSM. My main purpose is to be able to smoke a whole packer brisket without having to reload charcoal during my overnight cooks. Also, I want to continue smoking a full 20lb turkey at Thanksgiving
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I have had the 26" Kettle for a couple years now, and I got a 22" WSM Christmas of 2016. I have a few other 22" kettles, and the 18" WSM and a 2016 Genesis. If I had to downsize, the 18" WSM, the 22" Kettle and the Genesis would all go before my 26" Kettle and 22" WSM, I would keep those two to the very end. Now the hard part, what's better my 26" Kettle or my 22" WSM.... If I had to pick, I'd say the 22" WSM gets the nod, because there are things you can with a WSM, that you just can't do with a Kettle. Not many, but enough to give the 22" WSM "the gotta have."
 
Not to start a war, but, the only things that I cook on are a 22.5 WSM & a 26er. Now that I'm not competing, I only cook on the WSM 4-5 times a year.

I do everything from high heat grilling, to low & slow smoking, to even cold smoking on the 26er.

If I had to pick one, it would definitely be the 26er. If I had to cook 6 or more racks of ribs at one time, or if I had a couple of smaller kettles that I used regularly, I would probably go for the WSM.





BD
 
I foil my pan every cooking session. I put the ashes in it to soak up any left over water (forming an ash-mud substance). I fold it into thirds and it slides right back into the charcoal bag for the trash. Not difficult at all.
 
You guys with the 26 really have me wanting one but I can never find used ones. Just made a stacker for my 22 kettle so it will do until one pops up.

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AlfonzoW said:
You guys with the 26 really have me wanting one but I can never find used ones. Just made a stacker for my 22 kettle so it will do until one pops up.

wYZEseh.jpg
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That looks like a pretty cool adaptation! How does it work on the inside? Are you using additional grates?
 
Hard to see but it has 3 grates and the lowest one is for the diffuser plate. If you want to smoke with water you could add a stainless bowl.

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P.S. I recently saw a post on the Weber Kettle Club where somebody lucked into one of the very old original 26ers. It looks more like a flying saucer. It was in a pile of junk, I guess from an estate sale. While a real cool and very collectible grill, dealing with three bottom vents that clog with grease and ash and no one-touch ash sweep would probably get old and relegate it to more of a “looker” than a practical grill. Still a really cool find:

Pat Pending flat top 26" saved from the scrap heap http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/index.php?topic=34980
 
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Chang, like Chuck I have a 26er and a 22 WSM (along with quite a few others). Would be tough to decide between the two but if I had too I would choose the 26. I like the versatility of the 26, direct, indirect and the ability to do larger cooks or cooking for one. I also like to do ribs flat and can easily do 3 slabs indirect. I think 6 hours is the longest I have ever gone with out needing to reload the kettle. The 22 WSM will easily take a packer and with the larger coal ring I can easily go 13 hours on a bag of KBB. The 22 will hold a pile of meat too. I've done 8 tri-tips with enough room for baked taters. IMO foil is cheaper than the disposal pans, so double wrap the water pan. Clean up is easy. Dump the foil and the ash, done.

one alternative however since you have a 22" kettle is this. Get the Cajun Bandit conversion kit which turns your kettle into a smoker and buy a 26. Cheaper than buying each and keeps the wife off your tail. Good luck. Keep us posted on which way you decided to go.
 
Dustin Flavell said:
Chang, like Chuck I have a 26er and a 22 WSM....
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I am drooling with envy at the many of you in this forum who have and use both. But thanks for the helpful advice about the apparent easiness of cleaning the WSM's water pan when lined with foil, as well as the capacity of doing up to 3 slabs of ribs indirect in the 26er. When I get one or the other I'll definitely post.

BTW, does anyone know if OSH still has their "free tax" day deals, and if they apply to Weber products? Just wondering, you know!
 
Chang, don’t have to much grill envy The only one I bought new was my 26er. All the others have been off CL. That’s a thought too since the 26’s rarely come up on CL buy that one new and watch CL for a deal on a used 22 WSM. They come up more often and then you have one that is already seasoned.
 
Chang, are there any serious grill/smoker stores near you? Sometimes a store that does a lot of outdoor cooking business will accept used equipment in trade; I bought my used WSM this way.
 
I have two 26's kettles (flat top and a newer one) and two 18WSM's. I have smoked briskets just fine on my 26.75." However, I honestly prefer to do them in the WSM (and yes you can do a full packer just fine in an 18WSM) because it seems to run steadier; longer. I actually want a 22WSM for competition cooking

Yes you have to wrap the pan in foil. But...buy the heavy duty foil at Costco and cleanup is really easy if you dump the cold ashes, then add the foil/grease on top of it in a trash bag (ashes soak up the grease).

That said...the 26" is an amazing bbq. It will change your life. I absolutely love mine! But if you are looking at continuing to grill on your 22" kettle, you may want to opt for the 22WSM instead for the smoking applications.
 
Mike in Roseville said:
(and yes you can do a full packer just fine in an 18WSM)
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How large a packer brisket have you been able to fit in the 18WSM? I had thought that the 18 would require a whole lot of trimming to fit, whereas the 22 can take anything Costco sells...

In any case, having two 26ers sounds like a lot of fun!
 
I've done 18#'s on mine more than a few times, so they will fit if you wedge it tween the handles. They will shrink as you cook them.
A plus if you buy the 22.5" WSM is the lid will fit on your kettle for that large turkey, extra head-space so you don't need to lower the grate and easier to do a HH turkey.

Tim
 
That’s a really wise observation Timothy! Now that I have acquired a 22 WSM I will use that method when I need extra “headroom” thanks!
 
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