smoker cannon


 
B

Brian Cross

TVWBB Member
Has this happened to anyone else. I had to take the top and center sections off my 18.5 inch one time awhile back to add charcoal on a extra long cook. I was fixing two pork butts so there was grease on top of the heat shield. Putting it back on the heat shield slipped and poured grease on top the coals and fire shot up like a cannon. Lucky I didn't get smoked. Just something this dumb ol boy lived thru and thought I would share and to see if its happened to anyone else? The lid was not being put on just the middle section at the time . Just be careful. You can't fix stupid:wsm:!
 
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Brian, I think that’s why they put a door on the side. Not to be a wise guy but I’ve never needed to add so much that a shovel (that will fit through the door) didn’t do the job just fine.
Your point is a good one though,
Grease+hot coals=flames!
 
I've done the hot squat a few times on the 18 and 14 but never with the 22, and I was not using water in the pan. I confess that I find it convenient late in the smoke when I want to rid the coals of ash. If I'm only adding fuel or stoking the fire the access door works fine for me. I don't understand grease on the heat shield, though.
 
Oh yes, this is a known condition. It's been written about here:

Common Operating Mistakes

It can happen when you lift off the parts or even if you bump the cooker when the water pan is full to the top.

And it's been visualized in this cartoon that's appeared on the virtualweberbullet.com homepage a few times:

jieJVgu.gif


Seriously, this is why Weber does not want you to remove the lid and middle cooking section during a cook, especially if the pan's full of water and grease. I've done it a bunch of times without incident, but if you're going to do it, it's important to make sure the water pan is properly seated on the four flanges. In a few cases there may be a poor fit of the pan on the flanges. If so, that can be fixed:

http://virtualweberbullet.com/partstrouble.html#pan
 
Yes I've learned by doing a few times on these smokers and as easy as they are to run I've done a few things I would not have wanted a group of people watching when it happened :wsm: Doing much better these days! Don't have to add charcoal after learning somethings on here. And some on my own.
 
I understand that avoidance of these issues is specifically why Weber did not put handles on the middle section.
 
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