When my WSM first showed up via UPS four years ago, the first thing I did was "insulate" the side door by wrapping it with heavy duty foil. No smoke ever seems to escape through it. The only problem is that I have battled low temperatures with every cook. I could rarely get the lid temp to hold at anything over 210 degrees for a long cook, and it would often slip below 200. It seems that my cooker was so air-tight that the ventilation of the open top vent and the open three bottom vents did not create enough flow to keep a substantial heat supply going. Finally, this past weekend, I simply took the foil off. A small amount of smoke escaped through the unwrapped door, but my temperatures came on up and I actually had to close off some of the bottom vents. Even with a minimum of lit and unlit, I was able to hold steady at 240 degrees for ten hours. I wish I had not waited so long to make this modification.
