What to expect from the WSM


 
J

Joey K

TVWBB Member
I've been following some threads on here we're people are talking about air leaks making it hard to control temps or hard to shut down the coals at the end of a cook. Well a while ago I smoked some spare ribs and panicked about the fact that my bottom 3 vents were closed the whole time and my temp never dropped below 250. So I broke down the WSM and measured it and found it to be fairly out of round. Called Weber and they sent me out a new bottom and middle section.

I just got around to moving the hardware from the old WSM to the new one. And I was thinking as I did, will it really make that much difference?? What should I expect out of the WSM, I know its easy, and all of my cooks so far have turned out great. But when closing the bottom vents completely what kind of temps should I expect to be seeing?
 
Joey, I think it is extremely hard to say. There are many factors that affect this:

1) Cooking in direct sun or not
2) Ambient (outside) temperature
3) Wind or not
4) What type of fuel you are using, lump vs briquettes
5) What type of lighting method (mini-minion, regular minion, standard)
6) How much food on the cooker and how cold it is going in
7) Water in pan vs. empty pan vs. heat sink
8) Altitude at which one is cooking
9) New shiny cooker vs. well-seasoned cooker
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Joey K:
But when closing the bottom vents completely what kind of temps should I expect to be seeing? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I haven't tried it, but I believe that if I closed the bottom vents completely, my fire would go out. Maybe I've tweaked my WSM (including the door) a little more than most people - I just don't think it leaks enough air to keep the fire burning with just the top vent open.
 
If you had it going, a fair amount of coals lit, it will take a long time to shut down, especially being new. After a few cooks the smoke and stuff will seal any minor gaps. And...there will be minor gaps. Its a great cooking machine but....is anything today made of high quality? Heck no. They produce them as fast as they can im sure. Yeah there is quality assurance but...its all about the buck.Yeah they could put handles on it, make a better quality door etc...Will they, of coarse not. Just use it and learn. You will love it and learn what you can and cant do w/ it.
 
I expect the fire to go out if I shut all the vents including the top vent. Closing only the bottom vents is going to bring the fire down, but it will probably not put the fire out but it should bring the fire down considerably. However, as has been said, there are a lot of variables. If you would have shut down or even closed the top vent, you probably would have been able to get your fire under control.
 
Mine won't extinguish the fire even with all the vents closed, with the top open and one or two bottom vents 1/8 to 1/4 open I can hold 225 all day. As long as the food tastes good I'm not going to worry about it.
 
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