I realize my WSM story among a sea of PBC may not garnish me a lot of accolades, but I wanted to share what I thought was a pretty amazing little feat. I have an 18 and 22" WSM but rarely use the 22" these days. I opt for a kettle most of the time. The little 18" has been with me for about 5 years now. It's modded with about every accessory available. I have it setup like a PBC in that I have the Hunsker hanger and ditched the water pan years ago. I also have all the bottom vents taped shut and run it with a fan port only using my Pit Viper and Fireboard. The top vent controls the temp which when reached is rock solid.
Anyway, so what's the big deal? I decided to do a chuckie last weekend and set everything up to run at 275*F. I don't have an oversize charcoal basket (really no need as you will see) but did fill it up with about 3" of KBB and 3 chunks of mesquite. Typically it take 6 or so hours to do a chuckie this way and this time was no different. After cooking though I generally turn off the top vent and plug the fan port. Unused good charcoal gets reused the next go round.
Well for the first time I forgot to close off the vents. It was getting dark and I just left it that way over night. That was getting pretty close to 7 pm, I had started the cook at 11 am that Saturday morning. So Sunday rolls around and I get up, go in the kitchen to make coffee about 7 am or so and happen to look out the window. I did a double take because the cooker is belching out a nice plume of off white smoke. I rub my eyes and go outside and sure enough that sucker, with no fan, must have run about 220*F all night long, like 12 hours. I was reading the dome thermo which is pretty close to accurate but even if it was off 10 or 15 degrees that's still pretty remarkable.
So I went to shut it down but thought what the heck let it ride. I've never tested to see how long one of these would run on a full load of charcoal. At about 10 am it dropped down to about 190* or so and stayed there until about noon. At noon it was down to about 150* and stayed there until about 4 pm when it was down around 100-110*ish. It finally petered out at about 7 pm, or a total of 32 hours after initial fire up !!
Now granted had I maintained the temp at 250-275* that probably would have only gone maybe 18 hours tops but still that's enough to cook a couple of briskets back to back. I just think it's a testament to the overall design of this little bullet smoker. And for that it will always have a place in Troutman's line up. WSM.....WSM.....WSM !!!!
Anyway, so what's the big deal? I decided to do a chuckie last weekend and set everything up to run at 275*F. I don't have an oversize charcoal basket (really no need as you will see) but did fill it up with about 3" of KBB and 3 chunks of mesquite. Typically it take 6 or so hours to do a chuckie this way and this time was no different. After cooking though I generally turn off the top vent and plug the fan port. Unused good charcoal gets reused the next go round.
Well for the first time I forgot to close off the vents. It was getting dark and I just left it that way over night. That was getting pretty close to 7 pm, I had started the cook at 11 am that Saturday morning. So Sunday rolls around and I get up, go in the kitchen to make coffee about 7 am or so and happen to look out the window. I did a double take because the cooker is belching out a nice plume of off white smoke. I rub my eyes and go outside and sure enough that sucker, with no fan, must have run about 220*F all night long, like 12 hours. I was reading the dome thermo which is pretty close to accurate but even if it was off 10 or 15 degrees that's still pretty remarkable.
So I went to shut it down but thought what the heck let it ride. I've never tested to see how long one of these would run on a full load of charcoal. At about 10 am it dropped down to about 190* or so and stayed there until about noon. At noon it was down to about 150* and stayed there until about 4 pm when it was down around 100-110*ish. It finally petered out at about 7 pm, or a total of 32 hours after initial fire up !!
Now granted had I maintained the temp at 250-275* that probably would have only gone maybe 18 hours tops but still that's enough to cook a couple of briskets back to back. I just think it's a testament to the overall design of this little bullet smoker. And for that it will always have a place in Troutman's line up. WSM.....WSM.....WSM !!!!
I'm not judging... you need to spread the love otherwise the other cookers get lonely...
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