Mod Recommendations For A WSM 22"

[ecowper]

Okay, I just got a Weber Smokey Mountain 22" .... I already love this thing and I have yet to cook on it. I have read the entire tips, tricks, mods page on Amazing Ribs main site. I figure I want the Cajun Bandit after market door and charcoal ring, add door, base and lid gaskets, and get the Island Outdoors hinge for the lid.

For anyone that has modded one of these, what do you think of those mods? Any that you would not do? What else should I consider?

[Jerod Broussard]

Ernest Jon Solberg

[Ernest]

I've never had an issue with the door, I do highly recommend the hinge and a smaller charcoal ring. Anything else would be cosmetic.

[Ernest]

Nope, only mod I have is the hinge. ecowper

[BriggsBBQ]

You use the 14.5 ring on the 22", I thought everyone was using the 18.5 ring? On the 18.5 do you use the 18.5 ring?

[BriggsBBQ]

I did a brisket over the weekend that turned out awesome but I did not have great temperature control. Could be how I started the fire.....had a lot of wood I let burn a while without cylinder or top on. Figuring it out.

[ecowper]

Ernest ....

Thanks .... the base and lid seem to seal well anyhow. The door seems a bit hokey, but I bent it a bit and now it fits much better. I am running my first seasoning load of charcoal and it's holding temp pretty steady.

Do you have a preference for the charcoal ring? I am looking at getting the one from Cajun Bandit.

[ecowper]

Ernest are you using a donut, minion, other method with the 14.5 ring for ribs?

[Ernest]

ecowper no sir! I can't be bothered with all these techniques. I light up a handful of briquettes and dump them over the of the coals in the charcoal ring.
I'm from the the school of "it's just BBQ" and not rocket science. LOL

[ecowper]

That's how I get my Hasty-Bake going. I fire up 15-20 briquettes in a chimney, dump them on top of a nice sized pile in the firebox .... works beautifully for ribs on there. Perfect, I will be ordering a 14.5 ring from weber.

[richinlbrg]

I have the 18' and the only mod I needed was a gasket. If you are not having temp control issues and don't see smoke escaping anywhere, no real need for a door or gasket. Mine leaked a lot before the gasket, not so much at the door.

[ecowper]

All I've done so far is burn a load of charcoal to burn out the grease/oil. Next up is a first smoke with scrap meat. I'll run a fuse on the charcoal and some wood for smoke. That will give me a good idea if it leaks badly, or not.

[richinlbrg]

ecowper , have you tried varying your temps yet? Counter-intuitive, but your best control is with the top vent, not the bottom vents, in my experience.

My experience with the fuse is that I can get away with it if there is not much meat in the smoker and it is warmer and calmer weather. Otherwise, I use the doughnut. My experience is that the doughnut gives me much more temp capability than the fuse does, especially if I need to crank it up. Others may have different experiences.

[ecowper]

Nope, haven't done any of that yet. I literally assembled it yesterday and started seasoning it today.

[ecowper]

That's good to know on the fuse. I live near Seattle. Warm days here don't mean the same thing as warm days in the rest of the country :-)

[richinlbrg]

Just trial and error. If you run a fuse tomorrow, and can't get your temps to boost, you'll know why. If you have little meat on, and you can barely get the temp up, you'll know that in that ambient condition, the fuse wont work with a full load. I just had to find out the hard way. Have had to pull the upper section off and re-arrange the coals to go from a fuse to a doughnut. Just experience, IMHO
Try it while breaking in, not during a big cook! LOL

[ecowper]

That would be a huge pain to have to rebuild the fire during a cook. Yep, definitely going to see what it takes to get heat/temp right while I'm practicing and seasoning.

[richinlbrg]

I was not happy about it!

Just one ore learning experience! LOL

[Jon Solberg]

Stop trying to fix what's not broke. It's a brand new smoker so you don't even know what wrong with it yet. Build a fire and smoke something. Don't try to make it better till you at least now it's not right. Don't buy a door. Harry Soo sells them but DONT. NO NEED FOR GASKETS. People that don't even own a WSM will tell you too. What the heck is that about. Take what you have and cook. If you want easy use your oven. If you want bar b que. Cool. Cook Then cook again.

Look at people's signature and be ware of those that tell you how to do it that don't even own that cooker. Beware.

It ain't broke. Don't try and fix it.

Best part is you got this. It's prety easy stuff for sure

[BriggsBBQ]

Agreed I am learning about my new WSM now. As I cook with it if certain things bother me then I consider the upgrade. Except for sealing the door which was done because I had extra Egg gasket laying in the garage and was bored.

[BriggsBBQ]

I really do not notice any less smoke coming out of the sealed door and I bet the lid seal is just fine too. On the WSM if you want it hotter let the base fire build up more before putting the top on.

[Beefchop]

I agree with this. I have a stock WSM 18.5" that I've cooked on for 5 years in all seasons with zero mods. I've had it as far north as Maryland and as far south as Louisiana.

[ecowper]

Yesterday I burned off the oil in the WSM. I just ran a chimney of Kingsford in it, no water, with all of the vents wide open. Air temp was about 60, partly cloudy, and I hit 355 or so. Did a good job of burning out the oil, too.

Today is a seasoning cook. I found an old, freezer burned, chuck roast in the freezer and I'm using that. Loaded the charcoal ring just a bit over halfway with charcoal, made Harry's donut, put a couple chunks of apple wood in, added a half chimney of briquets. Water pan is 2/3 full. With the vents wide open, it hit 200 quickly, so I closed the bottom down to 1/3 open, top wide open, 225 took another 5 minutes. Put the meat on, closed it up and we are at a steady 243 now.

Air temp is 63 and mostly cloudy. When the sun hit for a bit, temp jumped to 260, but came back down once the clouds were back. It's holding a nice, steady 243 now. That is with the bottom vents closed and the top vent 1/3 open. On a hot day, it will probably be difficult to keep the temp down. I like to cook ribs, pork butt, etc at 235-250.

This model has the pre-drilled hole and grommet for sensors ... really nice for setting up the ET-732. I think I'm going to drill some holes and grommet them on my Hasty-Bake, way better than trying to manage cables out the door.

So far, so good. Another throwaway/seasoning cook like this and I'll be ready to cook a couple pork butts for the fam.

I definitely want the lid hinge. Trying to take it off and set it down all the time is a pain. I think I'm going to want to either change the door or seal it better, because it is definitely leaking air into the pit. The lid lets a lot of smoke out, but I'm not convinced that's any sort of big issue. I probably also want two charcoal rings. The big one it comes with for big/long cooks, and a 14.5" ring for shorter/smaller cooks.

[ecowper]

Pulled the chuck roast off after 3 hours. Water ran out, temp started spiking, meat hit 160. I refilled the water pan and I'm letting it keep cooking. Mostly, I want to know how long that charcoal runs at a steady temp.

Took a taste of the chuck roast. Smoke flavor was outstanding. Obviously, very tough still. So, decided to turn it into chili.

[ecowper]

This quote is directly from the AR WSM review page (http://amazingribs.com/bbq_equipment...er-smoker-22):

"Like the original 18.5" WSM, this big unit cooks at a remarkably steady temp for hours and raising or lowering temp is fairly easy by opening and closing the vents. Problem is we had difficulty getting it down under 275°F."

I can definitely see that as an issue on the 22 now that I've cooked with it a bit. I understand fully the "if it ain't broke, don't mess with it" approach. In this case, there are a bunch of folks, starting with Meathead, that say that high temps due to a leaky door are a problem on the WSM 22 (but not on the WSM 18.5). I am going to to run a few more trial cooks with this guy and then figure out what, if anything, I need to do.

That said

1. Getting a hinge for the lid, cause the lid is a pain in the butt during a cook to take on and off.
2. I'm getting a Cajun Bandit door ... the stock door leaks. But, even if that isn't the issue, it looks cheap. Going to put stainless on there just because I want the look.

I am probably going to order the 18.5 and 14.5 charcoal rings from Weber. Convenient for different types of cooks is my thinking.

I won't know if I need to install gaskets on it until I have the new door and have cooked with it more. Since installing gaskets is a hassle, I will wait on that.

[Beefchop]

ecowper My 18.5" cooks on the hot side (250 - 275). I minimize it a la Harry Soo by adjusting my top vent and by building up a good coat of seasoning on the interior.

[ecowper]

Beefchop yeah, the 22 cooked at 245 on a 60 degree, mostly cloudy day with bottom vents closed and the top vent only 10% open. When the sun came out for a while, the temp shot up to 265 immediately (I had a probe on both the top and bottom grills). I'm thinking on an 80 degree, sunny day that I won't get 245 out of it without a lot of work. For ribs, especially, I want my temps under 250.

Like I said, I think some of this is to run quite a few cooks, get good seasoning built up inside, etc. And some of it is that door, which is letting a ton of air into the WSM.

[Kirton]

A quick question.
Nomex self adhesive gasket. Do I apply it to the top of the centre section of my 22 and the lid or just the centre section?

[ecowper]

Hey Kirton I haven't done this myself. I THINK if I was going to, i would do it on the top of the center section only and let the lid's weight seal against it.

[BriggsBBQ]

That was how I did it. Only on one side. I think it seals very well. However the first cook with the gaskets the door handle broke and I had to make due with a propped up door that did not seal 100%

[Kirton]

Thanks Guys,
I will do just the centre section and see how I get on, after all I guess I can do the lid at a later stage if it seems necessary. I shall report back.

[lofive]

I have the 18 and I bought a CB door and I am getting the gaskets. I have smoked 2 fatties, 100lbs of pulled pork and now ribs. I love this smoker, but I am still having issues with leaks.

I bought enough for my performer as well. I am getting tired of using the clips with my Slow n Sear.

ecowper I am interested in the hinge install. Let me know how it goes.