Anybody else hate their WSM? If so, did you end up loving it?
Wife bought me a used WSM a few years ago, I’ve cooked on it 7 or 8 times and have had a miserable time every time. Thing just eats Kingsford blue bag like tic tacs. Every piece of advice I’ve gotten is to buy expensive aftermarket stuff or expensive charcoal. I don’t see any crazy gaps anywhere, vents are barely cracked. Just so frustrating
Any stories of turning WSM hate into love would be greatly appreciated to get me out of this funk!
Can’t say this will fix your problem, but have you tried B & B charcoal briquettes? A lot of us here really like them for low and slow. I’ve found them to be the longest lasting charcoal briquettes I’ve ever used.
I got my 22” WSM in 2015 and really struggled with temp control. I was watching the temp and constantly adjusting the vents to get to 225° or 250° like recipes called for. My food was cooking in record time and tough or tasting like creosote from all the white smoke generated from a low temp cook. And like you are experiencing, burning through 20+ lbs of KBB with each cook. Every tip and technique I tried didn’t change the result, and I was questioning my ability to cook.
I threw in the towel and got a temp controller. My cooks improved and it kept me from throwing the WSM out. And I use a fraction of the charcoal than I used to, KBB or anything else. Maybe some of the other members here have a different experience and can provide some insight to WSM cooking without extra equipment.
With the Minion Method, ya fill the charcoal chamber with unlit coals. Light 25 in a chimney and when full lit, scatter them on the unlit.
The smoker will slowly start coming up to temp. Most of the time, my 18 WSM would want to settle in around 240* to 245* , so when it hit 225* , I started shutting down the lower air vents. Take them down to about 10% open. Don't try to dial in a specific temp, if it wants to cook at 235 , let it , or go to 260, just go with it. More important that it settles in.
I used dowel rods to adjust the bottom vents. A math wizard on another forum figured out the % open with each size dowel, so I could adjust each vent the same. And I would have a record of what I did.
If later in the cook, the temp starts dropping, open up the vents a little more.
I've got the percentages written on my dowel rod holder. I don't recall the dowel rod sizes, I would guess ............. 1/16 , 1/8 , 1/4 , 3/8 , 1/2, and 5/8 .
Long ramble avoided. This is the way. The only thing I did differently was to leave an open spot and use the doughnut method instead of the minion. Get it going, set the vents and cook at whatever temp it wants to run at.
Weber Smoky Mountain 18” and 22”
Weber Smoque XL w/ front and side folding tables
Weber Genesis E-430 (came with the frame kit).
DigiQ fan controller (WSM 22” has the attachment)
Turkey fryer (2)
Maverick ET-732 (2)
Char-Broil Big Easy Oil-less Turkey Fryer, Bunk Basket (2)
SouthwestDisc 18" Cooking Disc
On both my 18” and 22” I’ve had plenty of success. The 22” feels like cheating because it has a DigiQ controller and a fan. I hadn’t had any problem dialing in the 18” either by adjusting the vents but it did take a bit to get used to.
I used to fill up the water pan on both but I stopped doing that and just let it ride for all my cooks. Once they were dialed in they pretty much stayed at the set temp and I adjusted accordingly depending on what I was cooking.
If you fight with it, you will lose. The WSM knows what it wants to do. You can make suggestions with the dampers, but if you don't keep it in it's comfort zone, you're just asking for trouble. My basic rule was low and slow, put water in the pan. Hot and fast? Leave the pan dry. Get a good double fist sized bunch of charcoal going good and strong, let it get to 200ish, and set the dampers based on experience.
Once you know how to get along with it, buy it a fan and controller if you still want to have something to fiddle with.
I should give credit where its due, I learned how to use the WSM from Chris Allingham's Virtual Weber Bullet site. Its still maybe the largest amount of WSM info on the nets .
I found Chris's site in 2002 and its why I bought my first WSM. Changed my barbecue life.
I have the 18” WSM and my son has a 22” WSM. We both have the ArborFab baskets with the Minion. We both love our WSM’s. He has stayed with the Minion method. I tied the snake but I’m back to the Minion as well. We both go back and forth with using the water bowl but primarily cover it with foil. I have the small Weber chimney and fill that with briquettes (we both use B&B) and dump it in the minion in the center of the ArborFab baskets. I open all 3 vents between 20-30 minutes then close 1 vent completely, leaving 1 vent fully open and the 3rd about 1/2. I use the 3rd one to help regulate the temp. Sometimes opening slightly it or closing slightly to regulate heat. Nate’s 22 stays pretty rock steady with one @ 1/4 open the other two 1/2 to 2/3 open. I generally smoke 2 butts each cut in half. I have never used up full basket of briquettes. Nate usually does at least 2 maybe 4 whole butts at a time but has to add briquettes before they are done. Big fans of the WSM bullets. We both watch for Walmart sales of $9.99 B&B with free delivery.
Love my WSM's. I have 2 of the 22's and use both when doing cooks at work for dealer events. I keep one at home during the year and the other at the office. Purchased a Hunsaker basket, vortex and hanger system for one and have smoked 18 racks of St. Louis ribs on one. I really like hanging ribs. The smokers like to run 265 or so but can coax the temp to 300/325 for hot and fast brisket. I use Harry Soo's method to start them. Small coffee can with both ends cut out placed in the center. Surround that with unlit coals, wood chunks buried inside. Firestarter in the can, light it and fill with unlit briquettes. Once started, pull the can out with channel lock pliers or long handled tongs. Open all the vents 100% until the cooker hits 225. Then close one down and keep the other 2 just a hair cracked open. Also, I foil the water pan and leave it dry. When I first got a WSM I used a pit iq110 to keep the temp. Then I ditched it and learned how to control the temperature manually. Also, I sealed the doors on them using metal HVAC tape. Not pretty but not concerned about looks, only concerned about how they cook and keeping temps stable. In the winter, if it's cold and windy I'll wrap the cooker with a welding blanket and use large binder clips to keep it wrapped.
Hulagn1971 absolutely 16 hours was never a question, i always felt i could get 17 - 20 hours on a full load of BB and wood. And it never shifted in temps when yiu get one set they are locked. Best smoker I have owned so far, better than the Summit Kamado even if you ask me
A WSM was my first smoker. Like you at first it was a love-hate relationship. I didn’t know what I was doing so I had to learn from my mistakes. This was before I knew Amazing Ribs existed. My first semi successful cook was baby back ribs. They were fall off the bone, but they were eatable. Like others have mentioned here I quit using water in the water pan. It ended up being a heat shield instead of a water container. I learned to light one spot in the charcoal and let it spread through the cook. Good grief the first time I lit it I was all wrong! I had a pile of Kingsford soaked in Gulflite charcoal starter and fired her up! I think I might could have smelted iron there for a few minutes. So much of learning to get the best of any cooker is learning how that particular cooker regulates air. Start a bed of coals in yours without any food in it to worry about. Don’t let it get too hot before you set the lid on. Now close one air vent and turn the others to just open maybe 1/4 of the way. Set your top vent to 1/4 way open. Grab a glass of tea and see where you temp stabilizes. Use your top vent to get the temp you want. Open more for higher less for lower. Start out low and gradually open until you’ve reached your desired temperature. If it won’t go high enough then open a bottom vent a bit more. This method simplifies temp control so that you’re not trying to adjust all the vents all the time. That’s just too many variables to get right. At some level no matter what cooker you use you’ll need some experience under your belt. 95% of your problems will be related to fuel and air flow. Just be observant. I’ve been at this almost 15 years now and I’m still learning every cook.
I was super pumped when I received mine and after a year we were not on speaking terms. Too many flame outs and wasted food. Then I realized that the problem was me. I watched some Harry Soo videos and upgraded to B&B charcoal for my long cooks and stopped using the water pan. The only mod I bought was a glorified pizza pan that I wrap in foil and use as a drip pan that I place on top of the water pan. I bought a Billows which I’ve hardly used and all of the vents are covered with the high heat tape that came with it. I love my WSM now. I’ve used in snow, rain, hot as hell and cold as ice but the only weather I will avoid cooking in is the wind.
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