WSM replacement door

[_John_]

Thinking about ordering one today, anyone have problems? I did a big cook last week and will do another next week, and I was really surprised at how inefficient my WSM is (the 22.5). I am used to cooking at 275, maintaining that temp with an overflowing basket of coals is only getting me 8 hours, there has to be a lot of heat getting out because that amount of coals in my PBC would get me 24 hours of cooking.

Anyone test before and after? If not, I suppose I will do so.

Edit: I tried another search and got better results, seems like new door as well as gasket is ideal, but no real data around whether or not they actually increase efficiency.

[CandySueQ]

If you have the square top on the door hole, turning the door where the latch is at the bottom works wonders. If it's arched like the one you're selling, that doesn't work.

[_John_]

I got my door and decided to do a quick, not very scientific test.

I put a chimney of unlit coals in one corner of the ring and lit up another chimney. After 20 minutes I dumped the coals in with the others and opened all vents 100%. After 20 minutes I put in wood chunks, weighed to be as close as possible, and closed all of the bottom vents except the one across from the coals which stayed 100% open.

Results are pretty obvious from the pics, hopefully it holds true on a larger scale. Here is the old door, you can see it spikes to about 250 and is above 225 for about 1.5 hours.


Second got up to 300 and stayed above 225 for about 3 hours.


Ran them on different days to let the smoker cool, same ambient, humidity etc.

[PaulstheRibList]

I bought it, then went back to my original door. The door latch does not seem to like being removed and put on the new door.

And, I don't see a big help to eliminating that little bit of air leaking out of the factory door. My typical cooks have shifted to being fully loaded, like 8+ racks of ribs or some big meats, so with my now stock charcoal layout in the Fuse method, I'm needing more heat than less.

[_John_]

PaulstheRibList they have one on their site here. Link is for 22.5 but they have other sizes. The latch is way better, it turns like the original but then closing the latch pulls the door tight and locks it in place.