ramkiller
Newbie
Been using Weber charcoal units for 50 years and I bought the WSM 14.5 last year and the first thing I noticed was it leaked air so bad that the smoker would run away temp wise to the very hot side then after a long time it would slowly come down but the amount of time that took and the huge swings were unacceptable for low and slow smoking.
plus I’ve worn out 4 little Smokey joes along my way and one thing I’ve always done with zero bad effects is shut off the vents and smother the coals for the next cook which at times all I needed to do was empty the ash and throw in the unburned charcoal and had another cook with out adding any more charcoal on small cooks.
This WSM would go for several hours after all vents were shut down staying hot until it went through most of the charcoal and waste was preventable.
Plus getting it down in the 200 deg or 190 range was impossible and if you could get to that temp it took forever, and it would never stay there.
Now I can get a 200 degree steady smoke with one lower vent barely cracked open and the other two closed completely.
Solution was to do like many and gasket the the upper barrel for the lid and that fixed most issues.
I also sealed the Lower barrel with HD foil to the base as a hunch and it fixed all other issues and yes it could be shut down to save charcoal and I always remove charcoal the next day and store in a freezer bag to keep dry for the next smoke with zero damage to base of smoker.
I also installed a heavy duty 11 inch stainless grate in base for the charcoal basket that raised the whole works up a couple inches to gain a bunch more ash room for a long smoke.
Works great now and I’ve gained total control of smoke temps down low as well.
I put a 2-1/2 lid vent pipe in lid where the original vent was with control flapper On its end to keep the heavy smoke moving on out fast to save the meats from the dreaded taint.
I’ve also sealed the base to the barrel with high temp black silicone and with the side door it’s a breeze lifting out the ash with the baffle disk they put in the bottom or you can just lift the whole unit up and flip upside down to dump out if needed.
I don’t let the smoker get super hot as I’ve got a kettle for that so I’m always in the 190 to 250 range at top cook grate which I have the lid temp gauge calibrated to.
I’ve just started having the sticky lid to barrel issue on the felt gasket so I’m gonna find a fix for that but any type of veggie oil or Pam spray might make the felt let go of the adhesive silicone holding it on.
I thought I was gonna rip the felt loose the next morning trying to unstick the lid but will find a solution.
I believe the sugar in some of the rubs is drifting as vapor to the underside of the lid and moving down till it gets on the felt gasket causing this issue.
Hasn’t happened to the lid on my kettle with same felt on lid so I’ll holler when I find a cure.
Side door on my 14.5 WSM has zero leaks and hasn’t needed any modify and I can put the fire out in 15-20 minutes to save wasted charcoal plus the safety factor of not having the thing running hot for hours after you finished is a great safety factor.
I also removed the deep water pan as the space was cramped between its bottom and the top of the raised charcoal basket so now I run a super heavy duty 12” shallow pie pan foil wrapper for easy clean up of the meat drips.
plus I’ve worn out 4 little Smokey joes along my way and one thing I’ve always done with zero bad effects is shut off the vents and smother the coals for the next cook which at times all I needed to do was empty the ash and throw in the unburned charcoal and had another cook with out adding any more charcoal on small cooks.
This WSM would go for several hours after all vents were shut down staying hot until it went through most of the charcoal and waste was preventable.
Plus getting it down in the 200 deg or 190 range was impossible and if you could get to that temp it took forever, and it would never stay there.
Now I can get a 200 degree steady smoke with one lower vent barely cracked open and the other two closed completely.
Solution was to do like many and gasket the the upper barrel for the lid and that fixed most issues.
I also sealed the Lower barrel with HD foil to the base as a hunch and it fixed all other issues and yes it could be shut down to save charcoal and I always remove charcoal the next day and store in a freezer bag to keep dry for the next smoke with zero damage to base of smoker.
I also installed a heavy duty 11 inch stainless grate in base for the charcoal basket that raised the whole works up a couple inches to gain a bunch more ash room for a long smoke.
Works great now and I’ve gained total control of smoke temps down low as well.
I put a 2-1/2 lid vent pipe in lid where the original vent was with control flapper On its end to keep the heavy smoke moving on out fast to save the meats from the dreaded taint.
I’ve also sealed the base to the barrel with high temp black silicone and with the side door it’s a breeze lifting out the ash with the baffle disk they put in the bottom or you can just lift the whole unit up and flip upside down to dump out if needed.
I don’t let the smoker get super hot as I’ve got a kettle for that so I’m always in the 190 to 250 range at top cook grate which I have the lid temp gauge calibrated to.
I’ve just started having the sticky lid to barrel issue on the felt gasket so I’m gonna find a fix for that but any type of veggie oil or Pam spray might make the felt let go of the adhesive silicone holding it on.
I thought I was gonna rip the felt loose the next morning trying to unstick the lid but will find a solution.
I believe the sugar in some of the rubs is drifting as vapor to the underside of the lid and moving down till it gets on the felt gasket causing this issue.
Hasn’t happened to the lid on my kettle with same felt on lid so I’ll holler when I find a cure.
Side door on my 14.5 WSM has zero leaks and hasn’t needed any modify and I can put the fire out in 15-20 minutes to save wasted charcoal plus the safety factor of not having the thing running hot for hours after you finished is a great safety factor.
I also removed the deep water pan as the space was cramped between its bottom and the top of the raised charcoal basket so now I run a super heavy duty 12” shallow pie pan foil wrapper for easy clean up of the meat drips.
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