# Shutting down WSM after your smoke's done?  Update Weber response



## teebob2000 (Oct 9, 2011)

Hi all - in my experience so far (2 weeks) using my 22" WSM I expected that when whatever I had cooking was finished, I could shut down the bottom/top vents and the fire would extinguish so that I could save some of the coals.  This hasn't been the case.  It keeps going and going and ... which, if I wanted to do a 12-hour slow-smoke (brisket on Friday!) would be great, but I'm not.

If closing all the vents doesn't do it, what does, if anything?

Thanks

Tom


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## forluvofsmoke (Oct 9, 2011)

No WSM in my arsenal, but my weber gol kettle will kill a hot bed of coals in less than 5 mintues.

Sounds like you have loose fitting vent hardware, access door or the barrel/fire bowl are slightly out of round, which will prevent them from seating tightly together.

Not air-tight, whatever the cause. You may want to shine a flashlight (in low light) towards the vents and all mating surfaces of the barrel to check for small gaps.

A bit of gentle coaxing to tweek things into the prpoer shape for a better match-up will usually do the trick.


Eric


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## fpnmf (Oct 9, 2011)

I just close the vents on my WSM.

I have two open holes where the probes go thru that I don't plug.

It does take a good while too cool,but I dont think it's because of leaks.

Just holds the heat well.

Are you saying it burns all the charcoal??

  Craig


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## tyotrain (Oct 9, 2011)

Same here i close all vents and let her go out.. Most the time i will have coals left


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## SmokinAl (Oct 10, 2011)

Mine takes 10-15 minutes to go out & I have several holes in it for probe wires.


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## teebob2000 (Oct 10, 2011)

fpnmf said:


> Are you saying it burns all the charcoal??
> 
> Craig


Hi Craig - yes, all the charcoal burns to ashes.  It stays at about 220 for the duration, until everything's burned out.


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## teebob2000 (Oct 10, 2011)

forluvofsmoke said:


> No WSM in my arsenal, but my weber gol kettle will kill a hot bed of coals in less than 5 mintues.
> Sounds like you have loose fitting vent hardware, access door or the barrel/fire bowl are slightly out of round, which will prevent them from seating tightly together.
> Not air-tight, whatever the cause. You may want to shine a flashlight (in low light) towards the vents and all mating surfaces of the barrel to check for small gaps.
> A bit of gentle coaxing to tweek things into the prpoer shape for a better match-up will usually do the trick.
> Eric


Thanks, Eric.  The center section was a little out of round because I had to wiggle the lid to get it snug and I squeezed it on the sides to fix that.  Other than that, it seems 

pretty snug.  I'll try the light test tonight.


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## teebob2000 (Oct 10, 2011)

The door doesn't close completely tight, it does leak smoke a little bit and also lose some smoke between the lid and center section.  These should not be air-tight I assume?  Don't see how they could be as they don't truly seal up.


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## fpnmf (Oct 10, 2011)

I have not seen any posts here about that...

Ya got air leaking in the bottom somewhere..

Try a visit to http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/index.html

  They have lots of help and forums..

  Craig


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## teebob2000 (Oct 12, 2011)

I submitted a question about extinguishing the coals to Weber via their customer service online form and got the following response:


> Closing all the vents will reduce the amount of oxygen to the coals and may result in them going out, but it is not our intention for them to go out quick enough for them to be reused. We advise against attempting to re-use charcoal as you should only be adding enough for a single cooking. Leaving unused charcoal in a smoker (or grill) will trap moisture and will promote corrosion.


I intended to use the coals all the way down on my last smoke, but my pork shoulder was done a couple hours before I figured it would be.  This isn't too big a deal, I guess, when you consider how cheap charcoal is.  Just curious how to get the same performance others have.

Thanks all for the advice.


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## SmokinAl (Oct 13, 2011)

teebob2000 said:


> I submitted a question about extinguishing the coals to Weber via their customer service online form and got the following response:
> 
> I intended to use the coals all the way down on my last smoke, but my pork shoulder was done a couple hours before I figured it would be.  This isn't too big a deal, I guess, when you consider how cheap charcoal is.  Just curious how to get the same performance others have.
> 
> Thanks all for the advice.




That's very interesting, I've been leaving unused coals in my WSM & Weber kettles forever & never had any corrosion problems, but if they say not to do it I guess I'll try to put the right amount in at the start so it all burns up! Thanks for the update.


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## fpnmf (Oct 13, 2011)

I always load mine up..and shut it down by closing all the vents when done.

I leave whatever is leftover in and reload the next time I use it... never had any kind of issue with corrosion or burning all the coals..

I have two holes for probes and dont take the guru out or close its vent..

Just lucky I guess.

From my last smoke...all wsm vents closed...these 2 still open....the guru half open..







Here's what's left..







This is a mix of RO lump and Kingsford Blue.

What brand of charcoal you using???

Craig


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## teebob2000 (Oct 13, 2011)

fpnmf said:


> What brand of charcoal you using???
> 
> Craig


Hi Craig - the good ol' original Kingsford.  I've never seen totally unburned briquettes left behind, maybe I'm doing something wrong??

Here's how I do it.  I fill the ring to maybe within an inch of the top.  I use the Minion method, starting a handful of coals in my chimney, then when they're raging, dump them on top of the heap and spread them around a little.  Then I reassemble everything, leaving all the vents open 100%.  Within an hour, pretty much all the briquettes are at least ashy.  Within probably 2 hours they're all glowing.


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## fishhunter (Oct 15, 2011)

After smoking I close all the vents in my 18.5 WSM. It cools down quick. The next day I pull the usable Kingsford charcoal from the smoke which has been a fair amount and place in a container to reuse. and clean out all the charcoal ash from the smoker. No problems having left over charcoal.


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## SmokinAl (Oct 16, 2011)

teebob2000 said:


> Hi Craig - the good ol' original Kingsford.  I've never seen totally unburned briquettes left behind, maybe I'm doing something wrong??
> 
> Here's how I do it.  I fill the ring to maybe within an inch of the top.  I use the Minion method, starting a handful of coals in my chimney, then when they're raging, dump them on top of the heap and spread them around a little.   Then I reassemble everything, leaving all the vents open 100%.  Within an hour, pretty much all the briquettes are at least ashy.  Within probably 2 hours they're all glowing.


I think this may be your problem. When you do the minion method you don't want to spread the coals around, you want the fire to slowly get to the unlit coals. When you shut the vents the fire will go out & some of the coals will not even be touched by the fire. Here's a pic of how I do it. I start the fire with about 8 lit briquettes in a little pile. The fire will follow around the ring & with the chunks mixed in it will keep on smoking.


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## nexpress (Oct 17, 2011)

What size is the can in the middle that has the chips in it?  and why is it there?


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## SmokinAl (Oct 17, 2011)

nexpress said:


> What size is the can in the middle that has the chips in it?  and why is it there?




It's just an old bean can. It keeps the charcoal separated so the fire burns around the edge. I put chips in it & they will smolder a little throughout the smoke.


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## nexpress (Oct 17, 2011)

That's a neat one there. I gotta try it. Thanks for the info Al.


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## fpnmf (Oct 17, 2011)

I do mine a little different than Al..

I use the can, but fill it with about 8-10 burning coals and pull the can..(with pliers)..

Put the WSM back together with all vents open til 180 and close two of the lowers and one about half way open.

Works great for me...Thanks TYOTRAIN!!!







Have a great day!!

 Craig


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## jirodriguez (Oct 19, 2011)

You can also vary the size if your charcoal load. I have two basic loads: 1/2 ring for all smokes under 10 hrs., full ring for everything else. I do have some left over that I could try and let extinguish and re-use, but usually not enough to make it worth while. Another fun thing to do if it is still burning is to turn the kids loose with sticks and smores materials - keeps them entertained for a good hour.


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## ramkiller (Dec 30, 2021)

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.


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