Had trouble with temps on WSM today

Wind is your enemy. Blue K is your friend.

Weird! Lump temps to run hotter than briquet but Royal Oak is inconsistent IMO. I would not say that was a normal outcome. Maybe moist/humid lump or poor air intake....

My experience with my WSM is that 370 is about the absolute upper limit to cook at, keeping the cooker at these temps is going to burn through a ton of fuel, also lump burns hotter but quicker that briquettes. What did you have in your water pan?

Wind is probably sucking the heat off it. One way to raise temp is to dripp two small holes in the top corners of the door, and put a small bolt in each, then tighten with a nut. This allows you to turn the door upside down, and the door will rest on the bolts. You can open it until you get the draft you need to keep temp up.

I may not be explaining this very well...if need be, I can uploade a pic

Wind was most certainly part of the problem. How much fuel did you start with?

Big slick said:

I have one of the newer WSMs and I have the rounded opening for the door not the square one. So I'm not sure if that will work.

Click to expand...

I doubt the charcoal OR the lump was the issue.

The wsm, big or small, wasn't designed for maintaining temps over 300*, and I can't maintain temps over 275* in my 18.5", no matter what fuel, unless I turn the door upside down and crack. Actually though, I'd think you'd be able to maintain 325* in the big wsm if your door is as leaky as most folks report...that is if it's wind protected and you only have one turkey on (that didn't just come out of the fridge.)

I'd use lump or a hot burning briq like K comp or Stubbs, and pour a couple chimneys of lit over unlit. You want some unlit on the bottom to keep the temp up all the way through the turkey cook, and I like to put my wood chunks between the lit and unlit, especially if cooking poultry HH.

If it's not windy, I know that setting the lid not quite on all the way will work to get higher temps, but I don't know what to tell ya if it's windy. If your door fits good, that's a GOOD thing, and maybe the best solution is to invest in an auto temp controller. There are a couple of 'em that are no more than about $150. That way you can get it as hot as you want, or even smoke bacon below 200.

I have personally never had any luck smoking with lump charcoal. I love to grill steaks over lump, because of the serious BTUs it cranks out. But, when I try to smoke with it, it is like playing the temperature roulette wheel.

I have not tried lump in my WSM, and probably never will. My feeling is that, once you find a setup that works, stay with it.

As for wind, it was 20-40 MPH here yesterday, so I set my WSM up a couple feet into the garage. That cut the wind down, but didn't completely kill it. I had no problems with my ribs and chicken cook.

CD

Big slick said:

I know that with the WSM wind is your enemy, but wouldn't that have made my temps run higher verses lower? You would think more air flow, more oxygen would equal more fire resulting in higher temps?? At least it was a successful cook.

Click to expand...

The wind will have a shear effect on the intake. The wind running perpendicular to the intake holes can restrict the amount of air going in. That is what I have heard anyway.