Getting a WSM up to temperature...

with a full charcoal basket and 1/2 chimney lit on top, my 22 gets to temp in @ 1/2. i start wide open, overshoot @ 25*, close up 1/2 way, put meat on and see how it reacts after @ 15 minutes make another adjustment then. if it dropped too far due to cold meat i open her back up until desired temp and close down to @ 1/2-1/4. if it stayed where i want it, close down to 1/2 and do another check in a few. typically it'll lock in after 1 or 2 minor adjustments.

I start with about a 1/4 of the fire ring banked with hot coals and the cooker taken apart. I then add fresh coals and place some wood chips on top. Next I put the top parts on the grill on with a full water pan. I always have all 3 wheels at the bottom open. I use the top wheel for control. I usually hum away at 250* with having the top damper open to slightly shut. Really I can cook for 8+ hours with this method before needing water and new coals to be added. With the WSM once you get it locked in there is little to no adjustment of the dampers needed.

I have found that if I overshoot about 50 degrees so that when I load the cool meat on it pulls temps down a bit. Once the meat is on and the temp stabilizes, I close down the vents a bit to reach the temp I want. I pay more attention to the vent that is on the wind side and close that one a bit more than the other 2.

I started closing my vents down at about 200°. I closed them each about 50% and when I reached 220° I closed them down just a tad more. At that point I let it go and the smoker stabilized out at about 235° and I just let it ride from there. During the cook (10 hour long run with a brisket flat) the temp varied between 220° and 240° or so for the entire duration. Precise temperatures are not critical when smoking meat. I would probably consider 225° to be a minimum rather than a target temp for low and slow. If you keep that smoker between 225 and 250 you are gonna be very successful and that smoker should be easy to keep at those temps.

I also think, being the beginner that I am, undershooting the temp in the beginning is desirable. It's a little easier to warm the pit up than it is to cool it down.

I cooked some chickens the other day at 300°. When I opened the lid after about 1 hour and 15 minutes, my pit temp climbed up to 360° rather quickly. Good thing my chicken was almost ready because putting the lid back on didn't cool the pit down very quickly

I add the charcoal then the meat start closing at 225.

I start closing the vents at 200* to half way. at 225 I close 2 of the vents all the way, so that I am making adjustments to just one vent. I adjust that vent to 3/4 closed, and that is about where it ends up for the rest of the cook.

I agree with most of the above, I followed the virtual Weber Bullet site, here's a link:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/cookinglog.html :idea: