Shawn White
Sous Chef
It lights charcoal just finebigwheel said:
Cold weather WSM use
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Pigs On The Wing BBQ
Master Chef
Nice Jeff. :roll:bigwheel said:
Woodman1
Executive Chef
Well, perhaps he put too fine a point on it, but he is right!
ronbeaux50
Head Chef
You be right BW. Torch is the only way to go. Been doing it for years. If you got some lit coals and some vents to open and close, who needs a manual anyways.
My goodness..you is about the rightest person I ever met. I only mentioned the owner's manuel to try to keep them folks from chunking 2 inch tinfoil hair balls into the water pan. Now whuts up with that? I did not mean to start out chasing rabbit trails (that whut preachers say when their sermon gets off topic...or so I heard one time about Gulflite. Actually ya know african americkans use it profusely and as everybody know they make the best bbq in the world. We might have to discuss this topic sometime.
bigwheel
about Gulflite. Actually ya know african americkans use it profusely and as everybody know they make the best bbq in the world. We might have to discuss this topic sometime. bigwheel
ronbeaux50 said:
WildFireEric
Senior Cook
Shawn White said:if you're having trouble gettin/keepin temp up ditch the water, ya don't need the heat sink.
use foil balls covered with foil, air gap helps keep the drippins from burnin
could use sand covered with foil ... or a clay pot saucer stuck in the pan covered with foil
ditchin water was the best thing I've done .. .I shoulda listened to Rempe years ago
I use sand (covered with foil) in both my WSMs and generally have good success. The wind and no wind break is what gave me problems. I'll look into the suggestions that everyone mentioned. Once the wind died, the temps soared, so I know that was all it was. I listened to Bill the Grill Guy last year mention sand. It's done wonders for my turkeys.
Shawn White
Sous Chef
yeah, wind can be a real bitch, I got the bullet smoking jacket for when I need it ... guys spend $$ and time and build all sorts of fancy enclosures ... I dunno, not really my thing ... I'd be more into getting a buddy to torch cut a steel drum for it.
If you don't like science stuff and math hurts your head don't read any more of this post!!!
Another reason to quit using water is to save money on charcoal ... I did something like this for that other board, I wondered why everyone kept saying water was a heat sink:
When you put charcoal in the WSM you have a set amount of energy to cook with, but keeping water hot costs energy, that's why it's called a heat sink. Some googling came up with this:
Water cannot exceed the temp of it's boiling point (in liquid form) unless pressure is applied (superheating) but it's behaviour is to absorb heat until it reaches boiling. My crude estimate for easy figuring is it takes 1500BTUs to heat the water in the standard water pan to boiling point (10lbs of water * 150ºF) (1 US gallon of water is 8.3lbs).
Once at the boiling point, more energy is used when water transforms to steam. This is called the Latent Heat of Vaporization and in the case of water it is 970 BTU's per pound. So, chalk up another another 9700 BTUs per every 5 hours (for 10lbs of water to completely evaporate).
If you put 10# of charcoal in the WSM, it only has 90,000 BTUs of fuel to use during the cook. How much of that energy did we use lighting up the charcoal? This is one of the reasons why MM or torch light gives such a long burn from a ring ... we didn't blow 1/4+ of it in the chimney.
We loose heat out of the top, radiated heat from the exterior surface, heat when we 'take a peek' ... in the case of wind, we are fighting to keep temp up we don't don't need to spend that energy turning water to steam.
Just say your cook was 10 hours, you emptied the water pan twice then rough guess based on those numbers says over 25% of the charcoal you put in was spent keeping the water boiling and turning it into steam. That pisses me off when I'm using $20/bag lump (not so much when using cheap briqs which is most of the time).
I put a warning up there but I'm still 'specting to take some flack for this post
If you don't like science stuff and math hurts your head don't read any more of this post!!!
Another reason to quit using water is to save money on charcoal ... I did something like this for that other board, I wondered why everyone kept saying water was a heat sink:
When you put charcoal in the WSM you have a set amount of energy to cook with, but keeping water hot costs energy, that's why it's called a heat sink. Some googling came up with this:
Water cannot exceed the temp of it's boiling point (in liquid form) unless pressure is applied (superheating) but it's behaviour is to absorb heat until it reaches boiling. My crude estimate for easy figuring is it takes 1500BTUs to heat the water in the standard water pan to boiling point (10lbs of water * 150ºF) (1 US gallon of water is 8.3lbs).
Once at the boiling point, more energy is used when water transforms to steam. This is called the Latent Heat of Vaporization and in the case of water it is 970 BTU's per pound. So, chalk up another another 9700 BTUs per every 5 hours (for 10lbs of water to completely evaporate).
Taken From Here
If you put 10# of charcoal in the WSM, it only has 90,000 BTUs of fuel to use during the cook. How much of that energy did we use lighting up the charcoal? This is one of the reasons why MM or torch light gives such a long burn from a ring ... we didn't blow 1/4+ of it in the chimney.
We loose heat out of the top, radiated heat from the exterior surface, heat when we 'take a peek' ... in the case of wind, we are fighting to keep temp up we don't don't need to spend that energy turning water to steam.
Just say your cook was 10 hours, you emptied the water pan twice then rough guess based on those numbers says over 25% of the charcoal you put in was spent keeping the water boiling and turning it into steam. That pisses me off when I'm using $20/bag lump (not so much when using cheap briqs which is most of the time).
I put a warning up there but I'm still 'specting to take some flack for this post
WildFireEric
Senior Cook
Shawn White said:yeah, wind can be a real bitch, I got the bullet smoking jacket for when I need it ... guys spend $$ and time and build all sorts of fancy enclosures ... I dunno, not really my thing ... I'd be more into getting a buddy to torch cut a steel drum for it.
If you don't like science stuff and math hurts your head don't read any more of this post!!!
Another reason to quit using water is to save money on charcoal ... I did something like this for that other board, I wondered why everyone kept saying water was a heat sink:
When you put charcoal in the WSM you have a set amount of energy to cook with, but keeping water hot costs energy, that's why it's called a heat sink. Some googling came up with this:
Water cannot exceed the temp of it's boiling point (in liquid form) unless pressure is applied (superheating) but it's behaviour is to absorb heat until it reaches boiling. My crude estimate for easy figuring is it takes 1500BTUs to heat the water in the standard water pan to boiling point (10lbs of water * 150ºF) (1 US gallon of water is 8.3lbs).
Once at the boiling point, more energy is used when water transforms to steam. This is called the Latent Heat of Vaporization and in the case of water it is 970 BTU's per pound. So, chalk up another another 9700 BTUs per every 5 hours (for 10lbs of water to completely evaporate).
Taken From Here
If you put 10# of charcoal in the WSM, it only has 90,000 BTUs of fuel to use during the cook. How much of that energy did we use lighting up the charcoal? This is one of the reasons why MM or torch light gives such a long burn from a ring ... we didn't blow 1/4+ of it in the chimney.
We loose heat out of the top, radiated heat from the exterior surface, heat when we 'take a peek' ... in the case of wind, we are fighting to keep temp up we don't don't need to spend that energy turning water to steam.
Just say your cook was 10 hours, you emptied the water pan twice then rough guess based on those numbers says over 25% of the charcoal you put in was spent keeping the water boiling and turning it into steam. That pisses me off when I'm using $20/bag lump (not so much when using cheap briqs which is most of the time).
I put a warning up there but I'm still 'specting to take some flack for this post
So, all things being equal: I can either use sand and regular briqs or use water in my pan and have to use lump (lump provides more heat than regular, right?) Thus cheaper to not run water. Now you just need the Pro Water people to speak up about the benefits of water (more stable max temp, more moisture, more flavor if putting juice and seasonings in pan)?
I appreciate the science lesson even if your day job isn't to fly rockets
Shawn White
Sous Chef
You don't have to use water with lump either ... the point is you can either run a bit smaller fire because it isn't being wasted keeping water hot and turning it to steam, which saves you charcoal in the end, or you added a turbo ... you can turn up the heat a bit more if needed due to wind/cold.
No idea how much energy sand takes, the ones I mentioned take less to be sure. A typical cook for me was both grates loaded, a brinkmann pan full, vents 100% averaging about 215ºF grate. Now I can run 250ºF grate on say 33% vents with no water. Ya temps fluctuate a bit, not like 100º or anything. I can't tell a difference with no steam.
Pigs On The Wing BBQ
Master Chef
Shawn White said:
Plus you get a better flavor with that meat dripping into the fire pan over hot coals!
Pigs
If you don't want to shuck out for the wind jacket...you can go to the home depot and buy some of that hot water heater blanket stuff...cut it to fit and make sure you cut out the bottom dampers...works just the same.
