New Big WSM cooking info

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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Scattered around this board there's a lot of excellent discussion and advice about how to use a WSM. Unfortunately, it is scattered, and sometimes the thread subject wouldn't lead you to look there. You might also want to check out the Virtual Weber Bullet site, which has a lot of easily found how-to information.

--John
(BTW, Amazon.com is a good place to get one -- competitive pricing and free delivery. Use the Amazon.com link at the top of the page and Greg will get a small kickback to help support the BBQ Central site.)
 
I have to tell ya all. The thing is just beautiful. When the wife called me and told me that the Weber shipment was there at the store I jumped in my buggy and was there to put one together.(well she did it cuz I don't do any thing right!) The 27 inch kettles have not showed up yet. Val has been on the phone with Weber and get's the run around. Not sure what the deal is with them. Enjoy Jim! :D

Pigs
 
ok, one cook in the book, and here's my thoughts.

This performs remarkably similar to it's little brother. I was
very happy with temp controls, and maybe because it's bigger,
I thought it stabilized a little faster than the 18.

I really like the amount of cooking space...you can do a lot here.

I thought the therm mounted in the dome performed pretty well if
you take into account the distance from the probe to the cooking great.
I checked it constantly while using the digi-que and a Maverick.
All seemed to agree on temps.

I had a little time to get used to the new door assembly. I kept
pulling it out because I was used to the old way....eventually I
would remember to just open it instead of pulling it off.

The larger water pan rocks...it holds a LOT of water. However, this
adds weight and with a bunch of meat on there, I'd pretty much forget
about trying to lift the middle section off mid-cook. However, the
new larger door allows you much better access if you want to add coals.
The water pan also sits a little higher from the coals for better access.

Also, the larger lid may cause some problems for people running
therm probes through the roof (like I do). The probes have to cover
more ground so to speak, and I found myself having trouble keeping
the therm units from being pulled off a shelf nearby.
 
Another cook yesterday...I encountered a problem others
have reported....trouble getting the smoker up to temp.
Wanted to sit at 200, while I wanted 250. Added about a third
a chimney of lit coals, no change.

Ended up adding another full lit chimmney, which did the
trick a little too well, got temps up to 280 and held there
for too long, but finally came down.
 
Jim,

I'm sure that you have done this, but when I add my MM coals to the fire I leave everything off for a few minutes to let them fire get going a little bit...one of my WSM's has trouble getting to temp and this has eliminated that issue. Just a thought if you haven't tried this way yet.
 
I have never thought of that...thanks Greg.

Couple more things...the new flip down door is excellent for
throwing in a chimney of lit coals....a fall onto the door, and
you just close it.

The therm worked very well again.

I'm starting to worry a little bit about the size of the fan on
my digi Q. It may be a tad too small. It was working it's butt off
yesterday trying to get the pit up to temp, with no effect.
However, it held temps very well.
 
Side note...make sure you don't have your wood on when you leave it open to fire up...it will burn! Add it after you assemble everything as normal.
 
wittdog said:
Ok keep in mind I’ve only done two cooks on the Big WSM so far and its been cold here so the conditions are less then ideal…but seeing how I cook in the cold a lot..it is what it it is…

Smoke flavor is good…
Temp control isn’t bad…but…

I’ve been using water in the pan and lump…..which might be some of the problem with the fuel use….
The big WSM is a fuel pig it uses a lot of fuel compared to the smaller one…I would think that 12hrs is going to be about the best you are going to get on one load of fuel…..and reloading it is not as easy as the little one…even if you put handles on it…it would probably take two people to take the mid section off and reload…the big door makes it a little easier to add charcoal with it assembled but after you add charcoal you need to worry about the fire getting out of control….I seem to be filling up the water pan a lot..I’m going to try a few things on my next cooks and see how it goes

Given a choice between loading up the big one for a massive but cook and firing up both small wsms I would use the small ones…

The Big one Shines when it comes to cooking ribs…shorter cooks but you can spread the ribs out and cook full racks.

The big one is nice to have as an option but I wouldn’t get rid of my smaller ones for the long cooks.
Clean up is no worse than the little one….

After a couple of more cooks...my first impressions are pretty spot on..IMO
 
wittdog said:
wittdog said:
Ok keep in mind I’ve only done two cooks on the Big WSM so far and its been cold here so the conditions are less then ideal…but seeing how I cook in the cold a lot..it is what it it is…

Smoke flavor is good…
Temp control isn’t bad…but…

I’ve been using water in the pan and lump…..which might be some of the problem with the fuel use….
The big WSM is a fuel pig it uses a lot of fuel compared to the smaller one…I would think that 12hrs is going to be about the best you are going to get on one load of fuel…..and reloading it is not as easy as the little one…even if you put handles on it…it would probably take two people to take the mid section off and reload…the big door makes it a little easier to add charcoal with it assembled but after you add charcoal you need to worry about the fire getting out of control….I seem to be filling up the water pan a lot..I’m going to try a few things on my next cooks and see how it goes

Given a choice between loading up the big one for a massive but cook and firing up both small wsms I would use the small ones…

The Big one Shines when it comes to cooking ribs…shorter cooks but you can spread the ribs out and cook full racks.

The big one is nice to have as an option but I wouldn’t get rid of my smaller ones for the long cooks.
Clean up is no worse than the little one….

After a couple of more cooks...my first impressions are pretty spot on..IMO

Yep, you pretty much nailed it Dave.
 

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