Quick question on WSM

Sorry there Teufel Hunden. Lookin forward to how this comes out. Semper!

I placed the temperature loggers in the bullet smoker today and was really surprised at the results. It was in my ProQ Frontier 18.5" which behaves almost identically to a WSM 18.5"

I used Heat Beads with the minion method to control the temperature and I set the smoker going about 8:30am this morning. Temperature probes were inserted at the bottom cooking grate, the top cooking grate, in the top vent of the smoker and there was the built in lid thermometer.  


The top and bottom grate temperatures were monitored using the data logger at 1 minute intervals and the temperature at the top vent (Maverick ET-732) and the built in lid thermometer were manually read periodically.

After lighting the smoker came up to temperature  (~230 F) and stabilised after about an hour.It then remained stable during the testing and had still maintained cooking temperature until after 6pm - 10 hours later.

Temperature profile of the top and bottom racks during the test


Over the 3 hours of the test the top and bottom grills remained within 2.2 F of each other which means that there is virtually no temperature gradient within the cooking chamber. 

When adding in the top vent temperature and the built in lid temperature we can see the that there is quite a difference. Whilst the top vent temperature correlates well with the rack temperatures the built in lid thermometer consistently read about 30 F lower than any of the other thermometers

Wade
That's a interesting test.. 2.5 of each other is nothing... As far as the lid thermometers .. They are nothing more than a nice decoration..
BTW that smoker looks a lot like a WSM.. I like the double doors..

Lemans said:

As far as the lid thermometers .. They are nothing more than a nice decoration..

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Yes I agree - but I think that a lot may be down to the temperature range. This test was carried out at ~230 F and there was a big difference but later I did cook some banana Tarte Tatin in the smoker and so I turned up the heat to ~375 F. At that temperature the the lid thermometer was actually pretty close.

JP61 said:

 
It's pork and it's pulled.... can't say I'm thrilled 

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What was wrong with it? Was it too dry?

I just did 4 in the WSM yesterday.  One of the two on top was the first done, the two on the bottom finished last.  I run with sand in the water pan typically.  I was running a little hotter than you were, somewhere between 240 - 250.  All were taken off between 12 and 14 hours.

What was wrong with your outcome?  Pics look great!