hey ya'll.....i got my WSM last week and finally got to put it together last night. i'm doing a big smoke for new years eve and want everything to go flawlesly. i'm not new to smoking but i'm AM new to the WSM.
i have it fired up right now to "break it in"....i started with just one chimeny full of lump coal burning. i left all vents open and it immediatly popped up to 250 and rising. now i'm messing around with the vents to learn how to adjust temp properly.
i heard that when these things are brand new they tend to burn hotter as the metals are "breaking in". so i closed all three bottom vents to half to lower temps....it stayed at 250!
so i closed one vent and left the other 2 at half...still 250. so i closed 2 vents and closed the 3rd to about 1/4 open....it lowered a bit to around 240. BTW i'm dont have water in the pan.
so my question is how do you guys usually get to 225. do you close all 3 vents to about 1/4 to 1/8 open? do you usually smoke with one or 2 vents fully closed and just adjust the one vent?
looking for WSM pro's to help me get the temps right!
thanks in advance. i was gonna smoke some chicken tonight after work to further break it in. hauling it over to my friends tomorrow for the big day!
i have it fired up right now to "break it in"....i started with just one chimeny full of lump coal burning. i left all vents open and it immediatly popped up to 250 and rising. now i'm messing around with the vents to learn how to adjust temp properly.
i heard that when these things are brand new they tend to burn hotter as the metals are "breaking in". so i closed all three bottom vents to half to lower temps....it stayed at 250!
so i closed one vent and left the other 2 at half...still 250. so i closed 2 vents and closed the 3rd to about 1/4 open....it lowered a bit to around 240. BTW i'm dont have water in the pan.
so my question is how do you guys usually get to 225. do you close all 3 vents to about 1/4 to 1/8 open? do you usually smoke with one or 2 vents fully closed and just adjust the one vent?
looking for WSM pro's to help me get the temps right!
thanks in advance. i was gonna smoke some chicken tonight after work to further break it in. hauling it over to my friends tomorrow for the big day!