What not to do with a WSM thermometer!!!

[jirodriguez]

So I was cleaning my WSM out and decided to pull the thermometer out of the dome lid and check it in a pot of boiling water. Boiled the water, put the stem of the therm in and it read perfect (yay!

), but I noticed some condinsation on the inside of the glass face of the therm.... hmmmm that won't do

.

So being the quasi handy sort (read just enough to be dangerous!), I noticed the small vent hole on the back of the therm and thought to myselft that if I put pressurized air into said vent hole the moisture inside would be driven out through the seam where the cover and body of the therm meet (it is not an airtight seam).

Using my air compressor I placed the trigger tip right against the vent hole and proceeded to blow out the moisture..... and it was actually working!

 After about 10-15 seconds I checked and about 50% of the water was gone, so decided to give it another good shot for a bit longer (read recipe for disaster

). This time I really got a good seal between the tip of the trigger fitting and the back of the therm and proceeded to pump a lot of high pressure air into the therm. Well for those of you familiar with air pressure in semi-enclosed spaces I'm sure you can see where this is going for the rest of you.... they say a picture is worth a thousand words!

Can you say BOOM!

 And of course I was holding the glass part against left hand while blowing air in the back.... only suffered one cut, but it stung like hell! So lesson learned and passed on for others to profit (and laugh).

 

[fpnmf]

DDDOOOOHHHHHH!!!

Glad you weren't hurt!!

It  takes a real man to post about his screw ups!!!

Craig

 

[nwdave]

Let's see, you live in Portland and get as much rain us poor relatives further north.  There's a vent hole in the back?  You say the crimp is not air tight?  I think we know where the moisture is getting into.  I only have one question, you got some ziploc bags and some tape to put on the gauge?  Since your WSM is now defective, I'll volunteer to take it off your hands

.

 

[irie]

Sometimes you have to learn the hard way...

Glad to hear your ok though! Trust me I have done plenty of dumb stuff that was probably much more dangerous and hazardous to my health. Live and learn right?

 

[jirodriguez]

Let's see, you live in Portland and get as much rain us poor relatives further north.  There's a vent hole in the back?  You say the crimp is not air tight?  I think we know where the moisture is getting into.  I only have one question, you got some ziploc bags and some tape to put on the gauge?  Since your WSM is now defective, I'll volunteer to take it off your hands

.

I'll sell it to you cheap Dave - $450..... heh-heh. I just picked up a cheapo one from Lowes for now and am going to order the correct sized one from Weber.... wonder if I could get to replace it under warranty..... hmmmmmmm..... lol.

 

[SmokinAl]

I always have moisture in my WSM gauge. They sent me a new one but it's the same thing. Then I noticed the hole in the back and realized it isn't air tight. I guess that's ok if the humidity is low, but here in Florida it's almost always high. The only thing I use the stock gauge for is to fill the whole so smoke won't come out.

 

[venture]

I think Al has the ticket.  Those things are at least pretty good for filling holes that didn't need to be there in the first place.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[chef willie]

I don't work on my car for just that type of reason.....always costs me twice as much to fix my 'repair' job

 

[jirodriguez]

I don't work on my car for just that type of reason.....always costs me twice as much to fix my 'repair' job

Yeah.... there is a story behind the reason my wife does not let me work on her car anymore.... especially if I have a chunk of 2x4 in my hand....

  Lets just say that repair job was very, very expensive!

 

[meateater]

Dang Johnny, I guess that gives you an excuse to build that 16 Gallon UDS. 

 

[justpassingthru]

Glad it's not serious, you dodged a bullet,

... heh, heh, your car repair/2x4 incident brings back memories of my car repairs, back in my barbarian days I had a piece of railroad rail that I would beat with an 8# sledge until I couldn't swing it any more, when the neighbors heard the John Henry thing, they knew to plug the kid's ears with cotton and stay away from Gene.  LOL

 

[venture]

Dang Gene.  You bring back memories when us ordinary people could do some work on our cars.  Now we need a computer more than a wrench or hammer?

Good luck and good smoking.