WSM and cold weather

[jirodriguez]

I like it as well...thought of something similar for the drum.   

wsm smoking jacket.jpg

• fwismoker
• Jun 10, 2013

WSM Smoking Jacket. I'd get one if i had a WSM....18" Is 99 and the 22 inch is 135 i believe.   It serves as a cover also. 

$45 6ft. x 8ft. welding blanket.... works great and folds up small when not needed, and you can peal down the top while leaving the bottom wrapped to open the lid and what not.

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• jirodriguez
• Feb 3, 2013

 

[love2dive]

Where can I buy a welder blanket? At Home Depot or Lowes?

 

[fwismoker]

Where can I buy a welder blanket? At Home Depot or Lowes?

Harbor Freight is a good choice if you have one near by. 

 

[cooksauce]

I find wind the biggest issue. No problems in the cold. I've used mine with snowbanks around it in -20 degrees celcius(I think its -4 Fahrenheit?) and works great.

 

[ben cartwright2]

Thanks for the idea on the welding blanket, I texted a friend who is the construction biz and he said he has 2 and will GIVE me one!

 

[grimm5577]

This is what I put together for my WSM to get it out of the wind, I have it bolted to a turntable so I can get to all the vents for adjustment. I have vents at the top that I open for relief and I crack the door during a smoke for draft.

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• cbtengr
• Mar 2, 2013

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• cbtengr
• Mar 2, 2013

if you went thru all the trouble to build a house for a smoker, why not just build a dedicated smoke house. None the less it's pretty sweet!

 

[jirodriguez]

Where can I buy a welder blanket? At Home Depot or Lowes?

Not sure if the big box stores carry the, but any welding supply shop will have them. Anothe option is to stop by a metal fab shop and see if they have any old ones thay might give you. Even with a few small holes burned in them they would still work really well.

 

[pryan1877]

Harbor Freight has them.
 

 

[jerseydrew]

as others have said cold is not the issue. what does become and issue is in the cooler weather with wind you wind up going through a ton of fuel and on a long smoke the ash eventually builds up enough to choke the fire. what i do is, take the middle section (WITH the lid) and move it to the side for a moment. the temp will start to lower in the chamber but not that fast. i put handles on my fire grate so i can pick up the fire grate and shake the ash out. i then set the fire grate aside (on something that will not burn!!!) and with a small garden trowel and metal fireplace ash bucket, i remove as much ash as i can. i then put the fire grate back in reload more fuel let it get some heat and going then just pop the entire middle section with lid back on top and let it regulate temp again. has been working well for me lately on LONG smokes. 

you know how they say every piece of meat has it's own time. well i had an 8 lb butt take 19 hours recently. the other 8 lb butt took 12. thank god i cooked both. one was ready in time for dinner and the other was good for the fridge and left overs. 

 

[tahoe1]

 
I use a 6 ft. X 8 ft. welding blanket with my 22.5" WSM, works great for both wind and cold temps. Here is a link to one of my winter smokes - high temps. for the day were bellow 40°:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/115085/twas-the-night-before-christmas-and-all-through-the-smoke

I will be smoking ribs tomorrow and I will try the welding blanket for the first time.  The forecast is calling for a high of 9 degrees.  Do you add water to the pan when using the welding blanket?  Some people don't use any water in cold weather and one person posted on the forum that he uses a fire brick.  Thanks!

 

[morning wood]

I used my WSM for the second time this past weekend.  When I fired it up it was 7 degrees out with a 24 mph NNW wind for what the news channel said was a -15 degree windchill.  I put the smoker on the SE side of the garage and fired it up with a bag of lump, a handfull of apple wood and a full water pan.  It stayed between 225 and 250 for 11 hours with only 3 adjustments on the intakes.  The only problem I had was I was doing a 12 hour cook so I just threw more apple on for the last hour to maintain heat.

For me going forward the only precautions I am going to take for cold weather smoking using the WSM is how much clothes I wear!  The WSM is amazing at what it does.

I guess this is a bit off topic but I did have a problem with the Maverick 732 due to cold weather.  The BBQ probe read LLL.  The manual says to make sure the probe is at room temp.  Since I was standing in my garage where the room temp was 7 I didn't quite understand the problem. 

  But here is my mistake, I put the probe in the smoker assuming that it would warm up and begin working.  It did not.  After about three hours I took off the faulty probe and brought it into the house.  An hour later I put it back on with its first temp reading at 68, it worked fine from there.

 

[jirodriguez]

 
I will be smoking ribs tomorrow and I will try the welding blanket for the first time.  The forecast is calling for a high of 9 degrees.  Do you add water to the pan when using the welding blanket?  Some people don't use any water in cold weather and one person posted on the forum that he uses a fire brick.  Thanks!

Unless I am trying to get over 300° I always add water to the water pan - regardless of weather - it evens out any spikes/drops when you open up your smoker.

 

[jirodriguez]

 

as others have said cold is not the issue. what does become and issue is in the cooler weather with wind you wind up going through a ton of fuel and on a long smoke the ash eventually builds up enough to choke the fire. what i do is, take the middle section (WITH the lid) and move it to the side for a moment. the temp will start to lower in the chamber but not that fast. i put handles on my fire grate so i can pick up the fire grate and shake the ash out. i then set the fire grate aside (on something that will not burn!!!) and with a small garden trowel and metal fireplace ash bucket, i remove as much ash as i can. i then put the fire grate back in reload more fuel let it get some heat and going then just pop the entire middle section with lid back on top and let it regulate temp again. has been working well for me lately on LONG smokes.





you know how they say every piece of meat has it's own time. well i had an 8 lb butt take 19 hours recently. the other 8 lb butt took 12. thank god i cooked both. one was ready in time for dinner and the other was good for the fridge and left overs.

Get yourself a welding blanket, you will be amazed at the differance in fuel consumption on cold windy days. I went from getting approx. 30 min. per lb. of charcoal (at 250°) to about 60 min. per lb. of charcoal, even on cold windy rainy days.

 

[tahoe1]

 
Unless I am trying to get over 300° I always add water to the water pan - regardless of weather - it evens out any spikes/drops when you open up your smoker.

Thanks!  The welding blanket worked well!

 

[mr clean]

A friend of mine is a union insulater and is going to make me one of the silver ones. Im buying the materials and 2 cases of beer for doing it.

 

[matt22556]

Used mine and it was 9 degrees out, only issue for me was that I was cold when I would check on it. It held solid 250 for 12+ hours.

 

[fwismoker]

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...ive-51-windchill-and-running-a-spatchcock-350

A refletix sleeve for the smoker will keep it warm in extreme cold. 

 

[phillip p smith]

 
I like it as well...thought of something similar for the drum.   

wsm smoking jacket.jpg

• fwismoker
• Jun 10, 2013

WSM Smoking Jacket. I'd get one if i had a WSM....18" Is 99 and the 22 inch is 135 i believe.   It serves as a cover also. 

That does not seem to allow for actual smoking only covering for storage!

 

[rdwhahb]

 
That does not seem to allow for actual smoking only covering for storage!

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• rdwhahb
• Jan 24, 2014

It is made for smoking. I have used it a couple of times and have no regrets making the purchase. If you look close enough you can see smoke coming out of the blanket opening.

 

[jirodriguez]

Yeah those do work well.... I'm just to darn cheap... lol. I looked at those and about croaked at the $100+ price tag - course that's the same reason I came up with my under $5 eyelet/grommit mod, I was to cheap to pay for the Cajun Bandit ones... lol.

You can look at the link below my signature if you ever want/need to add more eyelets for probes.