WSM 18.5 Seasoning?

The lid thermometers in the WSM's are notoriously crappy.

Trust your grate temp thermometer.

Keep cooking on it. It will only get better with time.

Cook your ribs until you can slide a toothpick in with no resistance or until they pass the bend test. Sounds like they needed a little more time.

A few things come to mind. First off I had all three sizes of WSM's and none of them would get anywhere near 300 at the grate with a full pan of cold water even with all the vents wide open. I used a Maverick and or a Guru to measure grate temps. Second if you cook babybacks for 2.5 hours at 300 they are going to be done or very close. I'm thinking your grate therm is off. WSM lid therms are junk.

If you want more smoke ring and smoke flavor you need more wood chunks. You also need to put the meat on cold, straight from the fridge. Open that top vent wide open and regulate temp with bottom vents.

Like Pat said just keep cooking and your WSM will get better and better.

The Weber stock terms in the dome are finicky, but they aren't completely worthless, if you think about it, the inside of your wsm has a lot going on and it results in a lot of hot and cold spots. Hot fire, with a pan of water on top, then cool meat on top of that...all inside a compact cooker.....no wonder therms at different places show different readings.....but th reality is that it all works out in the end.......I've found that the Weber therm on my wsm really isn't that far off if you run without a water pan, especially once he meat warms up and things settle down after the first hour or two....as for the smoke ring, after 3 hours with a couple wood chunks i wouldn't expect a smoke ring to be as bold as on a piece of meat that smokes for 8 hours. Also, i think a pan off cold water reduces the smoke ring on shorter cooks, smoke rings occur when the smoke particules react with the cool meat, well if you have a pan of cold water over the fire, a lot of those particulates are going to condense out on the bottom of the water pan before they ever touch the meat, not a big deal on a long cook but a short cook it may make a difference (this is just an opinion I've come up with that makes sense to me, I've been wrong before though lol).....as for your tough ribs, they simply didn't cook long enough. Don't go on time or a recipe that works for someone else, regardless of temp, let ribs cook until they pass the toothpick test and the bend test, trust that and you'll have good results. Good luck with your wsm, they are really great cookers, I love mine.

I don't even bother looking at the dome thermometer anymore I just use a Maverick to monitor grate temps, it's usually about -30 degrees off but there have been times it was off as much as -70.

cheez59 said:

Open that top vent wide open and regulate temp with bottom vents.

Click to expand...

This.
Try cooking without water in the pan. I use 4-6 crushed aluminum cans in the pan and cover it with a layer of HDAF.
My WSMs get 4 chunks of smoke wood. They're about the size of my fist. I get a great smoke ring and great smoke flavor. Too much smoke and your meat can get bitter.

Agree with what other's say about top vent. The dome stat is good at a glance to see if the temp is rising or falling in the rig but that's about it.

I have an older WSM 18.5 that was made before Weber put a thermometer in the lid. Mine has a TelTru in the dome and it still measures considerably different than the Maverick probe on the grate especially when I first put the meat on. The gap eventually gets smaller, but it is never the same. I don't worry about it because it's just back up for my grate probe with I'm doing a long LNS. When I do ribs or something like that, I just use the dome thermometer and it gets me close enough. I use a clay saucer inside my water pan covered in foil instead of water. It is just as stable without the messy clean up. I also have Nomex gaskets between the sections and the door seals. Since I made those mods, I have zero problems with temp control.