22.5 wsm

nmayeux

nmayeux

Babbling Farker
Joined
Apr 3, 2005
Messages
2,859
Reaction score
206
Points
63
Age
52
Location
Marietta, GA
Anyone here use a 22.5 WSM with a Guru/Stoker regularly for competition? I was thinking about picking up a Backwoods Party to augment my Lang 60 for big meats during the night, but after a little thought, the WSM is 1/3rd the cost, and should work well with a draft controller. Any major reasons why this wouldn't work or be practical?
 
I compete with a 22.5 WSM and 2 18.5 WSM's. I do not use any temp controller, WSM's hold a consistant temp. I get 10+ hours cook time and the temp seldom varies once I get it dialed in.

Temp controllers are nice and I am sure that they help get ma burn time but I just can't afford them.
 
If you want to run a 22 with a guru or a stoker you need to get the 10cfm fan. The 5 just runs all the time to keep up. If the fan runs all the time you get weird heat patterns in the WSMs and they dont cook even.

The 22 gives you a ton more space so you can cook a nice brisket or a couple of slabs of ribs without scrunching everything up.

The 22 also eats through fuel. Not nearly as miserly with the charcoal as the 18 is. I do recommend either a water heater wrap or a wind break of some kind if it is cold/windy...
 
also you are welcome to stop by kudzu Q next contest and talk webers. Terre and I both have a lot of experience with them.
 
I have not found a need for a temp. control device for my wsms. Very easy to dial in and let it rock. I have not found outside temp. to be an issue, it's wind. Depends on when and where you are competing, because if it's really cold with a lot of wind your going to have trouble. Sometimes a couple of walls on your canopy will do the trick. I have been looking at the Backwoods G2 Chubby just for the overnight cook. You can fit full size pans in the G2, where in the standard Party you can not.
 
Make sure you use the damper on the fan to squeeze it down a notch. And you can use water in the pan, despite being told not to (by at least the BBQ Guru folks). I think you will see a smoother-running fan and fire by using water.

What you don't want to do is fill that 3-gallon water pan up slap full with cold water and 1/2 chimney of coals dumped on top of a full charcoal ring of dry charcoal. You will burn through some charcoal getting that 3 gallons of water heated up.

I would add a decent amount of lit charcoal and maybe a gallon of water. Assemble the cooker and hook the fan up and let it run. When it calms down, add more water. Do this in stages. I would say when you have a smoker to temp with nearly a full pan of water, load in more charcoal and you'll be set for 6-8 hours.

Sounds like a lot of work but it's not.

And the 22" WSMs do burn some fuel, but they can cook roughly twice the meat of an 18".


With all that said....I don't mind letting it run naked. I have found that unless it is 18-25°F outside, there's not much problem with getting one to run at 250°F as long as you use water.
 
I cook it all on a 22.5 without a guru (or similar device) works fine. Two butts and a brisket till wrapped then on with 3 racks of ribs. When big meats go into cambro put chicken on WSM. Nuff said. keith
 
wickedbbq'r said:
I have not found a need for a temp. control device for my wsms. Very easy to dial in and let it rock. I have not found outside temp. to be an issue, it's wind. Depends on when and where you are competing, because if it's really cold with a lot of wind your going to have trouble. Sometimes a couple of walls on your canopy will do the trick. I have been looking at the Backwoods G2 Chubby just for the overnight cook. You can fit full size pans in the G2, where in the standard Party you can not.
Click to expand...
I looked at the G2, but two things are making me think otherwise... 1. Price. 2. Weight

Uncle Bud just bought a G2 Party, and he says that it is all he can do to load it by himself. I like the idea of the WSM, as I can just throw it in the back of a truck or my Explorer when by myself, which is pretty often.
 
We have three 22s and one 18 for comps and use Auber controllers. Set and forget. If I need to, I can load the trailer by myself. Couldn't do that if we used big heavy cookers.
 
Cayman1 said:
We have three 22s and one 18 for comps and use Auber controllers. Set and forget. If I need to, I can load the trailer by myself. Couldn't do that if we used big heavy cookers.
Click to expand...
Looking at your avatar, I had to laugh, as I just got back from Springfield Tuesday afternoon. If I had taken the time, I could have tried to hookup and look at your rigs!
 
WSM 22.5 with a PartyQ here.


No complaints...........cooks great food. Took 6th in ribs at my first comp ever with this unit.
 
nmayeux said:
I looked at the G2, but two things are making me think otherwise... 1. Price. 2. Weight

Uncle Bud just bought a G2 Party, and he says that it is all he can do to load it by himself. I like the idea of the WSM, as I can just throw it in the back of a truck or my Explorer when by myself, which is pretty often.
Click to expand...

The weight is a lot for one person. Erin and I can get it in and out of the truck just fine, but one person is too much if you are doing it all the time. We used our WSM primarily for chicken last year, but have used it with an Ique on the big meats plenty of times before and works really well.

Smoke Me Silly who won last week cooks on 4 WSM (3 of them 22's) and they use a Stoker to run the 22's. And they also won last year at Hawgin on Lanier. I say give it a whirl.
 
yes, i compete with two 22's, and they work well. there are drawbacks however.

IMHO, if you can afford the chubby G2 i'd go that direction. your life will be alot simpler.

consider this, you WILL need to refuel if cooking overnight or all day even. i use the "hotbox" method. prevents ash kickup on the food and gives you complete access to the charcoal ring and fire. HOWEVER, lifting the large barrell and lid with 2-3 gallons in the water pan and 30 pounds of meat is a chore. prolly about as heavy as a chubby anyway.

also, it'll prolly be almost two bags of charcoal per cook. knickels and dimes in the big picture, but that gets annoying long term....A)the amount of charcoal i need to bring to a contest and cost, and B)every practice is two farkin bags. that adds up.

with all that said, they can put out as good a product as anything out there.
 
We use 3-22in & 1-18inch WSM in all our comps. I use a stoker to run all the 22s and a Guru for the 18.
I use about 2 bags of kingsford BB and 1 bag of kingsford comp per contest. With using the temp controllers, I don't need to use any water in the pans, so the charcoal doesn't burn out as quick. We cooked Young Harris this past weekend and it got down in the 20's at night, and I still had plenty of coals in the morning.

I will admit the only drawback of my setup is the amount of equipment that I have to deal with every competition. There are times that I wish I had one big smoker mounted to a trailer.

So far, my setup has worked well so I will probably stick with it for a while!
 
One 22" and one 18" at comps for me. Use one Stoker System controller and 10 cfm fans for each. No water in either pan and only 1 1/2 bags of Kingsford blue for the total contest. I do not need to reload charcoal at any time. To add insulation during the nights, I use a Guru WSM cover on the 22".

Benny
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

rwalters
Pellet Cookers 101 - Part Two
Replies
0
Views
355
rwalters
rwalters
KpaxFAQ
New Assassin 24 Gravity-Fed Cooker initial thoughts
Replies
13
Views
1K
SweetHeatBBQnSC
SweetHeatBBQnSC
AKMIMNAK
Epic WSM Mod Project: 8" Offroad tires and Steel Pipe Accessory Hanging System
Replies
7
Views
1K
Smoking Piney
Smoking Piney
ChrisBarb
WSM 22.5 On The Way
2
Replies
28
Views
875
hachi-roku_fan
H
B
Help choosing smoker
2 3
Replies
53
Views
2K
Sid Post
S
Back
Top