I been using a Weber Performer for a few years(love it). Made the jump and got me a WSM 22.5in. My first cook-- think I bit off more than I should have or rather a mixture of meats lean to fat. Used KBB charcoal, and a full water tray, 15 boneless/skinless chicken breast, 20wing dummets, 4 thick cut pork chops and about 10country style ribs. Now during this cook I also had 2 digital thermometers fail. I have since order a Maverick 732 and instant read. Probably going to get another maverick for the lower grate next month. Anyway cook took way to long lid temp was reading not very good with Weber stock lid thermometer. Then the digital thermometer I was using for top grate temp I realized had failed...I took it in the house to cool down. Even after running probe under cold tap water it still read 288-325. The other thermometer kept reading 125 in the chicken breast for way to long. Checked it with another digital I had and meat was at 160 in all be 3 of the breast the other 3 were at 155-157. Ended up wrapping everything continuing the cook and finished in the oven. All meat turned out very tasty but drier than I wanted, the wings the exception fall off the bone and no sauce needed(seasoned with black pepper, garlic pwdr, onion pwdr, and little salt). Pork chops Ribs Chicken I had added a Rub ENDS were way to dry but about a 1/4in the meat was tastey and moist.
Bad thing due to the lid thermometer not reading accurate and my digi thermo failures I really don't know just what my temp cooks were. Salvage a cook yes...get my new equipment for monitoring...gonna make the cooks good.
Also add you do need to do some tweaking on air leaks it is a 3 section smoker. Bottom section to middle is sealed very well due to weight. Access door, mine required some bending of the door to get a pretty good seal. Lid section to middle section-- lots of smoke leaks out. I have a gasket kit to apply for that and also for the access door. It is a big smoker with 2 cooking grates that will easily hold 8 butts and then some smaller other cuts(maybe). The bottom fire grate has pretty good gaps so as the charcoal burns down it will fall thru the grate= you will need to add more fuel, so one mod is to add another fire grate 90degress offset to the bottom to keep smaller charcoal from falling through. The factory supplied fire ring is pretty big. At least 1.5-2 weber chimneys to fill the fire ring (again you doing a smaller cook you don't need that much fuel). Im going to make a smaller fire ring and also add the additional fire grate. Just my first cook and impressions..I am happy with the purchase. Overall it is a very well built unit I like the 3 sections for cleaning and start up. Water pan is very big and used with water or not makes clean up way easier. And you can strip out the middle cook section and water pan for a direct cook hot weber kettle.
