Do I Really Need To Season a Brand New WSM?

[KenB]

Just bought a 14.5 WSM at Walmart for $139 and want to smoke some Ribs tomorrow.  Do I really need to season it?

[kettlebb]

Don't own one but my research says yes. Do a shoulder and get some good grease built up. Helps seal it up.


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[Mr.CPHo]

Congrats on your new WSM.  I think more important is burning off any residue left from the manufacturing process. Seasoning your WSM will create a better seal, and therefore the steadier it will hold a constant temp.  Burn a full chimney in there without the water pan today, and cook your ribs tomorrow as planned.


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[TheDude]

My used WSM was practically new when I got it. leaked like hell and ran hot for a while. Ran a few yard birds through her, and she's been tamed.

[chefn58]

Yes, you should season it. Not only does it seal the WSM, it helps keep the temperature down because the inside of the pit is not as reflective.


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[iCARRY]

Yes season it really good. Go get a bunch of chicken quarters and get that thing coated with the grease splatters. I am on year 2 on my 22 WSM and it keeps getting better.


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[blksabbath]

I didn't season mine, just washed the grates and made two racks of ribs on it with no problems, no weird smells or off tasting food, no major leaks that couldn't be taken care of simply by adjusting how things fit together.

I agree, After a few cooks I didn't have to mess with the vents as much to get the temps where I wanted.  There's a learning curve to WSM, but it's surprising easy to make awesome food on one right out of the box.


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[WNC]

Yes!
Season it with those ribs you plan on making!

WSM, like kettles get better with each cook, so go ahead and cook in it, that's what's gonna season it up.

[KenB]

Thank you all for your advice. Cooked 3 racks today without seasoning the WSM. I needed a 3rd grate and used my smokey joe grate on top by resting it on the handles of the grate that came with the WSM.  Seemed to work fine.  One big surprise was how long it took to get to 250 and most of the cook was done at 225 ish.  I used lump and not briquettes.  Is that the issue?

[Harbormaster]

Lump isn't the issue.
Did you have water in the pan?
How did you start your fire? If you used a chimney, how much was lit?
Are you using the stock thermometer for temp reading?
Lots of things other than your fuel would have caused low temps. My 18.5s are up to 250 dome temp in 10 minutes or so after dumping the chimney in.

[KenB]

Full Water Pan and I used cold water which I now know is WRONG.  I did use a chimney but most probably should have let that burn more before dumping it in.  I used a thermometer from my SSP through the grommet and both thermometers were almost exact.  By the way the ribs were awesome, go figure.

[Lightning]

I never seasoned my WSM before use.  I did wipe down the two grates and run the smoker hot before putting in four racks of ribs and everyone there agreed they'd turned out very well - so we both had the same experience there!

With all that's been written out there on the internet about all the stuff you supposedly have to do to one of these smokers before you cook with them and it sounds so intimidating at first, there's nothing more encouraging than doing the basic setup and having a great meal several hours later to get you started off in the right direction.

I kind of took the same view that a lot of heavy cast iron users have that the best way to season and keep seasoned something like this is throug regular use.  This is also how I've gotten the hang of using it as well.  That first load of ribs was beginner's luck as much as anything else.

The biggest thing I did to my WSM to improve its performance out of the box after several uses was to gently bend the door so it fit more snugly.  It wasn't quite concave enough to close tightly at the edges and a lot of smoke escaped and bypassed the food and air got in and made airflow and temperature regulation difficult.

I think cold water in the pan has been overstated as a problem.  I got started using cold water, had no problems, read a lot of advice suggesting using the hottest water you can manage and did that and had problems with the temperature overshooting, then went back to cold water and letting the water pan rise to the boiling point in the smoker from whatever the temperature out of the tap happens to be.  This might be a problem in colder weather but I didn't try using the smoker over the winter last year so I don't know yet.  I'm going to keep using it this time so maybe by late October or November I'll have to preload the water pan with warm or hot water to compensate the lower ambient temperature once it starts dropping.

[Harleysmoker]

No need to season it. Wipe it out with a clean towel, fire it up for a bit to burn off anything and throw the meat on. Like said after a few cooks it will seal up better.

[jdefran]

I prefer the simplicity of not using water and just wrapping the water pan in foil for easy clean up.

As previously suggested, I didn't season mine..just ran it empty for a bit with a full load of charcoal to burn any crap out. At that point I reloaded my charcoal, got temp settled, and cooked on it.

The more I cook on my WSM the less I tend to care about specific temp, I focus moreso on a constant temp. For example, if the smoker wants to settle at 275 then I let it do it's thing.

When I start up my WSM, it seems it takes longer to get TBS then it does to settle at a temp.