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In Reply to: Re: Yo posted by Chuck/Tx on March 21, 2008 at 21:21:43:
Hey Chuck, The arrangement you described is correct. The WSM waterpan when inserted in an ECB charcoal pan that is in place inside the WSM will sit about an inch higher than normal, preventing the bottom cooking grate from sitting in its original position. The bottom grate will have to sit on top of the WSM waterpan.
What I did to remedy this was to install four 1/4" wing nuts on the four bolts that hold the waterpan and grate brackets in place. Leave the original nuts/taps in place. The wing nuts will then hold the bottom cooking grate about an inch above the ECB/WSM pans set-up. I use this set-up all the time when I use water in the pan. The meat catches more smoke, gets steamed less and the temperature difference between the top and bottom shelf is not as great.
As others stated in your earlier thread, when no water is used in the pan, the bottom grate can cook hotter than the top. One thing I did to avoid this was to build another shelf that sits in between the two original shelves. You can either purchase a BGE grid extender like the one above pictured at the Naked Whiz' web site. Or you can build one.
I used a cooking grate from an ECB. For the legs on the grate, I used four 1/4"x 4" carriage bolts, 3 nuts/taps for each bolt, 2 large 1/4" washers for each bolt and 1 large 3/8" washer for each bolt. All of the hardware is stainless steel. Each leg is in between the 2nd and 3rd slat on a EBC cooking grate.
The leg is assembled in the following order: 3/8" washer placed on the bolt, then the bolt goes through the cooking grate. Then place a 1/4" washer followed by a 1/4" nut/tap and tighten so that both washers are tight against each side of the grate. Once the top has been drawn tight, install another 1/4" nut/tap about 1/2" from the end of the bolt, followed by a 1/4" washer, then followed by 1/4" nut/tap. Tighten the two nuts/taps so that the washer is tight between the two nuts. Make sure the bottom nut is flush with the bottom of the bolt.
Once the grate is assembled, it will fit between the top and bottom grates with about 3-1/2" of clearance between the two grates. If you need to lower the height of the grate, you can adjust the bottom two nuts on each bolt to where they are higher up on the shaft of the bolts.
One thing to keep in mind, is the airflow between the new grate and the original top grate. On thinner pieces of meats like ribs or chicken parts, this is not so critical. It does make a difference when you are cooking multiple butts or briskets.
So what I did to put more distance between the new bottom shelf and the original top shelf was to install a new top shelf. I just use the cooking grate from my 18.5" kettle. I place this cooking grate on the top grate of the WSM, but I also turn the kettle grate upside down and turn the grate so the handles of the two grates are at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00. Since the handles are the same height, this extra top shelf is very stable.
These two altered shelves seem to cook fairly close in temperature, but I have never monitored each shelf at the same time to determine their exact difference. I hope some of this information helps. The link below will take you to a post I made four years ago concerning extra shelves on the WSM. If you have any more questions, feel free to post them here.
Lager,
Juggy