Just melted my vents off

[benkeenan2005]

I had some old wood to burn and seeing as though some people Season their WSM. Trouble is with all the vents open the temperature was so hot one vent fell off as the rivet had melted, this one also has a second centre hole burnt through it. One of them was melted to the WSM so it couldn't be closed, this one melted pretty much in half and I need to try and scrap what's left off the side.

3rd one is stuck with it slightly out of shape.

Contacting weber about warranty, but lesson learnt, don't over season!

[keith157]

Great tip, sorry you've had to learn the hard way on our behalf. Don't overseason, smokers or food

[Steve]

I've never heard of that happening. I can run mine fully open without any problems. It gets as high as 450F but never any higher.

In order to melt your rivets you must have been at astronomical temperatures. Did you put a lot of wood in? What type of wood was it? Have you got some big air leaks from an out of round or something?

When you run at 250F (121c) the surface temperature of your bottom bowl is only about 80C and if you have any small air leaks the surface temp around those areas is ten degrees higher. Melting temperature of aluminium is over 600C so surely it must have to get close to 500 before it softens enough to warp and bend under its own weight like that, that's hotter than a point flame

[The Social Smokers]

Did you assemble it correctly with the fireproof washers?

[benkeenan2005]

i used what ever came in the pack.

just had to call partridges of hadleigh as they sold it to me, hopefully it'll be straightforward.

they have the 57cm WSM for £333 if anyone is interested.