The Door Showdown LavaLock Door -vs- Cajun Bandit Door
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
- The wait is over, the test between the two aftermarket doors for the WSM finally happened! The Cajun Bandit Door is a sleek design which is a heavy gauge stainless steel, many people like the way it makes your WSM look. On the other hand The LavaLock Door is the gritty looking door, expanding your midsection and requires certain skill to install on your WSM. We already know from the test in 2018 the LavaLock Door is more efficient than The WSM factory door, but how does it compare to the Cajun Bandit Door?
A special thank you to my friend Patrick who allowed me to use his WSM for the video.
Get your own Upgraded Lavalock door:
bbqsmokermods.com
I just put on a Cajun Bandit door and added gasket on the door. It fits and seals great . I no longer notice any smoke leaking from the door. Instead of smoke leaking everywhere , It seems 3/4 of the smoke is exhausting through the top vent and 1/4 is escaping from the bottom of the dome lid.
Definitely the CB is a great upgrade to the factory door. I would still recommend a gasket on the lid at the very least. Sometimes if you get enough grease it will help to seal those gaps. However there is always a risk of having too much excess grease in the smoker. Thanks for watching!
Put a gasket on the Cajun Bandit door. Your Lava Lock comes with a gasket and a tube of sealer to go around the Lava Lock door. At least on the kit I saw on the website. If you were to gasket the Bandit door I would think you would see a closer match.
Thanks for watching! I wanted to do a base comparison, I agree you would get a better result with a gasket on the CB door, but I also believe they should provide it as part of the door purchase. I may conduct this again in a future test, I just have to get that same smoker back!
With the Pit barrel cooker gaining quite a following in the past few years, people who have Weber Smoky Mountain's are wanting to hang ribs in hopes to cook like the PBC. The success of the PBC is the air tight environment within the cooker. PBC designed it to where there is only one way in and one way out for air flow. It's so precise that the air intake is set to the sea level of where it resides. For a WSM to mimic the PBC it has to be air tight as well. However, the WSM is plagued with air leaks from top to bottom. One of the biggest struggles to make the WSM air tight is the access door. You can gasket the Cajun Bandit door all you want, but it's impossible to make the bottom of the door reliably air tight. Sure, the grease can eventually seal it, but open and close it once and now you have an air leak you'll be fighting against for the rest of your cook. Through my research I have found that the LavaLock Door is the only reliable door out there that will seal completely every single time you use it. If the WSM people are wanting to cook exactly like the PBC you're either gonna have to weld shut the door opening or you're gonna need to get the LavaLock Door. P.S. I don't work for the LavaLock people, I just want to use my WSM like a PBC but with options for better air/temp control.
Very well written! I also have a PBC and I agree to your points. I will never own a WSM without the Lavalock door (except for my 14” which is too tiny)
I gave a "like", but with some reservation. I have been using the WSM 18.5 and first two cooks it ran too hot as I frittered with the door and vents. Then I realized that if I fully loaded the basket and used Minion method I had NO NEED of the door for even 24 hours keeping only the front lower intake vent slightly open, the top exhaust about 3/4 open and thus cooking at 230F to 250F at upper cook grate level. By NOT opening the OE door, the leaks around decreased to almost nil once warm. I never run with all inlets open and top open once the hot coals have been placed upon the basket of charcoal for a couple of minutes.
I agree the idea isn’t to run the smoker with all vents wide open that isn’t practical. The reason I did it for this video to show the extreme situation of maximum airflow and the performance of the smokers given each modification. The idea is to show you equal performance and not doubts about the possibility of one smoker with a vent a little more open than the other. Of course if you adjust the vents throughout your cooks you will receive a much better performance. The Lavalock door will help you with much better performance over the CB and factory doors. Thanks for watching!
Thank you so much for this comparison video. Weber should get rid of that flimsy access door and provide a better door and square off the access to the charcoal chamber that is behind the door instead of the round access they provide. I mean the smoker/cooker isn’t cheap and over $500 bucks brand new. But one thing about the smoker/cooker is that you don’t have to do a lot of work with it when you smoke the meats you love. I love mine and best investment in smokers imo.
Agreed! It would be nice to see Weber do a bit of a redesign! However I must admit I like to mod out my WSM! Thanks for watching!
Cajun Bandit stainless steel door with lavalock gasket = sexy AF.
It does look nice, but the performance isn’t there. Even though it is a decent upgrade to the factory door. I don’t enter my smokers in shows for their looks, I just enter them into shows for the cooks! Thanks for watching!
@@OinkCluckMooBBQ That is true. Rather have my meats smoked/cooked with doneness done right than showin’ my smoker off to the masses.
Nice breakdown.
Thank you 👊
Oink Cluck Moo BBQ - I’m thinking about modding my PBC with a door
thanks for this, got lavalock door well I will at christmas, and was wondering how it compared to the cajun bandit. nice data so glad I went with ore expensive one, but like you said will break even after burning a few bags of charcoal.
James Anthony glad I helped you make an informed decision! Thanks for watching and enjoy your gift! Sounds like you are on Santa’s good list!
You can install the gasket along with the Cajun bandit for more efficiency. Little to no leakage after that. Requires no skill and u can still use the same grill cover unlike the lavalock ... these are major cons for me.
Marcus Burks that is true, I am not sure if the efficiency you will still get out of the sealed door, but I’d imagine it’s better than without it. I think we can both agree the WSM factory door is useless. I prefer the Lavalock door because of the convenience of being able to swing the door open and not have to place a hot piece of metal somewhere to risk someone getting burned on it.
Oink Cluck Moo BBQ I agree. Would u do a video comparing these two with the gasket? Just curious.
I would have to arrange to get the smoker with the CB door again. I might be able to!
Does cajun bandit sell gasket on their website?
I do not believe so, however bbqsmokermods.com does sell a Lavalock gasket which you can use on a CB or factory door.
Have you thought about trying this test at a normal smoking temp of 225, 250 or 275 to see real charcoal burn time. I personally dont know anyone who runs a smoker to the 400 - 500+ temps you had in a WSM. That's seems like grilling not smoking. I'm not ripping on you just curious about realistic burn times.
Thanks for the feedback and yes, I will be doing a test with a pit temp controller to determine the burn time at a steady 225. The purpose of leaving the vents open during this test was to highlight in extreme circumstances how these mods will improve your charcoal life. Therefore I wanted to make sure both smokers were at the exact same settings.
Thanks for watching, and stay tuned!
Nice breakdown, but I Gabe a couple of concerns:
I saw what looked like significant rust at the top of the Lava Lock. That could be a factor.
And the use of the factory and Cajun bandit as a chute for adding charcoal, but that’s offset with the longer burn time. So probably a wash for that.
Thanks for watching, not sure how rust would play any factor, can you expand on that theory for me? The rust is mainly from my botched paint job. If anything I need to take the door off and redo it, but I could care less 😜
The use of the CB door as a chute is true but not necessarily practical in execution. It is a two person job to hold the door steady and angle it into the charcoal ring. Either your charcoal ring needs to be right to next to the front of the smoker or you need to hold the door up. I prefer to just to use a shovel and not play around with the door at all in that fashion.
I like that you did a comparison, but your bias is so obvious I stopped watching at the halfway mark.
Thanks for watching sorry you feel that way.
@@OinkCluckMooBBQ you literally start with a LavaLock logo... And only provide a link to the LavaLock mod...
If you don't think you're biased from the start, the first thing you do when providing observations about the Cajun Bandit door is go on about how much better the lavalock is...
It's not about how I feel man, it's about how you displayed the information. I only bother connecting because if you choose to do another comparison in the future it's important for you to understand how jaded your coverage is.
I was really intrigued by the data, but the variances were to great to use just two as total evidence. Then you degraded into espousing the virtues of the one you prefer.
I wish you all the best, but this was a poor comparison.
I did the product review for them and I back their products as I use them consistently.
@@OinkCluckMooBBQ so, did you explain it was a paid promotion and I missed it, or was that at the end that I didn't get to?
Not very good business to be claiming an even comparison when you're already biased and "did the review for them"...
@@Punchanello what is your problem?