Soliciting feedback and suggestions

[Pork Belly]

I agree with Bigbassnut, I leave my chip screen in all the time. I think it cuts down on available O2. I have never had a combustion problem, including off color or large volumes of smoke. Even when I crank it directly to 250 i don't have issues. Reducing the O2 is the only way to control combustion.

[tbrtt1]

Update to the update: Something is still not right. Dry run seemed OK early in the day, then I put on a butt late last night. Used the same type wood, the new hickory and wild cherry I received early in the week from Fruitawood. Even before 200* there was some small belches and some nasty smoke. I shut her down and cooled. Then I put the wood, the exact wood from the wood box and wrapped in foil and poked only a couple of holes in it. STILL GETTING SOME thick grayish/white smoke!

[DivotMaker]

The picture may be deceiving, but that does not look like smoke I'd be worried about.  It's always going to be pretty heavy when it first starts smoking, but will "thin-out" a little while into the smoke.  I wouldn't worry much about that.  Does it have a real acrid smell to it, or does it smell like hickory smoke?  You also might try the chip insert thing, or foil from the beginning.

[tbrtt1]

DM,

Thanks for your fast and informative responses, and others as well. Nice to have a wealth of knowledge to draw from.

The pics are misleading in that it doesn't look as heavy in the pics. Trust me, it is fairly heavy for a while. You can see beautiful TBS in the early ramp up that smells heavenly, almost like incense. Then watch it get grey and heavy, at times even brownish. Very distinct difference. And last night I was getting the dreaded belches. A few small ones. It had to be shut down. Obviously igniting the wood a bit.

Yes, the smoke is acrid and foul smelling at times. And yes, I occasionally can taste traces of it in the food. Chicken seems to be the worst and I have had some that was borderline. The heartier pieces of meat can withstand the 30-60 minutes of bad smoke. In fact the pork butt I did last night actually turned out to be maybe the best thing I have done yet in the #2. Briskets are excellent. Ribs can be less than stellar but mostly excellent.

The main issue, as I see it, with the period of acrid smoke is it gives me no room for error. I have to put just the right amount of wood in it. Too little and it not smokey enough and it can still have a slight hint of that acrid bitter taste. Too much and it is too smokey and acrid as well. If I hit it just right, its fantastic. Though I must confess, I have only had one batch of chicken that was completely inedible. Everything else is enjoyable. I just think it could be more consistent.

I cleaned off the sealant and reapplied. I had noticed that I may have not had the sealant close enough to the edge in spots. The door overlaps the least at the bottom. This may contribute to the problem.

I will wrap in foil from now on and see how things go.

[DivotMaker]

Sounds like you definitely have some combustion going on! ("Thank you Capt Obvious!").  lol.  Try doing a search, from the index page, for "combustion" and "belch."  You'll see 30 results for each.  This topic has actually been covered quite a bit, and you might get some other ideas from the posts.  This is something I never experienced in the #1, and have only experienced a few times in the (bigger element) #2.  I've found ramping the temp up slowly helps - but that's what works for me.  Check out what others, outside this thread, have found.

[swthorpe]

The belch has been discussed in several posts, and it does seem to be related to the wood catching on fire.  Tony uses the ramp up method to slowly heat the wood, and I have tried that as well a few times (BTW, I have a SI #2).   I have settled on wrapping the wood in foil and have done this in a couple of ways.   The first few times I completely wrapped the wood in foil and punched a few BB-sized holes in the foil around the wood to allow the smoke to escape.  This method worked, but now I don't completely wrap the wood--I leave the top open and just have the foil underneath and around the sides of the wood which seems to block the air flow in the box pretty well.  This method is working fine, although I still get a few "puffs" when the temp reaches about 180F, and then the smoke resumes normally.  I have not experienced the BIG BELCH at all with the foil method.   

I should also note that I have been using home depot hickory wood that is probably pretty dry, but I will be switching to one of the other online stores suggested in other forum posts when I next need wood.