Weird seasoning issues on 2D

[RangerRick]

Sigh, and I'm back. I wanted to give myself the maximum time of testing and cooling off before writing this.

JackT, I appreciate the input, but once meat goes in, it stays closed until probes (mine and/or the unit's) report done.

dibiase and Divot, I had a call with Steve and did the autotune. There were huge changes in settings (incredibly drastic), Steve mentioned it might not have gotten the factory tune.

So, temperature wise, it holds steady now. It is correct, and works the way I would expect it to. However, I'm still getting extremely sub-par results with my cooks. I ordered wood from Smokinlicious, and I'll refer you to the attached picture. BEFORE anyone goes and tells me I used too much wood, I know, and I've tried it with one, two and three pieces for experimentation's sake.

At the back of the unit you see the wood burns to ash. At the front of the unit (and really anything just in front of the very back of the smoker) everything turns black but never smokes.

While the temps are now steady, I'm also seeing weird results with my food. I wish I had saved a graph to you show you, but I'm getting zero stall in any of my food. Even brisket (10lb+), it goes from 0 to 195 in a perfectly straight line (at 225 degrees) in about an hour and a half. This thing is defying a law of physics or something.

I don't know what to do. I really want to just sell this thing and be done with it, but I keep reading about how much everyone on here loves it. Sigh.

[old sarge]

While the temps are now steady, I'm also seeing weird results with my food. I wish I had saved a graph to you show you, but I'm getting zero stall in any of my food. Even brisket (10lb+), it goes from 0 to 195 in a perfectly straight line (at 225 degrees) in about an hour and a half. This thing is defying a law of physics or something.

I see why you are perplexed.  195 IT in an hour and a half is unbelievably fast. An hour to 1 1/2 per lb is average.  Were your probes centered in the meat or could they possibly have been in too shallow or too deep? Have you used an instant read thermometer to verify the final IT?

Looking at your included picture I would expect mostly ash at a steady 225 regardless of wood placement.  Does your element glow red from end to end or only in spots? (Only takes a minute to verify).

Is there any chance of a loose connection in the controller or down at the element that could shift as the unit heats up?  While this takes a little disassembly, it might prove worthwhile.

Keep up posted on what you find. - Dave

[DivotMaker]

Kris, if your meat probe is going to 195 in an hour and a half, it is either bad, or the tip is too close to a shelf or exposed heat in the smoker.  Usually, this problem turns out to be probe placement, but may not be in your case.  With your smoking experience, you know that there is absolutely NO way that a pork butt, or brisket, can get to 195 in 1/5 hours, unless you're smoking it at about 800°!!

Have you asked Steve about a probe replacement?  Might be a place to start.  As for the wood locations, it seems you would want to stick with middle-back on your chunks.  Fortunately, we don't use that much wood, and everyone has their own hot spots.  Mine, on the 3D, are middle 1/3.  I don't see that as a problem, so much as knowledge of where to place your wood to get maximum smoke.  No electric element is perfect, so learning the characteristics of yours is important!

Seems to me, the only issue you need to work out is why your meat temp probe is showing such a rapid rise in temp.

[RangerRick]

Ok, decided to go nuts on testing today. Wired up four probes; they're labeled in the picture but from top to bottom they are: closest to the element, 1/3 up, 2/3 up (also closest to the internal 2D probe), top (smoke hole).

Set the unit for 300, completely empty (no racks, no smoke box, nothing). See the attached results. It did pretty much exactly what it should have done. 2D probe reads 300, my probe #3 (closest to the 2D probe) also reads 300. Willing to admit there appears to be a +/- of 5 degrees on my probe #2 (it is older) but it is still pretty close.

The element itself feels like it has a hotspot at the back of the unit (right where the ashed chunk was in my last post), but I can't see it in the light of day. Anyone have any good ideas on how to check this?

So that said.....it should be doing what it is supposed to. I'm going to go buy some meat, hook up the probes and post the results.

[NDKoze]

My element definitely has a hot spot in the rear. You should be able to fire it up in the evening and you should be able to see the element get red.

[old sarge]

If you have a bad element, Steve will get one to you asap.

[DivotMaker]

Kris, good to hear you have gained some confidence that the smoker is heating properly.  As for elements, they all have hot spots.  My 3D is in the middle (like yours), and my 2 is toward the rear.  I just put the chunks in just outside the hot zones, and have no problems.

[RangerRick]

The element at night. Haven't gotten something to cook yet, but still having a hard time understanding what is happening here.

[old sarge]

Kris - With your testing and results, I'm with Tony on the meat probe.  As for wood placement, mine goes dead center and I get ash.  That seems to be the sweet spot on my smoker.

[CUTiger80]

Kris,
Your results are definitely puzzling, but that doesn't help you at all.  You already know that.
I am certainly not an expert with these smokers.  I'm still learning and have gotten a whole lot (more than I probably deserve) of help from the folks on this forum, so I would encourage you to hang in there because eventually you will get this worked out.  I have had my #2 with separate Auber controller for about 2 years now.  I installed the box temp probe permanently and modified the wiring to bypass the internal controls on the old-style #2, so I essentially have the same set-up as you. I have learned that once you run the autotune with the dummy meat load (I use a half-size pan with sand dampened with ice cold water), the smoker will behave rather wonky when there is not either meat or a similar dummy load in it.
As far as the temp probes are concerned, have you tested them to insure that they are reading and responding correctly?  I do this by mixing a batch of water and ice cubes.  Keep adding ice until it doesn't melt anymore.  Your liquid should be at about 32 deg F.  Put each of your portable probes (including the Auber meat probe) in to see what they read.  Label the probes and record what they read for future reference.  On my #2, the way that the internal temperature probe is installed, I can pour this ice cold mixture into an insulated coffee cup and tilt the smoker forward and place the probe through the sipping hole in the lid of the cup to get the probe into the water.  You can read the temp on the Auber controller.  (I'm not sure how the temp probe is installed in the 2D, so this may or may not work, so you may have to be a little creative.)  I do the same with boiling water.  Test the portable probes and make sure they read 212 deg F.  Pour some water into the coffee cup and test the probe in the smoker.  (It probably won't be quite 212 deg, but you can use one of your portable probes to see what it should be reading and compare.)
Once you know that all your probes are accurate, on your next smoke (like a butt or brisket) put several of your portable temp probes in the meat along with the smoker (Auber) meat probe and compare the results throughout the smoke.  That should tell you if your probe is placed correctly or not, but since you are not new to smoking, I would assume that you have plenty of experience on where to place the probe in all types of meat.
I cook a lot of pork butts.  (Many of my friends keep bringing me 2 and ask me to smoke both and keep one.  Free food is good!)  I noticed last weekend (when I ran the test on the wood chunks that I posted elsewhere) that my smoker took about an hour to get up to 215 deg (the temp I had my Auber set for).  Once it got to 215, it stayed there (within 1-2 degrees) for the entire smoke. 
When I first got my smoker, I had problems with the infamous "belch" so I got accustomed to ramping up the temperature.  This is a whole other discussion that I don't want to get into in this post, except to ask have you noticed the "belch" at about 15-30 minutes into the smoke?  You may want to try on your next smoke setting the controller to around 140 deg for the first 0.4 hours and then up it to your final smoking temp to see if that makes any difference.
I hope that some of this helps.  Keep us posted on your progress.

[RangerRick]

Ravel,

Thanks. From a temperature point of view, post auto-tune, it seems to be behaving exactly as I would expect it to, so I'm not as concerned about that.

The probes are working correctly; I tested them before and after the four probe test posted above.

I plan on getting a brisket and dropping multiple probes in (instead of my usual one) and recording the results for everyone to provide feedback on.

I have not seen/heard the belch; most on this site don't seem to recommend the ramping, but that is another topic. As you can see in the graphs above, I went from outdoor temperature (~80F) to 300F in about a half hour (empty box). It seems to heat and hold very quickly. I obviously don't normally smoke at those temps, it was just for testing.

So again - the device seems to be working as it should. Now just to get my food to come out correctly (read: more like my WSM)....

[NDKoze]

If you are using high-quality wood, you shouldn't need to ramp.

That being said, it doesn't hurt to ramp-up, so I still do it. I ramp for 45 minutes at 150, then up to the smoking temp.

If you are having smoking/results based issued, I would create a new thread for that if you have not already.

[SconnieQ]

I also have a 15 year background with the WSM, and really enjoyed it. Even with my low-tech #1, and the 20-30 degree temp swings in the non-D models, my SI produces better, moister, and more consistent Q than my WSM. And I thought my WSM Q was pretty darn good! The first thing I noticed was the true, clean flavor of the wood smoke. Charcoal fuel can muddle the flavor of the wood species. And even with the temp swings in the non-D models, the temp is more consistent over a long smoke than you can get with the WSM (and I don't have to pay any attention to it). I wish you luck in getting this worked out. Your WSM could get lonely...I feel sorry for mine...old friend. Served me well for many years, and gave me an excellent education in the world of BBQ. Looking forward to hearing about your results now that it sound like you've got it tuned up.

[DivotMaker]

Kris,

Now that you see your smoker is heating properly, smoke a Boston butt, or some back ribs, and report back.