Another white smoke and creosote post Need help

[jboyIV]

Hello,

I'm new to this style of smoker. I got the smokin-it #1 and read forum posts before placing my order. My very first cook after seasoning tasted incredibly bitter. So I went to the forums and looked to see who else has this problem. I'm thankful some people never do, but I'm honestly fed up with this smoker. In all my tests or cooks the wood has been under 3oz and as low as 1oz for short tests. I clean up after every smoke.

I have tried:
Heating the smoker up in stages.
Using foil boats on my wood along with the chip tray.
Placing foil over the holes in the heating element.
"pre-heating" even though the manual suggests I do not.
Using the moisture tray near the heating element.
Varying moistures in my wood, meaning shorter versus longer seasoning periods. I have not soaked anything.

I have also let the smoker run with no wood incase there was something else igniting that I was not aware of. There were no issues here.
Most recently, I have used tripled a wrapped foil boat for a 1.5oz chunk, preheated in stages while checking the temp with another device. After reaching the 225 range, it smelled good, smoke looked good, but 1 hour later, there is bitter pluming smoke.

This is every single cook, there is a period between 30 mins- a couple hours of nasty smoke. It makes for incredibly bitter aromas and taste. I have used apple wood, cherry, and the sample hickory. The 1st applewood I got was very dry big box store product. I was hoping that was my only problem. Unfortunately, everything I have tried seems to delay the awful smoke rather than prevent it.

I'm at a loss, wondering if I missed anything.

Thanks for any help,
I don't want to give up on this one, but I'm almost there.

John

 

[old sarge]

Welcome to the forum. Some questions.
1. How long have you had the smoker?
2. How many smokes have you done with this unit?
3. What other smoker(s) have you used prior to the SI 1?
4. Big box store wood will sometimes have bark and from my experience, bark is a non-starter. Also, if too dry, it can ignite and due to the lack of oxygen in the smoker, it can get ugly. Did any of the wood you used have bark?
5. Lastly, and this has happened a couple times in the past:  If you foiled the bottom/floor of the smoker, did you put a good hol over the drain for grease out and air in? We have had a couple folks forget that and the smoker just choked on smoke.
The link below will explain smoke but aside from that, forum members need more info in order to address your complaint:
https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/grill-and-smoker-setup-and-firing/science-of-wood-and-smoke/