Seasoning reminiscent of my MES....

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id2nv2nj2ca

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What does that mean?  It means that the smoke that is coming out of my newly delivered 4D right now has the same exact smoke color my MES 40 had coming out of it when I was seasoning it..........when the chips caught fire.  I certainly hope that's not what is happening right now, but this scares me to death to even think about putting some meat in there as it will taste horrible.

Am I panicking too early and subsequent use of these chunks will produce the thin blue smoke I'm looking for in my smokes?
 
What color was the smoke?  Was it heavy and dark gray?  Did you see heavy puffs of smoke, or experience the belch of smoke?  If so, then your wood likely caught fire.  Many of us have moved to a better wood source (like smokinlicious.com) that has a higher moisture content.  With the smokinlicious wood in my #2, I get a constant light colored smoke and have not experienced combustion.
 
There are 4 ways to get around this:

1. By good quality smoking wood that has moisture content of 15%-30%. As Steve mentioned, many of us are buying our wood from www.smokinlicious.com.

2. Ramp-up method - Start your smoke at 150 for 30-45 minutes, and then ramp up to your smoking temp. This allows the wood to have a bit of a break from the element as the smoker is warming up. Without this, the element will be hitting the wood full blast during the initial cycle where the smoker is coming to temp which can sometimes cause the combustion. This is especially true with the #3 and #4 smokers that have the large powerful elements.

3. Foil Boat - Wrap the bottom half of your wood chunks with aluminum foil. This will help prevent the wood from combusting.

4. Use any combination of options 1-3.

I have found that with my smokinlicious wood, that I don't have to use any of these options anymore.

I have also experienced combustion (search for belch) during the smoke cycle and just left the door shut and the combustion went out almost immediately and my results were not affected at all. The biggest thing is to not panick like some do and open the door and pull the smoke box. Two problems with this. First, opening the door opens a mad rush of oxygen to the box and then your chunk will really light up. Second, you'll probably burn yourself on the smoke box trying to mess with it.

The other thing that I have found helpful, is that most of these smokers have a few spots in the smoke box that get hotter than others. For my smoker, it is in the back of the box. So, I tend to place my wood based on where my hot spots are at. For low temp smokes where keeping the wood smoldering can be tough because the wood does not get heat with the heat as often, I will use my hot spot. For traditional smokes, I tend to avoid the back of the box.

You can run a test, by loading your smoke box up with wood spead evenly thoughout your box and run the smoker empty. This will help you find where your hotspot/s are.

So, I think you are panicking too early on this one. There are lots of things that you can do to eliminate/reduce this issue.
 
Welcome to the Smokin-It experience, and PLEASE...........realize that most on this forum would LOVE to have the luxury of the 4D's space.  You will be so happy and be the object of (first myself) much envy for having all that real estate.  You will also be burdened with people telling you, "This is the best (___________) I've ever eaten."  In 3 months, you will never remember anything negative about that beast.  Have faith.

 
I use smokinlicious wood also and am very satisfied and have had no problems. You can also line the bottom of your smoke box with foil and that in itself should cure your problem. Believe me it is a wood problem and not a smoker problem. Dont bother soaking the wood in water as it is a waste of time. Having a 1500 watt element you may be better off with the ramp up method that has been mentioned. Don't get frustrated, there is a small learning curve involved. Its worth the effort. Hope your pork butts are the best ever!
 
Scott, in addition to all the remedies that Gregg mentioned I just leave my chip screen in all the time and have never had any problems in spite of using non-premium wood.
 
Thank you everyone for the time you took to reply. Someone asked what color the smoke was that made me panic. It was dark by the time I had smoke coming out of the vent and around the door, but the best way I can describe the color is that of what the smoke looks like when the brush in our hills are on fire. It was not white or grey, but a yellowish brown color. Again, it was nighttime with only my back security light on. Also, I didn't watch it the entire time, so I don't know if it "belched" or not. If anyone wants to send me your email address, I'll send you a video I took, because it is too large of a file size to upload here. I tried last night.

Since I started this topic while it was still seasoning, I can report that eventually, I had thin blue smoke coming out of the exhaust port, which thrilled me and when it was done, the two chunks of the supplied wood were just two little piles of ash, but it did look like there was an actual fire in the box because the metal indicated there  was one. :( Hopefullly, some foil in the box, ramping up the temp or a different wood will prevent the fire in the future. 

On another note, after the seasoning was done and I inspected the interior of the chamber and the smoke box, I put a half a row of pellets in my AMNPS, lit it and let it burn for about 6 or 7 minutes, then shut the door and it smoked BEAUTIFULLY. I placed it right above the drain hole. Don't know if that helped, but I'm thrilled to know it stayed lit until it burned all the pellets I put in it.

I ordered a dorm size refrigerator (no freezer type) for brining butts, birds, brisket, etc and curing bellies for bacon that will be here tomorrow. Will brine the butts I picked up last night (this will be a first) and put in the smoker Saturday morning. May even wait and brine them Saturday AM and put them in to smoke Saturday evening to be done Sunday after church. ;)

Thanks again for all the feedback. Will keep y'all updated with my progress. :)

Ohhhhhhh, one other thing......I was ecstatic going out to check the progress and see the temperature right at or only 1 degree off the 250 I set for seasoning and the 225 when I tried the pellets. 💃🏻💃💃🏻💃 Happy dance!! :)
 
With your previous smoking experience there will be a learning curve to the SI.  I've been there.  I used a pellet smoker for years before adding the SI #3.  My initial results were not great and I wasn't super impressed with the smoker.  I did a lot of reading on this forum and asked questions.  I adjusted my methods and I have been very happy with the SI ever since.  Lots of great people here willing to help.  Use their experience and you will be cranking out great Lazy Q in no time.
 
Glock_21 said:
With your previous smoking experience there will be a learning curve to the SI.  I've been there.  I used a pellet smoker for years before adding the SI #3.  My initial results were not great and I wasn't super impressed with the smoker.  I did a lot of reading on this forum and asked questions.  I adjusted my methods and I have been very happy with the SI ever since.  Lots of great people here willing to help.  Use their experience and you will be cranking out great Lazy Q in no time.
Click to expand...

Hey Travis.  Thanks for the reply.  I wish there weren't a learning curve.  I'm coming from one of the less expensive electric smokers to the most expensive one I've seen, outside of a commercial unit or the ones from the competition like Cookshack and Smokin Tex and figured they would be the same, other than the temps staying where I set it, which was the big selling point for me.  That, and the capacity. ;)

At this point, while now experimenting with some more hickory chunks and getting almost the same thick fire produced smoke after foiling part of the wood box and ramping up the temp from 150 for .7 hours to 225, I'm REALLY nervous about putting any meat in it and thinking I will just use my AMNPS like I did in my MES.  Though that required a mailbox mod for cold smoking. :)

Thanks again.
 
Put a pork butt in there with a little wood and a pan of water and let the SI do it's thing.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

 
Curious, Scott...what's the source of the wood you are using?  And, are you using chunks or chips?  The reason I ask is that I've never seen drier wood combust using some of these countering techniques, unless it's really dry.  I have a moisture meter, and checked some "big box" store wood (it was Weber brand), and it was 1% moisture content!  That's pretty much kiln-dried kindling!  You have invested in a high-quality smoker, so why not invest in some good quality wood to feed it?  Small investment, considering...  just my 2¢. 

I'm glad to hear your AMNPS worked, when placed directly above the drain hole...when you weren't smoking any meat.  I bet you don't get the same results when there is grease dripping, and trying to get out that same hole!  Not sure, but that would be my guess.

Your problem will be solved with chunks that have proper moisture.  Plus, the effect gets much less, over time, as the smoker gets burned-in and seasoned. 
 
DivotMaker said:
Curious, Scott...what's the source of the wood you are using?  And, are you using chunks or chips?  The reason I ask is that I've never seen drier wood combust using some of these countering techniques, unless it's really dry.  I have a moisture meter, and checked some "big box" store wood (it was Weber brand), and it was 1% moisture content!  That's pretty much kiln-dried kindling!  You have invested in a high-quality smoker, so why not invest in some good quality wood to feed it?  Small investment, considering...  just my 2¢. 

I'm glad to hear your AMNPS worked, when placed directly above the drain hole...when you weren't smoking any meat.  I bet you don't get the same results when there is grease dripping, and trying to get out that same hole!  Not sure, but that would be my guess.

Your problem will be solved with chunks that have proper moisture.  Plus, the effect gets much less, over time, as the smoker gets burned-in and seasoned.
Click to expand...

Hi Tony.  Yeah, it sounds really dumb to drop $1700 on a smoker and then complain about the price of wood.  I get that, but the $1700 was a HUGE expense and we are just trying to save where we can.  The wood (chunks) I got were from Amazon and are Western brand.  The chunks I tried seasoning with were from Smokin It and they definitely caught fire. But, I didn't have any tin foil in the smoker box because it says not to put any tinfoil in until after the seasoning.  Maybe they should send out Smokinlicious or some other good wood for seasoning?  I have two chunks (3.5 ounces) of the Amazon wood in right now, in tin foil with some holes, on top of a piece of tin foil in the smoker box and it has been smoking perfectly.

Yes, I know if I use the AMNPS, I will have to tent it to keep drips off of it, or just make sure I place the meat such that it doesn't drip on the tray.  Which could be a challenge.  :P

Thanks again for all the help, I'm sure things will work out. :)
 
Scott, just wondering how your making out with your #4D now. Would love to hear and see some pictures of our smokes!
 
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