I have had my #3 for about 8 months now and it has been working great. Mostly I make pork shoulder, ribs, and beef jerky. The question I have is I notice at times puffs of smoke coming out the top and sometimes the bottom of the smoker rather than a nice steady stream out the top. Should the drain hole (air intake) be larger? Just wondering if anyone else has ran into this.
Smokin
- Thread starter travis
- Start date
DivotMaker
New member
Travis, that happens when you get combustion of the wood. No, the air/drain hole in the bottom does not need to be larger. Type "smoke belch" in the search bar, and you'll see this has been covered very extensively. In a nutshell, though, you need to be using good quality wood (Smokin-It, Fruitawood, Maine Grilling Woods), and stay away from the lumber yard bags - they're usually way too dry. Another way to avoid the belch is to slowly ramp-up the temp: start out by setting 130 for the first 1/2 hour, then up to cook temp (usually 225). This allows the wood to smolder and smoke, then rest before blasting it with full element heat again.
Check out some of the search results - you'll find a lot on this.
Check out some of the search results - you'll find a lot on this.
Travis, As Tony said the drain hole does not need to be made larger. When you say smoke is coming out the bottom, do you mean around the door at the bottom? It could be a little gappy and this is an easy fix (see the link). I had a similar problem with smoke leaving the smoker (different make) via the door. Problem solved. And make sure your wood is of good quality and not overly dry as Tony suggested.
http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1625.0
http://smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1625.0
Travis...I am using the slow temp start method that Tony mentioned with my #2. I did 16 chicken thighs yesterday for pulled chicken, starting the temp at 80F for about 1/2 hour, then raised it to the desired temp of 225F. As the temp was climbing to 225, I did get a few small puffs of smoke (as opposed to the constant stream of smoke), but after that, the smoke rolled fine. This was much better than the explosive blow out that I used to get by just setting the temp immediately to 225.
