White smoke?

[Greenenvey]

Hi got my ribs I'm the smoker, I noticed I had some fairly heavy white smoke in the beginning of the smoke that settled down to a nice thin blue smoke about 30 minutes in. I know white smoke can make the meat bitter. Is it common to have white smoke for. Little while  after the smoke starts? I'm using smokinlicious wood and fruitawood wrapped in a foil boat. Thanks

 

[Greenenvey]

Another thing I noticed, I've set my pid to 230 and it went to 240 and the green light has been flashing the whole time to i set it to 225 hoping it will cool down. Green light still flashing.

 

[NDKoze]

I can't help you on the PID questions, but I smoked a butt on Saturday with some Smokinlicious Sugar Maple and I had the same thing. I am pretty sure that my wood started on fire. I didn't boat, but I did have a 30 minute ramp up. I contribute my problem to putting the wood too far back into my smoke box where my hot spot is on my smoker. My note to myself is that unless I am running a low temp smoke to make sure my wood is spread out evenly more toward the front of my smoke box.

If you haven't found where your hotspot is yet, try doing a dry run at 250 with your smoke box filled with 6-8 ounces of wood spread evenly front to back and you'll find where your hotspot is at. I have heard some in the front, some in the back. I don't think I have heard of anyone having a hotspot in the middle, so if you don't run my suggested test, on your next smoke I would recommend keeping your wood confined to the middle of the smoke box and try not to add it over the top of a hole.

BTW, I left my door closed and let the fire run its course and my butt still turned out awesome. The worst thing you can do is open the door and flood the chamber with fresh oxygen which will really get the fire going.

 

[Greenenvey]

Thank you Greg,  lm glad I didn't open the door my first thought was hmmm let's open this up and see what's going on in there, my second thought was nooo don't do it !!  I'd do what you suggested finding the hotspot. I'm glad to hear yours turned out awesome even with the white smoke. I've had a nice steady thin blue smoke every since so maybe I'll be ok too.

 

[NDKoze]

I had three pieces of wood that weight about 6 ounces and only one of my pieces combusted. Thus my suggestion for finding your hotspot.

 

[AlinMA]

A good investment would be a moisture meter. They are relatively inexpensive on Amazon. I paid about $15 for mine. I also have a hot spot near the front of my SI#1 and I usually place a thicker piece near that spot and I only use wood that is no less than 10% moisture content and have never experienced combustion. Good decision on not opening the door......my guess with the sudden rush of oxygen you would of had a roaring fire....

 

[id2nv2nj2ca]

Here's my thoughts/issue.  When I first fire my smoker up, now that I have some complete smokes done, after about 12 minutes or so, I start seeing this beautiful thin blue smoke.  THEN.............it turns white and stays that way the entire rest of the time.

I have 4 smokes and several experiments I am gleaning from here.  After first seasoning my smoker, where the wood supplied by SI caught fire and burned to complete ash, I started trying other wood I got from Amazon......after putting some foil in the bottom of the smoke box and in those cases (three tries with some of the Amazon wood and another with the SI wood, some wrapped in foil with holes, some just sitting on the tin foil, I get some thin blue smoke for awhile and then nothing or solid white smoke. Not thick white like it was on fire, but just plain white smoke.  Sometimes it looked like the wood charred, sometimes it didn't very much.  And I have opened the smoker to see where the smoke was coming from.  When it was the TBS we are supposed to be smoking with, it was NOT coming from the inside of the smoke box, but rather from the drippings from the meats I had smoked previously.

This is beyond frustrating to me, paying $1700 for a professional grade (at least I call it that) smoker and having to worry if I have the right wood, whether I have to put foil in the smoke box, wrap my wood in foil and poke holes in it or "boat" it, worry about where the "hot spot(s) are, etc etc etc.  I even bought a big box of Smokinlicious wood and it does the same thing.  Problem is, according to Donna there (best customer service....EVER), there is no need for a moisture meter and our wood will lose about 3% of its moisture content every 10 days to two weeks.  I believe that's the time frame she gave.  Soooooo, I will have to rehydrate this great wood before I even use a fourth of it.

What has worked for me and gave me thin blue smoke the entire time?  My AMNPS.  A LOT of people said it wouldn't work because of how airtight these SI smokers are, but it works for me.  I would just love to be able to use the equipment I paid REALLY good money for, the way it was intended without having to jump through hoops to do so.  Or buy other parts/accessories/equipment.  Which is why I had the AMNPS in the first place, because my MES caught my wood chips on fire every time I tried to use it.

 

[old sarge]

I have often sent this link to folks concerned about the quality of smoke, or wood, etc.  Hope this helps.  It is lengthy but well worth the read. And there are internal links. 

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/zen_of_wood.html

 

[DivotMaker]

It is not uncommon for the smoke to be heavy, and white, at the beginning of a smoke.  This is NOT the wood catching fire!  As the wood starts to smolder, it will put off the heaviest smoke, which will taper-off.  Now, it the smoke turns more gray, the box temp spikes and it smells a lot different, you probably have combustion.  If the latter doesn't happen, don't sweat it!  Just set the thing, go enjoy something else, and come back when the meat is done. 

I hear folks talk about the constant TBS of the AMZNPS, and I get it.  However, with wood chunks, in any powerful electric smoker, they will definitely smoke heavier at the begging.  As the smoker goes into a "maintenance" mode (temp is reached, and the element pulses to maintain the set temp, and is no longer at full-power), the wood will "settle-in" and give that TBS everyone is so concerned about.  Nature of the beast.  I have watched my smokers do this drill for years, and haven't had bad BBQ yet!  I've also never had wood wrapped in foil catch fire - even the dry stuff.

Btw, if you do get combustion, it won't last long, and will put itself out if you don't open the door!  Don't give it that big rush of oxygen to make it worse.  It will die-down, on its own, and will not effect the taste of your meat. 

Just my 2¢....

 

[Greenenvey]

It is not uncommon for the smoke to be heavy, and white, at the beginning of a smoke.  This is NOT the wood catching fire!  As the wood starts to smolder, it will put off the heaviest smoke, which will taper-off.  Now, it the smoke turns more gray, the box temp spikes and it smells a lot different, you probably have combustion.  If the latter doesn't happen, don't sweat it!  Just set the thing, go enjoy something else, and come back when the meat is done. 

I hear folks talk about the constant TBS of the AMZNPS, and I get it.  However, with wood chunks, in any powerful electric smoker, they will definitely smoke heavier at the begging.  As the smoker goes into a "maintenance" mode (temp is reached, and the element pulses to maintain the set temp, and is no longer at full-power), the wood will "settle-in" and give that TBS everyone is so concerned about.  Nature of the beast.  I have watched my smokers do this drill for years, and haven't had bad BBQ yet!  I've also never had wood wrapped in foil catch fire - even the dry stuff.

Btw, if you do get combustion, it won't last long, and will put itself out if you don't open the door!  Don't give it that big rush of oxygen to make it worse.  It will die-down, on its own, and will not effect the taste of your meat. 

Just my 2¢....

Thank you, I had a feeling it was no big deal and the ribs turned out awsome , everyone at our party loved them

 

[DivotMaker]

Thank you, I had a feeling it was no big deal and the ribs turned out awesome , everyone at our party loved them

Proof in itself....Great job! 8)

 

[NDKoze]

I much prefer the smoke flavor from my Smokinlicious chunks than my AMNPS. The AMNPS smoke is way to ashtray smelling for me. I use it to cold smoke cheese because after resting, the cheese tastes great. But, I have used it to cold smoke bacon, and while it had TBS there seemed to be a lot of ashtray flavor. This was with pellets that I got from A-MAZE-N.

I smoked a Boston Butt this weekend and thought one of my chunks had started on fire, but my guess is that as Tony described, it was just early heavy smoke, because the butt turned out awesome!

Scott, have you tried smoking any meat with the chunks? If not, I would encourage you to do so. I wouldn't get too hung up on the color of the smoke and worry more about the final results.

I have never foiled any of my wood and always get great results. I usually do a 30-45 minute ramp-up and make sure that I don't place my wood on top of a hole in my smoke box and don't put wood toward the back of my smoke box (where my hotspot is located) unless I am doing a low temp smoke where I might need the extra power from the hot part of the element.

I hear your frustration especially because of the large investment that you have made and don't want you to feel disrespected. But, I am not sure that your frustration is really warranted yet. I really think you need to give the chunks a chance with some meat. If you have already done this and have had poor results, I apologize. But, I don't remember reading any posts where you documented any poor food results when using the chunks.

Smoke on my friend!

 

[Glock_21]

I've never paid much attention to the color, quality, or quantity of smoke coming out of the box.  All I know is the patio and surrounding areas always smell wonderful while the SI is running.  No one has ever refused or thrown away any of the food from the SI because of a bad smoke taste.  I have only used the bone dry, bagged wood up until now. 
I just let the box do its job. Embrace the Lazy-Q process, set it and forget it.

 

[nvw-ssv]

I agree sir ^^^.  Sometimes our quest for the best food available makes us nitpick the small details, most notably in some recent posts. 

Some on here are going to get an ulcer worrying about and micro-managing some small details.  When the garage smells like bacon, it's a good thing.  Blue smoke, white smoke, Smoke Monster from LOST.........whatever. 

The result is always GREAT FOOD.

 

[DivotMaker]

I just let the box do its job. Embrace the Lazy-Q process, set it and forget it.

+1!! Well-said, Travis!! 8)

 

[id2nv2nj2ca]

I have often sent this link to folks concerned about the quality of smoke, or wood, etc.  Hope this helps.  It is lengthy but well worth the read. And there are internal links. 

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/zen_of_wood.html

Thank you so much.  I have not had time to read it yet, but I will add it to my "Smoking" bookmark folder to peruse at a later time.  I appreciate it.

 

[id2nv2nj2ca]

It is not uncommon for the smoke to be heavy, and white, at the beginning of a smoke.  This is NOT the wood catching fire!  As the wood starts to smolder, it will put off the heaviest smoke, which will taper-off.  Now, it the smoke turns more gray, the box temp spikes and it smells a lot different, you probably have combustion.  If the latter doesn't happen, don't sweat it!  Just set the thing, go enjoy something else, and come back when the meat is done. 

I hear folks talk about the constant TBS of the AMZNPS, and I get it.  However, with wood chunks, in any powerful electric smoker, they will definitely smoke heavier at the begging.  As the smoker goes into a "maintenance" mode (temp is reached, and the element pulses to maintain the set temp, and is no longer at full-power), the wood will "settle-in" and give that TBS everyone is so concerned about.  Nature of the beast.  I have watched my smokers do this drill for years, and haven't had bad BBQ yet!  I've also never had wood wrapped in foil catch fire - even the dry stuff.

Btw, if you do get combustion, it won't last long, and will put itself out if you don't open the door!  Don't give it that big rush of oxygen to make it worse.  It will die-down, on its own, and will not effect the taste of your meat. 

Just my 2¢....

  I found this after all.  Thank you again for the advice.  I get nervous when I'm two or three hours into a 5 hour smoke and all I see is white smoke and then nothing.  I fear the food isn't getting any smoke at all, but the ribs did turn out really tasty as you also pointed out elsewhere.

 

[id2nv2nj2ca]

Thank you EVERYONE for the replies.  Gregg, I did not feel disrespected AT ALL.  And thank you for your continued offer of help and suggestions.  The same goes for everyone else that has taken time to respond to my "whining" about the color of the smoke coming out of the blow hole.

 

[snakyjake]

Hi got my ribs I'm the smoker, I noticed I had some fairly heavy white smoke in the beginning of the smoke that settled down to a nice thin blue smoke about 30 minutes in. I know white smoke can make the meat bitter. Is it common to have white smoke for. Little while  after the smoke starts? I'm using smokinlicious wood and fruitawood wrapped in a foil boat. Thanks

I always have white smoke in the beginning, regardless of the wood or smoker.  Don't put the meat in until you get the smoke you want.
It's like starting a cold car, and takes a bit of time for the engine to get to temperature.

 

[NDKoze]

Hi got my ribs I'm the smoker, I noticed I had some fairly heavy white smoke in the beginning of the smoke that settled down to a nice thin blue smoke about 30 minutes in. I know white smoke can make the meat bitter. Is it common to have white smoke for. Little while  after the smoke starts? I'm using smokinlicious wood and fruitawood wrapped in a foil boat. Thanks

I always have white smoke in the beginning, regardless of the wood or smoker.  Don't put the meat in until you get the smoke you want.
It's like starting a cold car, and takes a bit of time for the engine to get to temperature.

I'll beg to differ with you on when to put the meat in the smoker. You want to put your cold meat in your cold smoker. No, preheating or taking your meat out of the fridge to come to room temp. Meat only absorbs smoke until about 140 degrees. So, you want the maximum amount of time in the smoke by putting cold meat in your cold smoker.