First smoker cook

R

rmsteve

Well-Known Member
I finally got the time to put together the little smoker that I had bought months ago so I christened it with a small prime rib a few days back.

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Turned out pretty good med to med rare. Wife loved it but I thought the smoke flavor was a too strong. Something wasn't working quite right as I kept getting billowing white smoke filling the smoker with it set at 225 and not in the smoke setting. From what I read it should be a thinner blue smoke during cooking but it kept billowing huge white clouds every time the auger cycled on. Going to do some trouble shooting today or tomorrow to see if I can figure it out.
 
Yeah that doesn't sound right.

Mine is smokey preheating and when I bump up the temperature until temp achieved (and a grease fire when my butcher paper tore) 😳

I see you are directly over the firepot (open) that may contribute and flare ups and white smoke.

My smoker has two metal shields over the fire pot.

Cook looks good. 🌻
 
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Hvyhaul that was at the end of the cook. Firepot plate was closed during the main cook at 225 with it on the far side of the grill until it hit 128 internal temperature then I rested it inside for 20 minutes. Took it back out for the grill marks on 450 over the pot with plate open for about two minutes a side to finish it off.
 
@hvyhaul I cleaned it out today including the hopper and took some pics.

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You would know better than me being the first time using one. They seem fairly hard but as you can see they contain what I think is a lot of crumbled chunks and sawdust. Do they look ok or like crap to you? I was lucky not to get a fire up the auger shaft as the first few were starting to burn in the opening unless that's normal.
 
That is a lot of debris mixed in with parts of pellets, doesn't look like many if any whole pellets.

What I would do is MT the hopper, run the MT the auger program vacuum it all out, sieve the pellets so you only have pellets and no junk and try again.

I sieve everything, no bottom of bag dumping into hopper. All my open bags are stored in plastic pails with lids that have gaskets, and anything that goes in hopper is checked before dumping. 🌻
 
I did empty the hopper and ran the auger everything cleaned and vacuumed. When you say sieve how exactly are you doing that?
 
Get a cheap dollar store sieve/collander that the pellets won't fall through and shake batches of pellets in it over something to catch the fines and tiny pieces.

Or, use The Wife's stainless steel one and wait for the fun to begin.

Only put the pellets that remain in the hopper. 🌻

remains .jpg
 
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The heavy white smoke must be coming from a hard heat cycle?
Possibly choked air flow?
Have you fired it up since, trying to recreate the issue?
My pellet smoker gets direct dumped from the bag, bits and all. I figure the bits add flavour, like bacon bits to a salad.
 
looks a little like my Ranger fire cup, when I'm ready to start I put about 10-12 pellets around the igniter to get things going, works well. Don't have too many pellets in the bowl when you start, let the auger drop them out gradually.

Honey wasn't too fond of the stronger pellets so now we use Hickory for everything and works very well for us.

If it's windy or cool, the smoker works harder, maybe try to get it out of the wind.

The roast looks fantastic, so you seem to know what you are doing already, just some fine tuning as required.
 
rmsteve what brand of smoker did you get?
 
This is what I use to vacuum out the smoker, works great and I feel safer than a plastic unit.

I leave the pot cover on all the time regardless of the temperature, I think it helps prevent hot spots.

just noticed your Pit Boss even comes with a bottle opener, the sign of a high quality unit !!!!

BENCHMARK 18 L Ash Vacuum
 
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rmsteve said:
I bought this little Pit Boss 456D back in Feb., when it was on sale. Just getting a chance to use it now.

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I bought the same one a few weeks ago on a princess auto floor model clearout. So far I’ve used it 5 times. I only encounter the white smoke on startup. Hopefully I don’t run into the same issue. Some good info about pellet storage etc here. It makes some really tasty stuff, I’m hooked! I’m sure once you get this minor issue figured out you’ll love it. I still have to figure out some things. Have only done meats so far but I think it will do well with fish too!
 
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