Too much smoke

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pinjim

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2014
29
10
Cincinnati, OH
Morning all. I am onto my second smoke this morning and have a question.

I'm using a smoke vault 24. I've been using wood chips. Goal temp is 225, and I can usually keep with within 10 degrees of the target. However, when I add wood chips, I get a thick white smoke for 10 or 15 minutes, then the smoke settles out to a very light TBS.

Should I be using chunks, or does everyone see the massive spike with chips, and that's just how it is?

This is my second smoke ever. I'm working on a 9 pound butt, spareribs, naked fatty, sausage and two potatoes. Yum!

Thanks for any advice.
James
 
Chips have a lot of surface area and tend to burn up quickly

Chunks tend to burn longer and produce less white smoke
 
Wood + Water = Creosote + Other Nasties

Do you soak your wood before it goes onto the campfire?

The obvious answer is "NO!"

Why Not?

Cuz it creates nasty smoke...Right?

Same thing happens inside your smoker
 
 
Wood + Water = Creosote + Other Nasties

Do you soak your wood before it goes onto the campfire?

The obvious answer is "NO!"

Why Not?

Cuz it creates nasty smoke...Right?

Same thing happens inside your smoker
LOL No beating around the bush here! Pretty strong argument as far as I am concerned. LOL
 
There are so many differing ideas, but common sense has to come into play sometime

I think it you have a method that works, stick with it

If you're for reasons why you're having issues, then look at a few things that may improve your experience.

Make a few changes, so you can track them and see if you like the results

All too often, guys will make many changes, and it's tough to nail down exactly what just happened

By no means am I an expert, or will I ever profess to be one

All I can do is offer up my experiences as they have worked for me

The trick with either chips or chunks, is to control the burn, so you have a nice trickle of smoke for a long duration

If you soak the chips, you first have to dry the chips, and then they have to ignite to produce smoke

Skip the Soaking, and Go Right to the Smoking

Work on controling the heat or ignition source, and also the oxygen and you're making smoke!
 
 
There are so many differing ideas, but common sense has to come into play sometime

I think it you have a method that works, stick with it

If you're for reasons why you're having issues, then look at a few things that may improve your experience.

Make a few changes, so you can track them and see if you like the results

All too often, guys will make many changes, and it's tough to nail down exactly what just happened

By no means am I an expert, or will I ever profess to be one

All I can do is offer up my experiences as they have worked for me

The trick with either chips or chunks, is to control the burn, so you have a nice trickle of smoke for a long duration

If you soak the chips, you first have to dry the chips, and then they have to ignite to produce smoke

Skip the Soaking, and Go Right to the Smoking

Work on controling the heat or ignition source, and also the oxygen and you're making smoke!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  What he said TIMES 20!!!
 
Thanks for all of the replies.

I don't soak the chips. I think next time I'll stick to chunks and see if that helps. The chips burn way too fast....and create a short term cloud of smoke.  =(

My smoke this past weekend was rough. I did ribs and pulled pork. The ribs were great, used the 3-2-1 method. The pulled pork is another story. At 11 hours in, it was at 180 and only climbing a degree every 30 minutes (and had been doing that for 3 hours). So, i used the texas crutch method. As expected, the IT temp climbed much quiker to 204, and then I removed it from the smoker.

The meat was overdone, mushy. My bark turned to goop. Next time, I guess I'll just wait it out without the crutch.

The other thing I notice is large temperature variations within the smoke vault 24. My probes were sitting in the smoke chamber within 6 inches of each other, and there was a 30 degree temperature difference. I tried the boil test on the probes when I first got them and they were within 1 or 2 degrees of each other. Is it normal to have that large of temperature variances within the chamber?

Thanks again everyone. I can't wait to give it another try.

Jim
 
I tend to agree with you, however I use wood chucks not chips. Problem is that a lot of sites recommend soaking chips explaining that if you do not, they just burn up way to fast without producing enough smoke to flavor anything. So it can get a little confusing for a newbie. :)
 
 
I tend to agree with you, however I use wood chucks not chips.
Damn man that is thinking out of the box.  Do WOOD CHUCKS give a good amount of smoke?  Flavor?

Sorry couldn't resist. 
roflmao.gif
 
 
Damn man that is thinking out of the box.  Do WOOD CHUCKS give a good amount of smoke?  Flavor?

Sorry couldn't resist. 
roflmao.gif
hahahahaah....well they do give off a good amount of smoke and can burn for a while, first you have to catch the little buggers, then you have to get over that burnt hair smell...

Cheers mate!
 
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