That sure is some pretty food! Now onto the questions:
Do you have the 3 holes in the door ?? I think the upper hole adds air to burn volatiles in a secondary action....
Yes, it is set up exactly as yours is. I even tried enlarging the small top hole to the same size as the large, no change on air flow. I think you are also correct that it lets the smoke flow more evenly towards the back of the box and out instead of swirling around in there, starving the pellets of O2.
Maybe you don't have enough air flow through your smoker...
The draft is very strong, I use a variable speed high static pressure fan on the exhaust to ensure that. I live in good ol' Oklahoma and when that wind comes sweeping down the plains it really messes with your draft! The fan ensures a nice steady flow.
Or the pellets you are using have some pine or fir or some other wood in them .... 100% hardwood pellets shouldn't have that much creosote.... something is amiss.... I dry the pellets before each use... 275 dg. F for 2 hours....
I am using 100% hardwood pellets. My go to are Pitmaster's Choice (delicious!) and 100% apple pellets. I do dry them in a toaster oven in my garage at 250 for 2 hours, plus the time it takes them to cool down with the door open. This makes a huge difference, so much so that it isn't optional IMO. I can do about 3lbs at a time in my little toaster oven. After they cool I put them in a 5 gallon bucket with a Gamma seal lid. The same thing I use to store my brewing grains. They work extremely well and will keep the moisture content at whatever it is when the lid is screwed on.
THE GOOD NEWS !!!!!! All that krap is not being applied to your food..... Lucky you..... And the inside of your smoker isn't getting all that build up inside it....
Boy, you aren't kidding! I had to scrub the entire inside of my MES after the last tests I did. That black junk was completely covering it and I didn't want it in my food! You know the funny thing now is that my rig cleans the smoke so well, I get hardly any color build up at all. Here is cheese that I smoked for 25 hours with both ends of the tray lit, 100% apple pellets. This was a LOT of smoke, but notice the color is not drastically changed:
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Yes, there are black streaks from the racks in places.
I scrubbed those darned racks so much and got them as clean as I could, but apparently cheese sitting on them for 25 hours can clean better than I can
I just took these pictures of my MB inside .... Periodically it will fall off of the inside of the box... It gets brittle and I put it in the garbage..... and I will take a stick and scrape it off... I don't want it to fall into the pellets... it could catch them on fire.... this MB was last "cleaned/scraped" about 6-8 months ago.... I haven't checked the duct work.. probably should... If it catches on fire my house could burn to the ground and my MES 30 would be history....
I hadn't considered that stuff being flammable, that is a scary thought. The last thing I want is a fire on the back porch! I'll take mine out and clean it. I think I'll even take a torch to it and see just how flammable it is, just to know my enemy.
Those pictures helped a ton Dave! I can see that your mailbox has runs too, but instead of going through the seams like in mine they are puddling at them. On mine they just go right thru. Yours must be put together better than mine. Maybe a good cleaning and some judicious use of foil tape will set me right? Once again you are a big help Dave, thanks!