- Dec 25, 2014
- 32
- 21
Hello, I am new to the forum. I posted in section for the newbies but I thought I would start a new thread for my questions. I recently got a Camp Chef smoke vault 18 and I had some troubles keeping the temp up on my first go around. I seasoned it like the instructions said and didn't seem to have much trouble getting that thing quickly up to 300 (not on purpose!) My first try was an 11lb turkey. I got the turkey in and with the setting on high, I could only get the temp up to 225. After reading on here that I could do a wide range of temps to accomplish the cooking, I wasn't too concerned as I had planned for the longer cook time to be safe. I had read before I got the smoker that this particular one would hold the higher temps in the cool/cold weather with no issues so I was a bit concerned. No matter what i did, the temp stayed at 225 for about 3 hours. Then it slowly got to 250 without me doing anything. Then when the internal temp of the turkey got to about 150 the temp increased dramatically and the turkey zoomed past 160 (higher than I wanted) within 30-45 min the internal temp of the smoker went from 250 to 300 and wham, the turkey was overdone. The last 30 min I added a pan of stuffing and had to keep turning the smoker down to keep the right temp after the turkey was out. I had a internal temp thermometer in there and the temp on the door was spot on with what it was inside and it was 40 outside so it wasn't terribly cold. Could it just be the bulk of the turkey that caused the low temp or do I have a faulty smoker? The turkey turned out amazing even though it overcooked so Im happy with that but I want to make sure this is normal and I don't need to return my smoker due to the fact that it couldn't hold the temp. Thank you!
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