How hot can a Smoke Vault 24 get?

[petermjj]

Hi all - new to smoking, new to the Smoke Vault.  Used it twice with some success.  Chicken was tasty but needed a crispier skin, brisket was tasty but I wanted it more tender.  I'll keep trying!

My question is this - With no water in the pan, I can't get the thing above 290.  With water, I can't get past 230.  Is this normal?  I know - I won't be smoking anything at these temps but it would be nice to be able to get a higher pre-heat on the thing, or to do have a bit more fire to fight against win and cold.  Door thermostat has been verified.

I am using natural gas, with the camp chef natural gas conversion kit.  Thanks much!

Josh

 

[frog1369]

 
Hi all - new to smoking, new to the Smoke Vault.  Used it twice with some success.  Chicken was tasty but needed a crispier skin, brisket was tasty but I wanted it more tender.  I'll keep trying!

My question is this - With no water in the pan, I can't get the thing above 290.  With water, I can't get past 230.  Is this normal?  I know - I won't be smoking anything at these temps but it would be nice to be able to get a higher pre-heat on the thing, or to do have a bit more fire to fight against win and cold.  Door thermostat has been verified.

I am using natural gas, with the camp chef natural gas conversion kit.  Thanks much!

Josh

Something's not right ..... some may tell you it's the natural gas, but there is not that much difference from LP and you are jetted for NG.  I run LP but clean my smoke vault without the water pan to crisp everything up nicely so it can be scraped off the grates.  I don't measure the temp when I'm cleaning but can easily peg the 400 degree door thermometer.  Have you checked your burner to make sure you have a nice blue flame, not yellow?  A little yellow on the tips is fine, but the flame should be almost pure blue.  Another dumb question but I need to ask, you are running all the dampers wide open, correct?

 

[bassman]

You should be able to get it to 350° and beyond with no problem.  You may want to try switching back to propane just to see.

 

[daveomak]

Generally, smoking foods is done between 70 and 160.... above that and you are BBQ ing.....

 

[petermjj]

Jeez.  Talk about a newbie.  I recall someone saying something, on an email thread I saw somewhere, about "drilling the valve out" for Natural gas.  i didn't see anything on the kit instructions so didn't drill anything.  But then frog1369 says

 "you are jetted for NG."

So of course I now know the issue.  Seem I need to disassemble parts of my new smoker and go buy a drill bit.

 

[daveomak]

http://www.joppaglass.com/burner/lowp_chrt.html

 

[frog1369]

 
Jeez.  Talk about a newbie.  I recall someone saying something, on an email thread I saw somewhere, about "drilling the valve out" for Natural gas.  i didn't see anything on the kit instructions so didn't drill anything.  But then frog1369 says

So of course I now know the issue.  Seem I need to disassemble parts of my new smoker and go buy a drill bit.

That would probably do it!  

Honestly I assumed they would have sent a new orifice with the kit.  Enjoy that Smoke Vault, we've made some amazing food on ours.  A suggestion for you, use chunks, not chips and just use one chunk at a time.  It is so easy to get way too much smoke with that unit.

 

[bregent]

>Honestly I assumed they would have sent a new orifice with the kit

I would have thought so too. The only thing I could find on their site was this page, with instructions for drilling:

http://www.campchef.com/natural-gas-connection-kit.html

I converted my GOSM to NG and tried it first without drilling the orifice, but didn't get enough BTU's. You really need to enlarge it.