Hi all, New to the group here and new to smokers. I purchased the 20075315 last week and did my 1st smoke (spare ribs) over the weekend. The ribs came out great with hickory chips, but seems I had to do a lot of babysitting with this unit, so I had a couple questions I hope members here can answer:
I seasoned the unit as instructed in the booklet (the day before rib cooking) and also preheated the unit to 225.
The preheat took about 40 mins. When starting the preheat, I added the 1/2 cup of chips. Within 2 to 3 mins. I started to get faint amounts of smoke from the top vent (which was open all the way).
5 minutes into the preheat there was a lot of white smoke being produced.
8 minutes into the preheat there was so much white billowing smoke inside the unit that you could not even see the racks inside. The smoke billowing out of the vent looked like the exhaust of my old Chevy nova that was burning oil..
20 minutes after adding the chips the smoke started to reduce and at 30 minutes the smoke disappeared completely.
This heavy white billowing smoke process was the same every time I added chips, which seemed to have to be every 30 to 40 minutes.
This seems like an awful lot of smoke that would overpower the meat with smoke flavor, so I would quickly open/close the door to let some smoke escape at the 8 minute mark. I think that was probably the only reason the ribs did not come out over smoked?
My question is: Is this heavy smoke inside the unit, so much that you could not even see the racks or food inside, every time chips are added normal?
Is 30 minutes normal to have to re-add chips?
I also noticed that the temp. inside would spike from 225 to +260 after chips were added.
BTW - The Masterbuilt site says you can pull the chip loader out all the way to look at the chip/ash level in the wood tray prior to adding more chips. BE VERY CAREFUL if doing this! I did that and 3 seconds after removing the chip loader a flame shot out of the loader opening and took off my eyebrows.
I will probably get the AMPS so I do not have to babysit this unit every time I want to smoke something, but very curious about this heavy billowing smoke issue.
Thank you
I seasoned the unit as instructed in the booklet (the day before rib cooking) and also preheated the unit to 225.
The preheat took about 40 mins. When starting the preheat, I added the 1/2 cup of chips. Within 2 to 3 mins. I started to get faint amounts of smoke from the top vent (which was open all the way).
5 minutes into the preheat there was a lot of white smoke being produced.
8 minutes into the preheat there was so much white billowing smoke inside the unit that you could not even see the racks inside. The smoke billowing out of the vent looked like the exhaust of my old Chevy nova that was burning oil..
20 minutes after adding the chips the smoke started to reduce and at 30 minutes the smoke disappeared completely.
This heavy white billowing smoke process was the same every time I added chips, which seemed to have to be every 30 to 40 minutes.
This seems like an awful lot of smoke that would overpower the meat with smoke flavor, so I would quickly open/close the door to let some smoke escape at the 8 minute mark. I think that was probably the only reason the ribs did not come out over smoked?
My question is: Is this heavy smoke inside the unit, so much that you could not even see the racks or food inside, every time chips are added normal?
Is 30 minutes normal to have to re-add chips?
I also noticed that the temp. inside would spike from 225 to +260 after chips were added.
BTW - The Masterbuilt site says you can pull the chip loader out all the way to look at the chip/ash level in the wood tray prior to adding more chips. BE VERY CAREFUL if doing this! I did that and 3 seconds after removing the chip loader a flame shot out of the loader opening and took off my eyebrows.
I will probably get the AMPS so I do not have to babysit this unit every time I want to smoke something, but very curious about this heavy billowing smoke issue.
Thank you
