pellet grill stick burning system questions

[dandiele]

Hey everyone, I am sure some of you have already seen the Stick burning system sold at smoke daddy for the pellet pro grills. I am curious why this wouldn't work on my Rec Tec with its existing heat deflector?

In case you have no idea what I am talking about, you can find more information here http://www.smokedaddyinc.com/produc...-jerry-pellet-grill-stick-burning-system.html

I like the idea of this, being able to just drop a few pieces of chunk hickory on the plate and get that extra smoke at say 300 or 350 instead of using my smoke tube, which still only gives you a little extra flavor but not like what I was used to on my WSM before getting the Rec Tec, or even my Pit Barrel Cooker, which has its own unique flavor even without wood.

My biggest concern is, will the wood actually combust and cause me headaches or does the plate only get hot enough to just cause a nice smolder like I am looking for? In the case of the Pellet Pro product, it looks like it works perfectly but they use spacers for the deflector.

 

[muralboy]

Can't answer whether it will work the same using your current RecTec deflector - but I purchased the JWJ for my PelletPro. A couple of things to consider

- the system includes a larger heavy duty heat deflector.  I assume the heavier duty part is to handle the added heat of a log smoldering on top of it

- it also includes spacers to raise the drip panel slightly to provide more space between the deflector and drip pan to accommodate a small split log

- and includes a rod to slide the deflector back and forth to adjust the positioning of the smoking wood over the fire pot.

 

[dandiele]

Yea I read about the system and watched the video on there site. I saw that it's thicker and he said it won't warp....which seemed odd cause in the video they removed there own deflector and it was warped. I am not sure what guage mine is already but I know it's pretty heavy duty, I might try a run with no food just to see what happens and make the wood doesn't catch fire.

Other then the issue of WILL it work, do you think it's worth it in the end? Does the food have more smoke flavor or is it a very subtle difference even compared to just using a smoke tube?

 

[muralboy]

One of the characteristics of pellet smokers is as ciooking temps rise above 250 they produce less smoke because they are consuming more of the pellet for heat rather than smoke.

When I used it I found it produced a lot of smoke at 300+ deg. More than a tube. And since it was coming from the fire box area, better distribution. And did not take up any space on grates

 

[dandiele]

I understand that, but did it provide any noticeable difference to the smoke taste of the food, which alot of people find lacking on pellet grills. I'll probably try it my self, just curious what you noticed

 

[muralboy]

yes, for a pellet smoker at that temp, it did produce a more noticeable smoke and flavor.

 

[dandiele]

What about at smoking temps? I get plenty of smoke, but light smoke flavor and with the case of pellets don't ask me why but I don't think it's more smoke = more flavor. It's almost like the smoke acts differently if that's even possible haha. On a weber smokey mountain you could get TO MUCH if you wanted, but that doesn't seem possible on these. I've done ribs at 225, extra smoke setting on and smoke tube and I get a good smoke flavor for sure, just not a strong smoke flavor if that makes sense.

 

[muralboy]

It doesn't kick in until temps get to about 250+, with the sweet spot being 250-325.  That's when the deflector plate gets hot enough to start the logs smoking.  

You can give Jerry Miller a call - he is the Jerry in the Jenn-U-Wine Jerry and should be able to provide a more precise answer.

 

[dandiele]

Ah yea that makes sense. I wasn't sure about calling, I notice in one of there videos they seemed to dis rec tec a little bit lol talking about how they couldn't find and pretty ladies to lay on there grill haha.

 

[seenred]

Hey dandiele...

I don't know if I'm way off base here, because I've never tried this myself, but...

After checking out that youtube video, I wonder if you couldn't experiment with the factory heat deflector that came on your Rec Tec.  They're made out of pretty heavy gauge stainless steel.  Have you considered just putting a few chunks of wood directly on the deflector, running your pit at 300+, and see what you get?  If that worked you'd be saving some dollars.  

The more I think of it, I might try this on my RT and see what happens.  If it worked, it'd be less time/trouble than using a smoke generator on every smoke.

Red

 

[muralboy]

It's very possible that would work. One thing to note is that the temps need to be around 200+ to start smoking the logs.

 

[dandiele]

Hey dandiele...

I don't know if I'm way off base here, because I've never tried this myself, but...

After checking out that youtube video, I wonder if you couldn't experiment with the factory heat deflector that came on your Rec Tec.  They're made out of pretty heavy gauge stainless steel.  Have you considered just putting a few chunks of wood directly on the deflector, running your pit at 300+, and see what you get?  If that worked you'd be saving some dollars.  

The more I think of it, I might try this on my RT and see what happens.  If it worked, it'd be less time/trouble than using a smoke generator on every smoke.

Red

yea I think I'm gonna try it out, just wanted to find out of anyone else had tried it, I don't see why it wouldn't work but I don't want to cause things to warp and void any warranty. It's in direct contact with flame as it is so I can't imagine the smoldering wood is going to be any hotter.

 

[seenred]

It's in direct contact with flame as it is so I can't imagine the smoldering wood is going to be any hotter.

That's what I'm thinking too.  My guess would be little or no effect on the deflector...might get hot enough to warp the grease tray though.  My first concern was how it might affect the performance of the temp control board and the RTD (temperature sensor inside the cooking chamber).  If the burning/smoldering wood chunks have much effect on the internal temp in the chamber, it'd be hard to predict how that might mess with the electronic temp control.

Still, might be worth giving it a try just to see what ya get...

Red

 

[dandiele]

I tried it tonight, it worked at first very well but then it kind of fizzled out. I had a bag of hickory chunks and I chose about 5 small pieces that were in the bag, I didn't use any large chunks. The smell of the smoke definitely smelled like pure hickory, smelled great actually! It had the smell I was used to using my Weber smokey mountain. I had the temp set at 250 and that seemed hot enough to get it burning, I haven't taken out the drip pan yet to see if the wood was all burned or not, the smoke came out from the front and back of the deflector which seemed to work very well, it appeared that the smoke would roll up into the chamber due to the shape or the barrel. Definitely will play with this some more.

Unfortunately I ended up firing up my smoke tube because it was only about 12 degrees out today and even with the extra smoke button I was getting basically no smoke at all, I think it was feeding the fire to often to maintain temps to be able to smoke much. It did maintain 250 on the dot though in this frigid weather!

 

[seenred]

 
I tried it tonight, it worked at first very well but then it kind of fizzled out. I had a bag of hickory chunks and I chose about 5 small pieces that were in the bag, I didn't use any large chunks. The smell of the smoke definitely smelled like pure hickory, smelled great actually! It had the smell I was used to using my Weber smokey mountain. I had the temp set at 250 and that seemed hot enough to get it burning, I haven't taken out the drip pan yet to see if the wood was all burned or not, the smoke came out from the front and back of the deflector which seemed to work very well, it appeared that the smoke would roll up into the chamber due to the shape or the barrel. Definitely will play with this some more.

Unfortunately I ended up firing up my smoke tube because it was only about 12 degrees out today and even with the extra smoke button I was getting basically no smoke at all, I think it was feeding the fire to often to maintain temps to be able to smoke much. It did maintain 250 on the dot though in this frigid weather!

Hmm...I wonder if it fizzled out because the smallish wood chunks just burned up pretty fast.  If that's the case, the obvious fix to try would be more and/or bigger chunks of wood.  Otherwise, it seems you may be on to something!

Keep us posted... 

Red