Problem With My AMNPS

[scooby]

Last night around 8:15 I lit my AMNPS 5x8 tray that was filled with hickory pellets. We have had LOTS of rain and flooding down here in the last week so I knew that the humidity would be an issue with the pellets as I keep the bag stored in the garage. I dried the pellets in the microwave for 2 minutes at 30 second intervals, stirring between each cycle to make sure they all got dried out. Filled the tray and lit it per the instructions and once it was going good I put it in the smoker on the bottom shelf, under the brisket. I had the vents open and the chip tray and chute pulled out for maximum airflow so as to not choke out the AMNPS. About ten minutes later I check on it and it has burned out so I pulled it and relit. Went out again. So I refilled it with more dried out pellets and it seemed to take off. This morning I get up to check it and ONE row has burned. I see that some of the fat has dripped into the tray but doesn't look like enough to put it out. I pulled the tray and lit the other end and then put it back in. Was it a waste of time to do that after 10 hours on the smoker? Not sure if the meat will take anymore smoke or not. What should I have done differently other than tent the tray to keep it from getting drippings on the pellets? One that note, it looked like the pellets were fairly dry where it stopped burning. Hope I haven't torpedoed the day.

 

[rockymtnsmoker]

If it's going out quickly, my guess is that it wasn't burning quite well enough when it went in or got choked for air once it went in. My questions would be 1) What is your lighting process? 2) Are you getting good air flow (smoke coming out) when you put it in? 3) Are you at altitude?

I had success by lighting with a propane torch, waiting about 10 minutes when it's smoldering, hitting it with a hair dryer, letting it smolder down, hair dryer again, and then in the smoker. I felt like there could be no overkill when it comes to getting a good cherry going.

A small fan pointed towards the chip loader opening or getting a draft going before putting the maze in helped me with airflow.