# What causes Soot? Masterbuilt Propane XL



## philh (May 4, 2012)

I probably have close to a hundred hours of smokes on this smoker. The last time or two I am starting to have a soot buildup.. I have a 10 inch cast iron pan in the original wood pan. When I went to dump the ashes I had a quarter of a inch or more of soft powdery soot on the bottom of it. It came off extra easy with a paper towel.

I checked the flame & it was a blue flame with a inch or two of yellow. That bottle was almost empty so I switched bottles. Hopefully that was all it was. I have only had this smoker for a month or two so any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

Phil

P.S. The taste of the food has not been changed by this..


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## mlrtime (May 4, 2012)

you shouod get rid of the wood pan and use bricks to elavate it above the flame, thats what i did it helps recover temp quicker.  Great smoker but takes some geting use to for different things.  never noticed the build up but i will check it out.


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## chef jimmyj (May 4, 2012)

For the cleanest Burn the Flame should be Blue with just the very Tip being Yellow...Two inches is too much. Check for a Spider setting up house in the Air inlet tube...JJ


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## philh (May 4, 2012)

I was afraid I had too much yellow.. I'll lay it down & take it apart. I'll blow it out with my air compressor..

Could my regulator cause this problem?


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## donr (May 7, 2012)

The soot is caused by the mixture being too rich (too much fuel).  Like JJ said, clean out the air inlet tube, clean the holes in the burner with pipe cleaners, make sure the air inlet gate hasn't been adjusted on accident.


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## philh (May 18, 2012)

Sorry it's been so long since I replied to this thread. I've been busy with other things.. I finally got off of my lazy butt & took the burner off of the smoker.. Talk about messy.

I blew it out with my air compressor. I set the working pressure at 120 psi.. That blew it out quick. When I put it all back together I adjusted the burner all the way down so it would get more air into the mixture. Before I had it set about in the middle of the slide.

I have attached 3 pictures. Hopefully someone can tell me if it is now ok to smoke with it.. Please let me know if I now have a clean burning burner..

Thanks

Phil




















This one I used the flash on the camera. It shows the yellow tips better..

Thanks in advance for any help.


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## jeppe mtk (Jul 31, 2015)

I had the same problem. Thanks to this thread I found a spiders nest in the inlet tube. Now it burns nice blue again. Thanks a lot.


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