# soot in my smoker



## daveyhunter (May 5, 2010)

This has never happened to me before .and I am wondering why I got black soot in my smoker and over my meat disgusting what did I do wrong terrible black smoke any help would be appreciated

Daveyhunter


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## south jersey bbq tim (May 5, 2010)

sorry to hear, how old is the smoker and is it seasoned? to clean it never wet the inside of the smoker. brush it out or even use a shopvac.. hope this helps


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## south jersey bbq tim (May 5, 2010)

you can al;so rub oil on the inside. it will help with the seasoning


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## smokin relaxin steve (May 5, 2010)

hmmm never happened to me... Have you cleaned your smoker since you bought it... I started a thread while back... i was advised by Dutch to try to steam clean it (in a way) by cranking up the heat and hitting it with the hose... check out this thread it worked great for me...
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=91592


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## jirodriguez (May 5, 2010)

Yeah clean it out best you can, reseason it, and watch your fires. If it burns to hot or makes the wood billow white smoke it can create that nasty creasote.


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## forluvofsmoke (May 5, 2010)

What type of smoker are you speaking of? (wood burning or charcoal w/SFB, charcoal/propane vertical)

I think the most likely cause for your soot build-up may have been from burning meat drippings. My charcoal kettle has quite a bit of soot gathering on the dome vent (exhaust) in the last couple of weeks. I have had a few grease fires in it lately, and that's when I noticed the soot.

You may have cooked something with high fat content and maybe you normally have a drip/water pan under the meat, but recently didn't use one? Or, you may have meat drippings leaking into your SFB, if that's the case, possibly caused by smoker not setting level (sfb end of smoker is too low).

Eric


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## indyadmin1974 (May 5, 2010)

When I cooked a pork loin a couple of weeks ago on my kettle grill I noticed a lot of black smoke when doing the sear.  The high fat content may be the case.

What are your vents set at?  This can cause creosote to build up too if they are closed off too much.


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## mballi3011 (May 5, 2010)

It sounds to me that your top vent might be closed or was closed for some time and you have a build up. Now I would check your vents or the underside top of your smoker and see if you have some build up and then just clean the thing and always make sure that your top vent is wide open.


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## richoso1 (May 5, 2010)

The basic clues have been covered so far, so take a long look at the procees of that last smoke.


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## daveyhunter (May 6, 2010)

It only happened when the fire was just about and I put some more apple wood on it I dont see how that could happen but it did ,the fire was just about and when I put wood on black smoke every where maybe I should have soaked my wood I don't know before that I had just cleaned the smoker always wored out great before.


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## daveyhunter (May 6, 2010)

I just built it a couple years ago and it worked fine very good really ,I was thinking that maybe it is because I let the fire go darn near out then iI put the wood on that is when it happened.


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## glgoodwin (May 6, 2010)

what was the source of your apple wood?


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## triplebq (May 6, 2010)

Either (A) Green wood or (B) Fire was too cold and that creates black soot in pits . 

You built the cooker , you use the cooker so to me that takes out any questions about proper venting of the pit .


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