New smoker 48 degrees too hot.

[n4khq]

Breaking in a 4 rack digital, Set smoker to 1 hour, oven to 1 hr, temp to 150. Outside temperature 85 and no breeze. Temperature inside oven reached 198 rather quickly. I opened the door briefly and temperature dropped to 196. It took about 20 minutes to get back up to 198. Put a digital probe in the vent hold on top of the smoker and it got up to 191 and still climbing slowly. I did not see a way to calibrate the oven temperature. This is probable because the smoker is empty and will correct it self when smoking food but I thought I would ask the experts.

[RAF128]

Temperature swings or around 20º are common in a digital but that seems excessive.

[classicrockgriller]

You are right. When you slam some meat in there, the temps will hold tighter.

Also the longer the cook, the tighter the temp swings get.

[pensrock]

Seems a little too high to me also. Put a big pan of sand or some bricks in to simulate a load and see what happens. Welcome to the site also.  :)

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi n4khq;

Welcome to the forum.

Also with the ambient heat, if you have your smoker in direct sunlight (I don't know if this was the case), and you have the bisquette burner running, those are three heat sources that can not be controlled by the thermostat or PID. Like others have stated, once you add meat, and use higher temperatures the swings should be lower.

[n4khq]

The smoker was on enclosed on 3 sides in the smoking shed. I am not worried after reading all the reports of not enough heat, glad to be running hot empty. I am think the 150 degree setting kept the heating element turned off but the biscuit heater brought the temperature back up to 198 after I opened the door and it dropped to 196. My main concern was the temperature rising again after opening the door but I was not thinking about the biscuit heater. After rechecking I am pretty sure the temperature surrounding the cooker was 95-100 degrees, the smoking shed had tin on 2 sides in direct sunlight as a wind block.

Thanks