Smoker difficult staying hot enough

[gjdls95]

I have the original Bradley smoker with the Auber PID controller and have used this setup for a while.  Today I have been smoking my first turkey and for some reason I am having a hard time keeping it hot enough.  I am trying to maintain 225C and decided to raise the temp to 235C to finish off the turkey but I can get the smoker to heat up any further. 

Any questions?

[GusRobin]

Is your vent wide open? If not the moisture will keep the temp down.

What temps are you seeing?

[mikecorn.1]

Could be the vent not open. Maybe wind hitting the smoker and sucking the heat out of it.


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[Habanero Smoker]

As Gus pointed out, more information would be useful.

Also as mentioned above, the likely cause is that you didn't have your vent open wide enough. Poultry with skin contains a lot of moisture. About 1/2 - 3/4 ways into the smoke/cook time, after a lot of the moisture has be evaporated; you may find that you can use a smaller vent opening.

[gjdls95]

I believe the vent was half open.  It must be the turkey as I haven't had a problem getting it higher than 225C in the past.  This is the first trkey I have done.  I wasn't sure if it could be related to the heater element possibly starting to go out (on my second element for a few smokes).

Should the top vent be wide open to increase temperature?  I thought if it were open all the way more heat would escape.

[beefmann]

how big is the turkey?

in my experiences the larger the load the lower the temp.

I have found that smaller loads ( 7 to 10 lbs ) are near set temps of the pid as the meat  load starts cooking while larger loads ( 10 lbs and above ) tend to take longer for the box temp to get to its set point and once the box temp gets to set point you will be near being done

[thirtydaZe]

This probably doesn't help your situation, but when ever i do ribs is the time i have the most problem with heat getting back up to temp.

Everything else i'm fine.

it's odd.

[Habanero Smoker]

I believe the vent was half open.  It must be the turkey as I haven't had a problem getting it higher than 225C in the past.  This is the first trkey I have done.  I wasn't sure if it could be related to the heater element possibly starting to go out (on my second element for a few smokes).

Should the top vent be wide open to increase temperature?  I thought if it were open all the way more heat would escape.

I hope you mean 225F; not C.  :)

Depending on the ambient temperature and wind, 225°F with a turkey is pretty good. And as Beefmann pointed out the larger the load the more the Bradley struggles to get up to your set temperature. You can try opening the vent more, if the temperature goes up then it an improvement. If you notice the PID cycling on/off faster, then reset the vent to where it was prior to you adjusting it.

[gjdls95]

Thanks for the info and yes I mean 225F...work in units of C all day and carry it home I guess...