how to pre heat digtal smoker

[zoom22]

I am new at this how to pre heat digital smoker and then turn on for smoking

[rexster]

Don't want to be snarky, but have you taken a look at the manual?

[mikecorn.1]

Pre heat it with the SG on also. It will provide extra heat and will preheat faster. You can also leave the SG on after your set smoke time to help in the
Cooking temps.



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[seb bot]

Uh, ditto to both above I guess ;)

I'm pretty new too, no worries!

I was a little surprised by how long it can take to preheat, I count on more than an hour now. First couple times I used it, we ended up eating late due to waiting for it to preheat!

It seems helpful to go a good 30-40 degrees above what your actual desired temperature is; When you open it up to load it you will lose some heat, and it seems to really struggle to get back up sometimes... Wind and ambient temp will affect this a swell, especially wind!

Spend some time browsing the forum, there's lots of good tips on how to get better results

[KyNola]

Zoom, to preheat the smoker, set it for the highest temp you can and let it go for a half hour or so.  When you open the door to put the meat in you will lose a ton of heat.  Once the heat begins to recover reduce the temp set down to where you want to it to be.  You can assist the heat recovery by doing 2 things.  1. When you put water in the water bowl, make sure it is boiling water.  2. Another thing you can do is to wrap a brick or 2 in foil and place in the bottom of the tower (next to the water bowl) to act as a heat sink to aid in heat retention.  Some members heat the bricks in their house oven at a high temp and then put in the tower to really help in the heat retention.

Hope this helps.