black rain

[smokin420]

Well the last 5 smokes that i have done I get black rain. The bradley has a smoke stack that is about 2 feet long added to the old stack. i have on water in the bowl either and still getting black rain. Any ideas?

[Jim O]

I put an aluminium pie plate on an inverted rack just under the vent,and that catches any "black rain" that may occur.

Works for me !

Jim O

[Quarlow]

Couple of questions. What were you smoking? Why do you have a stack on it? How wide open is your vent? I think when you said " i have on water in the bowl either and still getting black rain." you meant you have no water bowl. Why no water bowl? What are your pucks dropping into and extinguishing in?

[RedJada]

 I have read on here when someone has a chimney they also add a little fan to that to help with the moisture dripping down. For this case I like jim O's idea. But Quarlow brings up a good point. Are you cooking with no water in the bowl?

[NePaSmoKer]

Open the vent full all the time and you wont get BR

[beefmann]

sounds like your vent is closed... open it

[smokin420]

Hey guys, my vent is wide open. I have no water in the bowl this time to see if it was a moisture problem. I have a smoke daddy that I use to give off the smoke. My puck feeder was giving me too much troubles so I took it off. I am smoking 2 racks of ribs. The last time I smoked dry pumpkin seeds and the vent is always wide open and I still had black rain. The reason i have a stack on it is because i have built an heated wood cabinet that it sit in the winter.

[Quarlow]

So for one thing you are not getting a good draft up the pipe. It may be getting the smoke out but the moisture is staying in. Try to raise the pipe up about a half an inch to increase the draft. Also try taking off the vent and clean around the vent hole and bottom side of the vent plate. Like JimO said put a aluminum pie pan on the top rack or if you have your racks full invert a rack over the top of the top rack right under the vent hole, it should catch any black rain. This all could be from using the Smoke Daddy which gies off a more ashen smoke than the Bradley SG because it burns beyond the char stage where as the Bradley SG doesn't.

[NePaSmoKer]

Ditto with Q

The SDaddy is a POJ, Puts out moisture with creosote in the smoke.

[JZ]

My 2 cents worth. If you have a smoke stack that is sheet metal (non insulated) and you are smoking in cold weather, then you will get condensation on the inside of your smoke stack as soon as the hot moist air from your smoker hits the cold sheet metal smoke stack. That moisture will then drip back into the smoker and carry with it any smoke residue that accumulates in the smoke stack or the bradley vent opening. You say the bradley is in a heated wooden cabinet. Try cutting the smoke stack off so it sits flush with the top of the heated wooden cabinet. That should reduce or eliminate the condensation build up. If the cabinet is not heated then the issue will likely not change.

[Quarlow]

That sounds llike a bucks worth. I go along with that.

[pikeman_95]

You might want to wrap a electric heat tape around your vent pipe and insulate it and place both in a larger pipe. If the inner pipe stays hot what ever is in the smoke will not condense and pass on by. You just need to keep the inner pipe hot. It will help your draft and stop the condensate.

[JZ]

Good plan Kirby.

[Geoff_S]

Ahhh. This has answered a question for me. I was starting to get this as well. I've added a bit of aluminium drainpipe on the vent to direct the smoke out to a window fan, and taking the piece
of pipe away solves the problem.

Thanks guys ....back to the drawing board!