Help! First run and smoke does not seam to be filling the cabinet

[HawkeyeSmokes]

I wouldn't think you damaged it. They are pretty simple to take appart and clean and once you get it dialed in you may want to do that.

About what size vent is the top vent?

Mike

Agree with Mike here.

I also was thinking that if you have a short piece of vent or stove pipe, try setting it over your top vent. It might help increase the draft enough to help.

I was thinking the same thing Hawkeye, you could use a short piece of PVC pipe or a juice can or something like that. It also stops any wind from blowing directly into the tower.

Mike

My one concern is will it maintain temp? I'm still wondering if Mark should try closing off the bottom of the smoker a bit. Kind of think it would be a try.

[mbetz]

Mike, the top vent is a 5" dia. butterfly vent.

Hawkeye, I have a piece of 6" HVAC round duct I could try if I can find it in time.

[Mr Walleye]

Hahaha... I just had this visual of poor Mark running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to try all the different tests we come up with for him.  :D

Sorry Mark!

Hawkeye... Your idea of slowing down the amount of air being drawn in by the burner is worth a shot. Providing the burner still functions correctly the restriction would cause the draft to draw  more air from the cold smoke setup.

Mike

[HawkeyeSmokes]

Your right Mike! We did kind of toss a lot of things at him.

Let's hope it helps him out.  ;D

[mbetz]

I will give that a try the next time I use the smoker out.  I think I will be able to get some sheet metal in were the vents are around the burner and make them so they can slide so I can adjust them as needed.

Mike or Hawkeye, do you have any suggestions for when I clean the generator after this use?

Not much running at all.  I am sitting at the kitchen table and the smoker is right outside the door about 5ft away from me.  I appreciate all of the help.  I really did not think I would have this much trouble pulling the smoke out of the box since I was using 4" pipe to connect it to the cooking box.

Mark

[HawkeyeSmokes]

Mark, here's a link to cleaning it. Cleaning the Smoke Generator

I have only needed to clean the ramp going to the puck burner on mine so far.

[mbetz]

Well I think I have a new learning curve with my smoker again.

This picture is what my pork loin looked like before I adapted my smoker with the Bradley smoke generator.


Well today it did not turn out like that.  It ended being stringy so I pulled it apart and am going to make some BBQ pulled pork out of it.  Also I think my thermometer failed me today.  I think the temperature in the smoker ended up being higher than it was telling me.  I guess it had to happen some time.  I have been using this smoker for about 5 years now.

Thanks for everyones help today.  I have a lot to think about.  Till I get my draft issues resolved I am going to go back to my old way to create smoke in this smoker.

[Quarlow]

M, I have just one thought to run past everyone. I was looking at your pics to see if something was awry and I noticed that your pipe is over from the end of the SG. The cold box I made for cheese was set up with the pipe right over the end of the puck burner. My thinking is that maybe if yours was right over top of the burner the heat from it would help the draft via the hot air rising. I know I had all kinds of smoke when I used the cold box. Just a thought, but really it should get a draft going no matter where the pipe is. I also think you should seal the door as it maybe not enough leakage to allow smoke out but it may just be enough to keep it from getting the proper draft.

[mbetz]

The door currently does not have a seal on it.  This is something I am going to look into before using the SG again.

As you can see the end of the adapter tube that is guarding the heater plate is pretty much right at the opening of the 4" tube.


Today has left me with several ideas I want to try out.  I think that my biggest let down of the day was my temperature gauge.  I think I over cooked the meat.  I don't know if it was the gauge or the cold temperature cooling off my gauge in the door giving me a false reading.

Thanks,

Mark

[Quarlow]

Ok that pic shows it better. It is fine right there.

[mbetz]

Here is a little update for everyone that followed along or helped last week.  I have tried mounting the smoke generator directly to the cooking tower.  This produced better results as long as the propane burner was not on.  As soon as I started the propane burner the smoke immediately backed up into the smoke generator.  Here are some pictures of what the adapter plate and the inside of my cooking tower looks like with my second try.


Inside of the cooking tower, inside of the adapter plate, water pan, old castiron wood chip box, and the propane burner is under the castiron box.


closer view.


Outside view of box and adapter plate.

Sorry for the rotation of the pictures.  They will not stay rotated after I adjust them.

Since my second try was not a success I have talked with Brian at Bradley.  He thinks that were I am introducing the smoke into my cooking tower is too high.  He wants me to raise my cooking tower and introduce the smoke at the lower vent on that side.  He thinks that at the higher position the heat is taking the path of least resistance out thru the smoke generator.  Brian believes that by introducing the smoke at a lower position it should get pulled out of the cold smoke adapter box.

I will keep everyone posted on how Brian's suggestion worked.


Mark

[Gizmo]

Are you opening the lower vent or closing it?
If it is open, that might contribute to the problem as the air intake to the tower should be through the generator. 

[mbetz]

I have closed the lower vents with no change in the results.  All it did was starve my propane burner.


Mark

[HawkeyeSmokes]

One thing you could try Mark is to turn the burner on first and preheat the smoker. Then try starting the smoke generator after you have created a good strong updraft.

[NePaSmoKer]

The shot of your adaptor plate shows allot of heat and smoke escaping from the smoker.