HELP!!! OBS not holding temp???

[firerescueman]

Hey guys,

Got 4 butts  in the smoker  (2- 6 pounders,  2 - 8 pounders),  put them in last night around 6pm.   here it is 10:30 the next morning and the smoker still has only reached about 170 degrees.  I checked the temp of the butts a little while ago and they are at about 140 IT.

As soon as my wife gets done with the oven,  I will be moving them inside to finish up (about another hour or so)

My question is this:   Should I be worried about the meat?  This seems like an awfully long time to come up to temp.  I don't want to make all these people sick.  The OBS has consistently held about 170 since a couple of hours after I loaded it last night..... 

Maybe I am worried over nothing,  I've just never had such a full load before and maybe this is normal?

HELP!

Thanks,

Jeff

[pensrock]

If its cold out and the wind blowing try to block the wind with a piece of plywood or cardboard. You may be at the temp where the meat stalls for a while and it just takes time for it to start rising again. If its 170 inside the box I would say you are ok as far as anything bad happening. I would not be concerned about serving it.

[Tiny Tim]

Do you have the slider fully to the right?  If so, back it off about an 1/8 inch or so and see if that helps.  Sounds like you are only heating with the smoke generator.  Another thing, are you using another thermometer to get the cabinet temp, or just relying on the door thermo?  Some of the door thermometers are way off, and only compounded when they get a layer of seasoning/smoke on them.

I agree with Pens that you should be okay since you have an IT of 140, and it's in a cabinet temp of 170.

[firerescueman]

Yes,  the slider was all the way to the right.  BUT,  I DID have the smoke generator on, too.  I think either the door thermometer is off (never been a problem before,  it's always pretty close) or just too much meat.  (roughly 30 lbs total)

Anyways,  I got them all moved to the house oven to finish them up.  Thanks for your replies.  I kinda figured that they would be ok.....  I am just overly cautious, I guess.   better safe than sorry, ya know?

Thanks again,  I will let u know how they turn out.

Jeff

[FLBentRider]

With that much mass (30LB) in the smoker the heater is going to have a tough time keeping up. I have smoked that much in my OBS, but the ambient temps were in the 80's and 90's.

You can be patient or move them to the house oven. I find moving to the house oven after the smoke is done makes for an easier clean-up and a great smelling house.

[Habanero Smoker]

The only thing that I can think of that already hasn't been mentionen (sense it hasn't been a problem in the past); if the door thermometer sensor is in close proximity one or more of the cuts of meat, that will cause a reading to be lower then the actual cabinet temperature.

[firerescueman]

Thanks everyone!

I didn't think about the thermometer touching one of the butts.  That is entirely possible.  I ended up finishing them in the house oven.  They were AWESOME!   one of these days I will get an account with photobucket and post some pictures!   Overall cook time was 22 hours,  FTC for 2.5 more hours,  and they were absolutely the HIT of the party!

Thanks to everyone here who takes the time to post.  It really helps us newbies!

Jeff