I’m using a FireBoard fan. What are you referring to when you said “2 ounces”? What temperatures are you getting between the bottom and top racks?SmokinDTown wrote:Hi Smokerbuild,
I have used a water pan, and I think the results are better. This is my 3rd one. I built this one slightly different than Frank's plan.
Are you using the natural draft only of this smoker? Or is a fan involved? With only 10" between the upper and lower grill that 40 degrees seems like too much.
Be careful on the wood! My experience is with this type smoker, a very small amount of wood is needed. Kind of disappointing! 2 ounces. If you put a lot of wood in, the meat gets bitter.
Hope this helps.
For the entire cook you only add that much wood?SmokinDTown wrote:I’ll go and get some temps for you now. I’m smoking some spares.
The 2 ounces is total amount of wood. I put a piece or two in the ash box. Two small pieces of cherry.
I will do a test burn and put in a water pan. I usually open the ball valve wide open and run the fan. I’ll try closing the valve 3/4. I never thought about closing down the valve with a fan running.SmokinDTown wrote:Smokerbuild:
I am getting 248 and 250 between the top rack and the bottom rack. I am running a water pan. The ball valve is 3/4 open or so. I have a fan providing air to the valve.
We both agree that th 40 degree difference you have is too much, but for the life of me, I can’t come up with a good reason? We are only talking about a few inches difference in height inside the cook chamber. No chance that one sensor is off?
Yes, just a small amount of wood. Fits in my hand. Have you read Dr. Biondi’s writeup on smoke?
I’ll check both probes.Big T wrote:I would agree that it sounds like an issue with one of your temp probes.
I ran a test yesterday in the GF Mini. First, I checked all temperature probes by putting them in a glass of ice water. All probes, FireBoard and ThermoWorks read within 1 degree of each other. Probes were placed on three racks, bottom, middle and top. The middle and top rack ran within 10 degrees of each other. The bottom rack ran 20+ degrees hotter than the other probes. I ran with and without a water pan, as a heat sink. Ball valve wide open with the FireBoard fan. The interesting part for me was when I put both ThermoWorks probes next to the FireBoard probe that was controlling the fan. The FireBoard temp indicated 20+ degrees hotter than both ThermoWorks probes. The ThermoWorks dots both showed the same temperature.richy20 wrote:Any updates on this? This also happens to me but I usually don't get the opportunity to fully load it. When I do use all the shelves I use the variance to my advantage. Thicker cuts at the bottom rack. I have noticed that when I heat it up a long time in advance I get less variance. I am going to try shutting the valve next time and checking with my maverick. I also use a fan. I use the BBQ guru digiQ. I put the pit probe underneath the middle rack and the bottom rack it is hotter by 20degrees and the top rack is about 20degrees lower. Atleast its consistent LOL.