Masterbuilt propane smoker and AMNPS

[thorn73]

Ok so I have this smoker that I got at Bass Pro - http://www.basspro.com/Masterbuiltreg;-Two-Door-Propane-Smoker/product/10226688/146858?cmCat=CROSSSELL_PRODUCT  and I purchased the AMNPS from Todd who has been a great help however I am still having a issue. I start the AMNPS and let it burn for 10 minutes or so and have nice glowing coals and smoke but after putting it in the smoker it goes out in 20 minutes or so. I am cold smoking so the propane burner is not on and sucking all the oxygen out of the air. Top vent is all the way open and I have tried everything from sitting the AMNPS directly on the burner where the chip box would set to moving it up to the lowest cooking rack in the smoker. I also have no water in the smoker so the humidity should be fine as I live in Colorado. I have also gone as far as removing the lower door altogether and trying it without that to maximize air flow. The outside temp was about 50 or 55 degrees. Any suggestions would be great. I lit it with a torch and also with a piece of the white weber cube for starting charcoal and both ways lit exactly as Todd said it should but still went out. Oh and I was using the maple wood pellets from Todd as well. I am looking for any ideas that you guys may have or any mods you may have made to fix this issue or even what I could be doing wrong. I did some searches on here but only found limited stuff and nothing directly related to my issue.

 

[sprky]

Interesting. The smoker you have is similar to mine. I do not have the AMNPS yet but will have soon. I will be following this so if I have the same issues I know how to correct them.

 

[tjohnson]

Yup, I remember this one!

What's your altitude?

Does it take off when you pull it out of your propane smoker?

I have a customer in Colorado, who wanted to smoke some hams for 24 hours/day for a couple weeks in a Traeger Texas Grill.

He just could not keep the pellets going, and was about to give up.

I sent him some sawdust, and all was good!

I'm still not sure exactly what was happening, but there definitely was a lack of oxygen issue happening.  Sawdust takes less oxygen than pellets, and kept smoldering.

You may find that pellets will burn above your 55° temperature and sawdust below 55°

I'll send some sawdust if you want to give it a try?

Todd

 

[thorn73]

I would be happy to give sawdust a try. We are right at 5300' in altitude give or take. It doesnt really take off when I pull it out of the smoker. The only way I could get it to take off is to pull it out and blow on it for a few minutes then it would go again for 15 or 20. I thought about setting up a fan to blow air into the smoker with the bottom door off lol. I plan on trying it again at a higher temp and see if it improves. I also am considering adding a vent on the side near the bottom as well to improve air flow but wonder if that would really make a difference since taking the door off didn't seem to help much. I really appreciate all your help on the phone last weekend and on a Saturday none the less. There are a few companies that could learn a thing or two from you in regards to customer service.

 

[rollingsmoke]

So what was the final solution for this issue?  Use sawdust at lower temps?