Seasoned my Smoke Hollow #6 last week but had to cover it up and wait for weather to pass. Today is 42 degrees but 25 mph wind. Smoker is in the lee of the house, but I put a short windbreak around the bottom of the smoker anyways.
Using the ET-732. I stuck a meatloaf in and it looks like my door thermometer is reading 190 while the ET probe says it's fairly steady at 240 inside the smoker. Temperature adjustment is VERY sensitive. I'm still trying to get it to settle in at around 230-235, but it is up over 240 right now. If I just TOUCH the gas control the temp drops below 230, but it takes several minutes. I'm guessing I am seeing the effect of the water in the water pan coming to temp (I filled it with hot water from the tea kettle so it didn't start cold) and also from sticking a 3 pound meatloaf in there that was still quite cold.
Using Hickory for the meatloaf. When it's done I have a couple of 5 pound roasting chickens in brine waiting to be next for the "sauna". :) For those I'll switch to apple (I don't have any pecan.... just hickory and apple right now).
So in terms of the smoker itself, temp control is fiddly on the low end here. Hoping it's a little easier when I turn it up a bit for the chickens. I have nice TBS with just a handful of chips to start out and 2 chunks that are about 3/4 of a fist in size.
I'll post abut the actual smoke in the appropriate forums.
Using the ET-732. I stuck a meatloaf in and it looks like my door thermometer is reading 190 while the ET probe says it's fairly steady at 240 inside the smoker. Temperature adjustment is VERY sensitive. I'm still trying to get it to settle in at around 230-235, but it is up over 240 right now. If I just TOUCH the gas control the temp drops below 230, but it takes several minutes. I'm guessing I am seeing the effect of the water in the water pan coming to temp (I filled it with hot water from the tea kettle so it didn't start cold) and also from sticking a 3 pound meatloaf in there that was still quite cold.
Using Hickory for the meatloaf. When it's done I have a couple of 5 pound roasting chickens in brine waiting to be next for the "sauna". :) For those I'll switch to apple (I don't have any pecan.... just hickory and apple right now).
So in terms of the smoker itself, temp control is fiddly on the low end here. Hoping it's a little easier when I turn it up a bit for the chickens. I have nice TBS with just a handful of chips to start out and 2 chunks that are about 3/4 of a fist in size.
I'll post abut the actual smoke in the appropriate forums.
