Need some help

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jsteel478

Newbie
Original poster
Aug 28, 2013
28
10
Milledgeville ga
I have a masterbuilt smokehouse. It's the vertical propane one. First time I used it the smoke went flawlessly. Second Time I had a thick black soot on all the meat. I got some great suggestions about cleaning the burner and checking for spider webs. This weekend I am smoking some pork butts for a church event and I need some advice on anything else I can do to prevent this from happening again. I cleaned the burner good and the flames are blue with orange tips. Also any suggestions on how many butts I should do at one time on this smoker? Thanks in advance
 
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Hello and welcome from East Texas. This is a great site, lots of information and great people that are willing to throw in their two cents worth on about anything   .........  I am assuming this is a gas smoker. If you are all sooted up you probably are not getting the correct air/gas mix. look at your flame should be blue.
[/h1][h1]  [/h1][h1]Gary[/h1]
 
I have a propane burner/cooker I use for deep frying. Two things I always have to watch for are dirt dobbers and spider webs. Last spring I could barley get it lit. Took the burner off and flushed if with water, looked like mud. Kept running water through it till clear, then fired up my air compressor and ran air through it till dry. put it all back together fired it up and adjusted the air mix, perfect blue flame. Had spiders cause the same problem. If neither one of these are causing the problem, have your regulator checked.

Gary
 
Way to much yellow in that flame photo.  You air to fuel mix is off and that is where the soot is coming from.

Is there not an adjustment shutter for the air coming into the horn of the burner?  If it has one, try adjusting it a little and wait about 30 seconds to see if the flame gets more blue or more yellow. More blue is the way you want to go.  Just keep dialing it a little at a time and wait to see the results.

Another possibility is the pressure regulator is icing up.  Did you recently fill the tank with fuel and is there frost on the regulator?  If there is frost, get a hair dryer and turn the smoker burner on high.  Keep the regulator from freezing by blowing hot air from the hair.  After about 5 minutes it should be fixed.  If the regulator is icing up what has happened is there is too much LP in the tank.  It is supposed to flash over to a gas in the very top of the tank. When there is too much liquid LP in the tank, the liquid can be sucked up into the regulator and flash over to a vapor inside the regulator (which is an endothermic reaction - ie.... it gets very cold causing icing).

99% of the time it's the air shutter or spiders or other insect residue that causes the flame to burn too yellow (which produces carbon or soot).
 
More good advice. I really doesn't take much to effect the mixture. I know the first time it happened to me I thought how could the little bit of spider web cause this.

Gary
 
I will look for a adjustment screw. Is it near the knob or the burner? And it isn't tank being to full as it's the same tank I have cooked on before. Would it hurt to remove the whole burner and blow it all out with air? I am lost with this. I have been smoking with wood and coal for along time just made the switch to propane. Thank you all for the help I'll let you know abou the screw
 
Sure,  That is what I said earlier.   You can take it off and blow it out.  When mine stopped up last summer it had a dirt dobber nest in it, took it off flushed it out with water, then air let if dry outside in the sun, put it back together and fired it up Perfect Blue flame

Gary
 
Ok I took it all apart and yes there was a spider web up inside the tube. Ran a clothes hanger up in it then blowed it all out with air. Gonna fire it up this evening. Thanks
 
Those little buggers cause more problems.  One time several years back I was going to have a fish fry, Family and friends were over, fish getting ready, oil in the pot and a yellow flame. (Should have checked first)  getting older have CRS, anyway pulled off the burner got a piece of tie wire ran it through several times (Spider web & parts) blew it out with air, put everything back, lit it up and good to go..

Gary
 
Where's the Butts ???    glad you got it fixed.

Gary
 
They turned out great. Smoked 8 whole butts weighing a total of 61 pounds and the smoker performed way beyond my expectations. I would have thought all them butts would have produced more finished product. I don't have a scale to weigh them but I got 5 1/2 gallon freezer bags completely full.
 
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