OK Joe - cant get thin blue smoke

My issue is no where as bad as yours. But I will
Say this use very small wood chunks (beer can size at the most), if any wind at all I have to have it blowing into fb, and leave fb door slightly open.


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I always try to keep a good hot bed of coals and use all pre-heated splits. Sometimes when I add a split, it is really HOT. I almost always have good TBS. If I have a day that is very humid and the air is particularly heavy, I will leave the FB door partially open. I just stick the poker under the lip and it stays open about 1". As far as dampers are concerned, unless I'm trying to maintain a low heat (225-240*), I leave all of the intake dampers fully open. My smoker likes to run at 250-275*. Regarding the exhaust damper, I really think that it's only purpose is to keep out rain and squirrels between cooks.

With all of this and all of the above, the rest is just keep at it and learn something new every time. Good heat management is not an easy thing to learn.

I have the OK Joe's Longhorn. I tend to over think and I still struggle with the fire sometimes.

I used to get the exact same white smoke after adding splits. What I figured out was I needed smaller piece of wood. I now get splits and cut them in half about 6 inches. It still smoked white after adding fuel and I noticed(what I think your issue is) IF I add wood I only let it catch fire, turn it over and shut the lid, no white smoke. This takes less than a minute. When I was allowing the fresh fuel burn with the lid open for more than a minute the fire would get too hot. Then if I close the lid it smokes white A LOT.

I leave the vent open half or less the whole cook adding one or two half splits every 1 to 1.5 hours. Make sure your coals don't get too small or it will take a few minutes for the new wood to catch fire.

I also now pre heat wood inside my fire box. I stand it up in the back right corner. Careful your fire or coals are not too close, it will catch fire.

To sum it up...
When adding fuel(half splits) let it light turn it over and shut the lid slow( total time 1 minute or less). Make sure only your vent is open between 25 to 50% max. Preheat is optional but helps catch fire faster. Sometimes coals will get small low and you need to add wood sooner. All this keeps temps up in the smoker and will prevent white smoke. Also try and keep fire in the center fire box.