I've now used my AMNPS twice in my 1st Gen MES 30 and both times it has burned exceedingly fast and jumped rows. Within about 3 hours well over half is burned and there is smoke billowing out of my top vent
In both cases my temp was set at about 230-240. The second time it definitely spiked higher into the 260's. The first smoke was preloaded with pellets from Amazen pellets. The second was a mix of Amazen and Traeger. In both cases the pellets were dried in the microwave. Both times it was lit with a small butane torch like you'd use for Creme Brulee.
The first time I thought it was because I had pulled the loader tube out too far and gave it too much oxygen. But the second time it was almost completely in and I had the same results. The chip tray was pulled out less than an inch in both cases. Water pan was installed in both cases. I believe it had water in it the first time but was dry the second time. The second time I did add two foil wrapped fire bricks to the shelf just above the water pan.
Top vent was wide open in both cases. No mods made to the MES (smoke stack, mailbox, etc).
Pics from the first attempt:
As you can see, the burn started in the upper right of the pics and rounded the first corner and burned thru that entire row and it looks like the heat ignited the middle of the next row based on the burn pattern. And you can also see it is still very hot (glowing red still) at the bottom for most of the first row and almost the entire second row.
Second attempt:
Here you can see that after it rounded the first corner it seems to have jumped to the third row and the 2nd and 3rd row ended up burning in parallel. Again, this is only 3 hours'ish in so that is no way it should have burned this much. It probably should not have even gotten thru the first row (or maybe just barely finished it)
And just for a bit of fun, when I pulled the AMNPS to let it burn itself out, I put it on my patio stairs and it must have caught a breeze and completely ignited
So what exactly am I doing wrong? I really want to get to a carefree smoke with the AMNPS, but I'm just not there....
In both cases my temp was set at about 230-240. The second time it definitely spiked higher into the 260's. The first smoke was preloaded with pellets from Amazen pellets. The second was a mix of Amazen and Traeger. In both cases the pellets were dried in the microwave. Both times it was lit with a small butane torch like you'd use for Creme Brulee.
The first time I thought it was because I had pulled the loader tube out too far and gave it too much oxygen. But the second time it was almost completely in and I had the same results. The chip tray was pulled out less than an inch in both cases. Water pan was installed in both cases. I believe it had water in it the first time but was dry the second time. The second time I did add two foil wrapped fire bricks to the shelf just above the water pan.
Top vent was wide open in both cases. No mods made to the MES (smoke stack, mailbox, etc).
Pics from the first attempt:
As you can see, the burn started in the upper right of the pics and rounded the first corner and burned thru that entire row and it looks like the heat ignited the middle of the next row based on the burn pattern. And you can also see it is still very hot (glowing red still) at the bottom for most of the first row and almost the entire second row.
Second attempt:
Here you can see that after it rounded the first corner it seems to have jumped to the third row and the 2nd and 3rd row ended up burning in parallel. Again, this is only 3 hours'ish in so that is no way it should have burned this much. It probably should not have even gotten thru the first row (or maybe just barely finished it)
And just for a bit of fun, when I pulled the AMNPS to let it burn itself out, I put it on my patio stairs and it must have caught a breeze and completely ignited
So what exactly am I doing wrong? I really want to get to a carefree smoke with the AMNPS, but I'm just not there....