I will NOT give up on my AMZNPS !

[beuler]

Since I started this post over 120 replies ago, I would like to thank all of you for responding. I see no one  likes to do the Thumbs up to every post, but , I read them all and i am thankful 

 Just a reminder how this started , and most of you will understand me, is the MES tray is so hot, that when I add chips, they burn right up and make a heavy white stinky bitter ugly smoke....if we could add chips and it made a sloowwww , smelling gooood, thin smoke...I don't think most of us would be having this conversation.

Thanks!

Joe

 

[steelcitysmoke]

Since I started this post over 120 replies ago, I would like to thank all of you for responding. I see no one  likes to do the Thumbs up to every post, but , I read them all and i am thankful  :77:
 Just a reminder how this started , and most of you will understand me, is the MES tray is so hot, that when I add chips, they burn right up and make a heavy white stinky bitter ugly smoke....if we could add chips and it made a sloowwww , smelling gooood, thin smoke...I don't think most of us would be having this conversation.
Thanks!
Joe

Beuler, I'm sorry I kinda hyjacked your thread here but I figured we were having the same issues so I thought I'd jump right in!

I too would like to thank everyone that's helped us out. I can't believe what I've learned from all you guys in the short time that I've had a smoker. Don't be surprised if I ask many more questions soon!

 

[foamheart]

 
 MES tray is so hot, that when I add chips, they burn right up and make a heavy white stinky bitter ugly smoke....if we could add chips and it made a sloowwww , smelling gooood, thin smoke...I don't think most of us would be having this conversation.

Thanks!

Joe

The easy answer is to regulate the vent. less air means less combustion. I have been known to stick a red rag in a vent stack on a pipe pit to slow the heat down when say a wind blows up. Heat oxygen and fuel, its your choice how to slow it down easiest.

 

[beuler]

Don't be sorry steelcity..more the merrier!

 

[Bearcarver]

 
The easy answer is to regulate the vent. less air means less combustion. I have been known to stick a red rag in a vent stack on a pipe pit to slow the heat down when say a wind blows up. Heat oxygen and fuel, its your choice how to slow it down easiest.

Hmmmm, Is that what they meant when they said, "Stuff a rag in it, Foamy!"

Bear

 

[cmayna]

LOL

 

[foamheart]

 
Hmmmm, Is that what they meant when they said, "Stuff a rag in it, Foamy!"

Bear

Yeppers we would have had a good time had we met in our youth! <Chuckles>

 

[steelcitysmoke]

Ok just to update you guys...

So I duplicated everything that I did the other day. This morning around 8am I turned the smoker on and got it warming up. I then went through the routine of lighting the AMNPS. At 8:40am I put the AMNPS in the smoker, set the smoker to 225 degrees, turned the muffin fan on and walked away. I set the muffin fan about 4 inches from the inlet opening. Well, I am happy to report that the AMNPS burned till about 7:00pm without going out! I have to admit, I'm really excited about this!

One issue though, the AMNPS still had about 1 1/2 inches of pellets left to burn before it went out? Is this normal?

Thanks again guys!

 

[cmayna]

SteelCity,

That is awesome news.  Now let's see some smoked finished product.

Craig

 

[steelcitysmoke]

 
SteelCity,

That is awesome news.  Now let's see some smoked finished product.

Craig

Craig,

What are your thoughts on the AMNPS burning for that long and then suddenly going out? It just seems weird to me that it only had a little over an inch of pellets left and went out.

 

[cmayna]

I have never burned a AMNPS that long so no experience, sorry.   Maybe it just wanted to mess with you?

 

[Bearcarver]

 
Craig,

What are your thoughts on the AMNPS burning for that long and then suddenly going out? It just seems weird to me that it only had a little over an inch of pellets left and went out.

When it burns proper, you will have to put it out (separate burning from not burning) if you don't want it to go all the way to the end. 

Maybe something dripped on it??

Bear

 

[beuler]

Here's some pictures.....

The first two were on the exhaust side...then I moved it to the chip loader to blow air in.

Its a 12 volt fan I hook to a 2/10/25 amp car charger

Havent tried it yet..soon

IMG_0658.JPG

• beuler
• Feb 16, 2014

IMG_0659.JPG

• beuler
• Feb 16, 2014

IMG_0660.JPG

• beuler
• Feb 16, 2014

 

[Bearcarver]

That should help a lot !!!

I would watch that the air blowing in the dumper hole doesn't blow the real fine ashes from the AMNPS to the food.

Just a thought.

Bear

 

[steelcitysmoke]

Hey everyone. So I thought I'd give a quick update from this weekend. And I know, no QView, never happened but I assure you that it did haha!

I got my MES going Friday night at almost midnight. Once again, 2nd gen MES, vent wide open with the 90 degree elbow hooked up to it, smoker box and chip tray completely removed, water pan removed and a muffin fan blowing into the air inlet. I got the smoker up to temp and the AMNPS burning well. I used the Pitmaster's Choice pellets which by the way seemed to produce a nice cigar-like cherry faster than the oak pellets that I was playing around with before. Anyways, I had rubbed a pork butt right before I fired up the smoker. I put the butt and the AMNPS in the smoker around 12:30am. AMNPS was placed on the slanted drip catcher above where the water pan usually sits. I set my muffin fan in an old vice I had laying around and had it sat it and the fan about four inches from the inlet hole. I then went to bed.

I woke up around 7:30am, looked outside and I saw that the AMNPS was still burning! Long story short, I waited till the AMNPS was done smoking, wrapped the butt in foil and finished it off in the oven. In total, the AMNPS burned for about 9 hours. The butt turned out awesome. Beautiful bark, juicy and a LIGHT smoke flavor.

All in all, I consider this a huge win. But I have a few questions/concerns. First, the smoke flavor of the butt was awesome but not as heavy as I'd like. I've done butts quite a few times with either hickory or pecan chips, and once mesquite, and the smoke flavor was much more noticeable. So my main question is, is this normal when using the AMNPS? Will I get lighter smoke flavors when using the AMNPS? Was it the choice of pellets that caused the light flavor? Or, and I'm REALLY wondering this, did I have the fan moving the air too fast through the smoker? Would this cause a lighter smoke flavor? If I choose to keep using the fan method I think I'm going to get a smaller CFM fan or at least a variable speed fan.

I guess I'll ask this but I feel stupid asking, when I'm looking through the glass in my smoker what should it look like? Should there be a smoke haze throughout the smoker or should the smoke be obviously moving fast through the smoker?

Thanks guys!

 

[Bearcarver]

Hey everyone. So I thought I'd give a quick update from this weekend. And I know, no QView, never happened but I assure you that it did haha!

I got my MES going Friday night at almost midnight. Once again, 2nd gen MES, vent wide open with the 90 degree elbow hooked up to it, smoker box and chip tray completely removed, water pan removed and a muffin fan blowing into the air inlet. I got the smoker up to temp and the AMNPS burning well. I used the Pitmaster's Choice pellets which by the way seemed to produce a nice cigar-like cherry faster than the oak pellets that I was playing around with before. Anyways, I had rubbed a pork butt right before I fired up the smoker. I put the butt and the AMNPS in the smoker around 12:30am. AMNPS was placed on the slanted drip catcher above where the water pan usually sits. I set my muffin fan in an old vice I had laying around and had it sat it and the fan about four inches from the inlet hole. I then went to bed.

I woke up around 7:30am, looked outside and I saw that the AMNPS was still burning! Long story short, I waited till the AMNPS was done smoking, wrapped the butt in foil and finished it off in the oven. In total, the AMNPS burned for about 9 hours. The butt turned out awesome. Beautiful bark, juicy and a LIGHT smoke flavor.

All in all, I consider this a huge win. But I have a few questions/concerns. First, the smoke flavor of the butt was awesome but not as heavy as I'd like. I've done butts quite a few times with either hickory or pecan chips, and once mesquite, and the smoke flavor was much more noticeable. So my main question is, is this normal when using the AMNPS? Will I get lighter smoke flavors when using the AMNPS? Was it the choice of pellets that caused the light flavor? Or, and I'm REALLY wondering this, did I have the fan moving the air too fast through the smoker? Would this cause a lighter smoke flavor? If I choose to keep using the fan method I think I'm going to get a smaller CFM fan or at least a variable speed fan.

I guess I'll ask this but I feel stupid asking, when I'm looking through the glass in my smoker what should it look like? Should there be a smoke haze throughout the smoker or should the smoke be obviously moving fast through the smoker?

Thanks guys!

Some people like very mild smoke flavor. I like as much smoke flavor as I can get. I use Hickory almost all the time---Light to medium I call it, but I use smoke all the time, except when the meat is foiled. You don't want heavy smoke. When I look in my glass door, I want to see from smoke that I can barely see to a smoker full of light smoke. I don't want to have smoke so thick that I can barely see the meat. I usually have it so light that I have to look at the top vent to see the smoke.

I hope you understand this, because it's kinda hard to explain how much smoke I like to see.

Bear

 

[cmayna]

Steelcity,

You bring up a good point that I saw another person ask in a diferent post.  Does the pellet smoke generate less smoke flavor vs chunks or chips?  If yes, then it sounds like the amount of smoke which chips or chunks might bombard the meat with vs the TBS of a pellet smoker?

Funny thing is that yesterday my wife commented that she was expecting more smokey flavor from the Boston Butt I smoked on Saturday, using hickory pellets.   Hmmmmm.

 

[trikefreak]

Glad to hear you're making headway, though it sucks to have to add a battery charger and fan to the equation. I smoked bacon on Saturday and had my best pellet experience. Chip tube, tray, and water pan removed, 125 degrees, and it kept a thick smoke going for 12 hours. I suspect the wind helped out a little that day. Pecan and Apple pellets. Didn't go as well Sunday at 225 degrees, different pellets, not near as much smoke, and I lit both ends. I got about 5 hours Sunday, then it was out. Not windy on Sunday. I think the pellets were part of the problem, they were some multi flavored stuff I bought a few months back.

 

[trikefreak]

Oh, and if you want heavy smoke, get the 18" tube! I think it holds almost twice as many pellets, and burns through them in 6-8 hrs.

 

[smokeitifugotit]

Steelcity, don't feel your questions are stupid. We all assume because you're probably a Steelers fan, that you can't be held responsible for your shortcomings. However, even though I'm a Browns fan, I do agree with you that the Pitmaster blend burns better than any I've tried.
Seriously though, glad you've worked it out.

Fred from Cleveland . :biggrin::